Joseph Grégoire de Roulhac Hamilton Papers Inventory (#1743)

Manuscripts Department, Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Contact Information:

Manuscripts Department

CB#3926, Wilson Library

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill, NC 27514-8890

Phone: 919/962-1345

Fax: 919/962-3594

Email: mss@email.unc.edu

URL: http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/

Processed by:

Tim Pyatt

Date Completed:

March 1997

Encoded by:

Jackie Dean

Revisions:

Finding aid updated in April 2002 by Laura Capell.

Descriptive Summary

Title

Joseph Grégoire de Roulhac Hamilton Papers, 1895-1961

Creator

Hamilton, Joseph Grégoire de Roulhac, 1878-1961

Extent

About 18,000 items (25.5 linear feet)

Repository

Southern Historical Collection

Abstract

J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton (1878-1961) was a historian; founder of the Southern Historical Collection at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C.; and professor and chair of the history department at the University of North Carolina. The collection includes personal, family, and professional correspondence (except for his correspondence as chair of the History Department at the University of North Carolina and director of the Southern Historical Collection, which are in University Archives), 1885-1961, of J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton; Hamilton's diary, 1935-1949; nine scrapbooks, 1900-1961, on Hamilton, his career, and the Southern Historical Collection; miscellaneous writings by Hamilton, many unpublished; and notes on Confederate generals.

Administrative Information

Access

Diaries under seal, except as noted, until 2011.

Usage Restrictions

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Provenance

Received from J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton in July 1950 with additions from Hamilton in November 1955, March 1956, September 1956, March 1960, and August 1961; from the Southern Historical Collection in 1998 (Acc. 98012); and from University Archives in September 1999 (Acc. 98441).

Online Catalog Terms

Chapel Hill (N.C.)--Social life and customs.

College teachers--North Carolina--History--20th century.

Diaries.

Family--North Carolina--Social life and customs.

Generals--Confederate States of America.

Hamilton, Joseph Grégoire de Roulhac, 1878-1961.

Historians--North Carolina--History.

North Carolina--Social life and customs.

Scrapbooks--North Carolina.

University of North Carolina (1793-1962). Dept. of History.

University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--Faculty-- History.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Manuscripts Dept.--History.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection--History.

Biographical Note

Joesph Grégoire de Roulhac Hamilton, son of Daniel Heyward and Frances Gray Roulhac Hamilton, was born in Hillsborough, N.C., on 6 August 1878 and died in Chapel Hill, N.C., on 10 November 1961. He attended the Sewanee Academy in Tennessee and received his Masters degree from the University of South in 1900. He next attended Columbia University where he studied under William Archibald Dunning and received his Ph.D. in 1906.

Hamilton began his teaching career as an instructor at the Horner Military School in Oxford, N.C., in 1901. He served as principal of the Wilmington, N.C., High School from 1904 to 1906. In 1906, he was appointed associate professor of history at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. In 1908, Hamilton became Alumni Professor and Chair of the History Department, and later Kenan Professor of History and Government in 1920. He resigned as Chair of Department in 1930, but continued to teach until 1936, after which he devoted full time to the Southern Historical Collection.

During World War I, Hamilton was Director for the War Issues Course, Fourth District, S.A.T.C., 1918; Lecturer, Citizenship Unit, Army Educational Corps, A.E.F., 1919; and Consultant in General Education to the War Plans Division, U.S. General Staff,1920-1922.

Hamilton wrote more than a hundred articles and sketches for leading historical journals and reviews. He authored Reconstruction in North Carolina (1914), Party Politics in North Carolina,1835-1860 (1916), and North Carolina Since 1860 (1919), among other book-length publications. He was active in and held office for a number professional associations, including the American Historical Association, the Historical Manuscripts Commission, the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association, the Southern Historical Association, and the Historical Society of North Carolina.

Hamilton is probably best known as the founder of the Southern Historical Collection, which opened for research in January 1930. Hamilton's vision, as outlined in a 1928 meeting of the North Carolina Historical Society, was to create a repository for the preservation and study of the history of the American South. Partially relieved of his teaching duties to pursue this goal, Hamilton searched the South for documentation to bring back to Chapel Hill. His efforts to build the collection earned him the nickname "Ransack," but also helped make the University of North Carolina the pre-eminent center for Southern studies. By Hamilton's retirement in 1948, the SHC contained more than two million manuscripts documenting the history of the American South.

Collection Overview

The collection includes personal, family, and professional correspondence (except for his correspondence as chair of the History Department at the University of North Carolina and director of the Southern Historical Collection, which are in University Archives), 1885-1961, of J. G. de Roulhac Hamilton; Hamilton's diary, 1935-1949; nine scrapbooks, 1900-1961, on Hamilton, his career as a historian, and the Southern Historical Collection; miscellaneous writings by Hamilton, many unpublished; and notes on Confederate generals.

Organization of Collection

1. Correspondence
1.1. Chronological
1.2. Alphabetical
2. Writings
3. Diaries
4. Scrapbooks and Miscellaneous
5. Pictures
Additions

Detailed Description of the Collection