Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to Use

No image in this collection may be reproduced without the permission and consent of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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 Round Wilson Photographic Collection #P0040, North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Gift of Pat Thomas of Chapel Hill, N.C., who was authorized to handle disposition of items remaining in the Wilson house at the time Louis Round Wilson's daughters, Penny and Elizabeth, moved into the Methodist Home in Durham in 1989.

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.

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.

Individuals Appearing in Images:
• Edmonds family--Photographs.
• Friday, William C. (William Clyde).
• House, R. B. (Robert Burton), 1892-1987.
• Round family--Photographs.
• Wilson family--Photographs.
• Wilson, Louis Round, 1976-1979.
• Wolfe, Thomas, 1900-1938.
• Wright family--Photographs.

General subjects:
• Caldwell County (N.C.)--History.
• Chapel Hill (N.C.)--History.
• Daguerreotype--North Carolina.
• Daguerreotype.
• Academic libraries--North Carolina--Employees--Photographs.
• Academic libraries--North Carolina--Chapel Hill--Photographs.
• Ambrotype--North Carolina.
• Ambrotype.
• Cabinet photographs--North Carolina.
• Cabinet photographs.
• Caldwell County (N.C.)--Photographs.
• Chapel Hill (N.C.)--Photographs.
• Educators--North Carolina--Photographs.
• Families--North Carolina--Photographs.
• Lenoir (N.C.)--History.
• Lenoir (N.C.)--Photographs.
• Librarians--North Carolina--Photographs.
• Library administrators--Photographs
• North Carolina--Photographs.
• Orange County (N.C.)--History.
• Orange County (N.C.)--Photographs.
• Photographs.
• Portrait photography--North Carolina.
• Portrait photography.
• Tintype--North Carolina.
• Tintype.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--Administration--Photographs.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--Employees--Photographs.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--Faculty--Photographs.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--History.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--Photographs.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962). Library--Photographs.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill--Employees--Photographs.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill--History.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill--Photographs.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library--Photographs.

• Louis Round Wilson Papers (#3274), Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Portrait Collection (P0002)
• Ambrotype Collection (P0007)
• Daguerreotype Collection (P0008)
• Tintype Collection (P0009)
• Harry Legare Watson Photographic Collection (P0023)
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Image Collection (P0004)

Louis Round Wilson (27 December 1876–10 December 1979) was born in Lenoir, N.C., the sixth child of Jethro Reuben and Louisa Jane Round Wilson. In 1909, Louis Round Wilson married Penelope Bryan Wright of Coharie. The couple had four children: Elizabeth, Louis Jr., Penelope, and Mary Louise (Mrs. Dean Stockett Edmonds Jr.). Wilson died just shy of 103 years old and is buried in the Old Chapel Hill Cemetery.

Wilson attended various Lenoir schools and worked as a typesetter and printer's devil from 1891 to 1894 before he enrolled in Davenport College in Lenoir in 1894. In 1895, he attended Haverford College in Haverford, Pa., where he also first worked in a library as an assistant. Wilson then transferred to the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C., in the autumn of 1898, graduating in May 1899. In August of that year, he began teaching at Vine Hill Male Academy in Scotland Neck; the following year he taught at Catawba College in Newton.

In 1901, the University of North Carolina appointed Wilson as its librarian, a position he held until 1932 when he left Chapel Hill for the University of Chicago to become the dean of the Graduate Library School. During those 31 years, Wilson developed collections and oversaw the planning and construction of two of the University's main libraries: the Carnegie Library in 1907 and the building in 1929 that, as of 1956, would bear his name. He also trained staff librarians and taught courses in librarianship, joining the faculty in 1907.

In 1920, Wilson was named Kenan Professor of Library Science. Wilson returned to the University of North Carolina School of Library Science faculty in 1942. In 1951, he became special assistant for development to the chancellor and, in 1959, after retiring from the faculty, he accepted the position of special assistant to the president of the University of North Carolina system, from which he retired in 1969.

The Louis Round Wilson Photographic Collection consists largely of snapshots of family and friends and some studio portraits, circa 1860s-1980s. Family snapshots include members of the Edmonds, Round, Wilson, and Wright families. Among the individual images are those of William C. Friday, R.B. House, and Thomas Wolfe. Most photographs were made in North Carolina (primarily in Chapel Hill), but a few were made in Chicago, New York, and elsewhere. Formats represented include black-and-white prints, color prints and negatives, silhouettes, a daguerreotype, ambrotypes, tintypes, a cyanotype, postcards, and cartes de visites.

Physical organization of the Wilson Collection is as follows:

• Black-and-White Film Box 1: Black-and-white negatives, P0040/0001 through 0002
• Color Film Box 1: Color negatives, P0040/0003 through 0008
• Print Box 1: Black-and-white and color photographic prints, P0040/0009 through 0024
• Print Box 2: Black-and-white and color photographic prints, P0040/00025 through 0074
• Print Box 3: Black-and-white and color photographic prints, P0040/0075 through 0086
• Special Format Box 1: Special format images, P0040/0087 through 0096
• Flat Box 1: Oversize black-and-white photographic prints, P0040/0097 through 0108