Restrictions to Access

This collection contains additional materials that are not available for immediate or same day access. Please contact Research and Instructional Service staff at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu to discuss options for consulting these materials.

Copyright Notice

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

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Louis Harris Papers #4662, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Louis Harris of New York, N.Y., in June 1993 (Acc. 93078), October 1997 (Acc. 97131), October 2000 (Acc. 98768), October 2001 (Acc. 99099), and March 2002 (Acc. 99196).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Manuscripts Department Staff, December 2002

Encoded by: Roslyn Holdzkom and Nathalie Wheaton, December 2002 and July 2006

Revised: Finding aid updated in July 2006 by Nathalie Wheaton.

Folders are not numbered.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Harris, Louis, 1921-2016.
• Louis Harris and Associates.
• Public opinion polls.
• Public opinion--United States.

• Louis Harris Data Center, Odum Institute for Research in Social Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Public opinion pollster Louis Harris was born in 1921 in New Haven, Conn. After graduating from the University of North Carolina in 1942, he served in the United States Navy Reserves, 1942-1946, then worked for pollster Elmo Roper. In 1956, Harris founded Louis Harris and Associates in New York, N.Y., where he developed what came to be known as the Harris Poll. Harris wrote several books, including Anguish of Change (1973) and Inside America (1987).

Harris was John F. Kennedy's pollster during his 1960 campaign for president of the United States. In 1975, LHA was acquired by the Gannett Corporation and was acquired from Gannett by the Gordon S. Black Corporation in 1996. The Odum Institute for Research in Social Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill maintains the Louis Harris Data Center, the national depository for LHA's survey data.

The collection includes correspondence, speeches and writings, subject files, photographs, and audiovisual materials of public opinion pollster Louis Harris. Materials chiefly relate to polls conducted by Harris and Louis Harris and Associates (LHA) on various topics with various audiences, 1960s-1990s. Also included is material relating to two of Harris's books-- Anguish of Change (1973) and Inside America (1987)--and some personal and financial materials, 1940s-1960s.

• Films (F-4662/1-6)