Southern Historical Collection

These collections are made up of unique primary materials, such as manuscripts, letters, photographs, diaries, drawings, scrapbooks, journals, oral histories, maps, ledgers, moving images, literary manuscripts, albums, and other materials.

By the 1920s, Dr. J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton, a professor of history was corresponding about the idea of creating "a great library of Southern human records."

Dr. Hamilton served as director, and the initial endowment was offered by Sarah Graham Kenan.

Upon Hamilton's 1951 retirement, the Southern Historical Collection held roughly 2,140,000 manuscript items.

The collection can be found in Wilson Library on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.