Wilson Library | |
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Wilson Library opened in 1929 and today serves as the special collections library at the University of North Carolina. | |
Location | University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina |
Coordinates | 35°54′34.9308″N79°2′59.0568″W / 35.909703000°N 79.049738000°W |
Built | 1927–1929 |
Website | Wilson Library |
The Louis Round Wilson Library is a library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. [1] Completed in 1929, it served as the university's main library until 1984. Today, it houses several special collections. The dome rises 85 feet over the university's South Quadrangle.
The library was constructed between 1927 and 1929 at the far end of the South Quadrangle at a time of rapid growth for the university. [2] Twenty-three buildings were constructed on the UNC campus between 1920 and 1931. [3] Architect Arthur Cleveland Nash, together with William Kendall of famed firm McKim, Mead, and White, designed the neo-classical building in the Beaux-arts style. [4] The building follows the standard plan of Carnegie libraries across the United States. In 1923, the Carnegie Corporation reported having no objection to the university building a new library and converting the 1907 Carnegie-funded library to other uses. However, the university did not apply for library construction funds in 1924 for the new building. [5] Wilson Library was named for Louis Round Wilson, the university's first librarian, in 1956. [6] Prior to the renaming, the building had been referred to as "the library." [7]
Wilson had campaigned for a new library building for most of the 1920s, wanting a building that would house enough books to make it a library of national distinction. Ten days after the building opened on October 19, 1929, the stock market crashed. State support for the university dropped, which meant that Wilson had to raise money for the library through private donations and foundation support. Some of the gifts donated during the Depression created some of the library's most notable collections. [8]
The original building was 219 feet long and 140 feet deep. The first addition was added in 1952, with two more in 1976 and 1984. It served as the university's main library until 1984, when Davis Library opened. [9] Today, Wilson Library mainly serves as a special collection library. [10] Its North Carolina Collection is the largest about a single state in the United States. [11]
The University of North Carolina is the public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC System to differentiate it from its first campus, UNC-Chapel Hill.
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolling students in 1795, making it one of the oldest public universities in the United States.
Frank Porter Graham was an American educator and political activist. A professor of history, he was elected President of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1930, and he later became the first President of the consolidated University of North Carolina system.
Old East is a residence hall located at the north part of campus in University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Built in 1793 by slave labor, it became the first state university building in the United States. The Wren Building at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, was built in 1695, but William and Mary did not become a public university until 1906.
Alice Gerrard is an American bluegrass and old-time music performer, writer, editor and teacher. As a singer who plays guitar, fiddle and banjo, she performed and recorded solo and in ensembles, notably in a duo with Hazel Dickens, in the Strange Creek Singers, and as the Back Creek Buddies.
Doris Betts was a short story writer, novelist, essayist and Alumni Distinguished Professor Emerita at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was the author of three short story collections and six novels.
Wilson Swain Caldwell (1841-1898) was a distinguished Civil War-era African American. Born into slavery on February 27, 1841, his mother, Chaney Atwater, was most likely the wife of November since 1833. His father was November 'Doctor' Caldwell, a slave of Helen Hogg Hooper, daughter of the Signer of the Declaration of Independence and the second wife of University President Joseph Caldwell.
William Reynolds Ferris Jr. is an American author and scholar and former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. With Judy Peiser he co-founded the Center for Southern Folklore in Memphis, Tennessee; he was the founding director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, and is co-editor of The Encyclopedia of Southern Culture.
The Southern Historical Collection is a repository of distinct archival collections at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill which document the culture and history of the American South. 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.
Robert Sidney Martin is an American librarian, archivist, administrator, and educator. He is Professor Emeritus, School of Library and Information Studies, Texas Woman’s University, where he was the Lillian M. Bradshaw Endowed Chair until his retirement in 2008.
The Southern Oral History Program (SOHP), located in the Love House and Hutchins Forum in the historic district of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, is a research institution dedicated to collecting and preserving oral histories from across the southern United States.
Louis Round Wilson was an important figure to the field of library science, and is listed in "100 of the most important leaders we had in the 20th century," an article in the December 1999 issue of American Libraries. The article lists what he did for the field of library science including dean at the University of Chicago Graduate Library School, directing the library at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, and as one of the "internationally oriented library leaders in the U.S. who contributed much of the early history of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions." The Louis Round Wilson Library is named after him.
The UNC School of Information and Library Science(SILS) is the information school of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The school offers a bachelor's degree in information science, a master's degrees in library science and information science, a master's degree in digital curation, and a doctoral degree in information and library science as well as an undergraduate minor, graduate certificate programs, and a post-masters certificate.
Tom Davenport is an independent filmmaker and film distributor who has worked for decades documenting American life and exploring folklore. Currently based in Delaplane, Virginia, he is the founder and project director for Folkstreams, a website that houses independent documentary films about American folk roots and cultures.
Reed Sarratt (1917-1986) was an American journalist and editor from North Carolina. He wrote about school desegregation in the Southern United States. He served as the executive director of the Southern Education Reporting Service from 1960 to 1965, and the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association from 1973 to 1986.
The Southern Folklife Collection is an archival resource at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, dedicated to collecting, preserving and disseminating traditional and vernacular music, art, and culture related to the American South. The Southern Folklife Collection is located in UNC's Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library.
Robert Lynn 'Bobby' McMillon was an American traditional ballad singer, musician, and storyteller living in Lenoir, North Carolina. He was a 2000 recipient of the North Carolina Heritage Award.
The North Carolina Collection is the largest collection of traditional library materials documenting a single state. It is part of the Louis Round Wilson Special Collections Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The origins of the collection began in 1844 with the creation of the North Carolina Historical Society. The collection formally came into existence after a donation from John Sprunt Hill in 1930 totaling $25,000. The collection includes The Thomas Wolfe Collection and The Sir Walter Raleigh Collection.
Blyden Jackson was a Black American academic, essayist, and activist.
Susan Grey Akers was an American librarian and the first woman to hold an academic deanship at the University of North Carolina.