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.
25-645: The North Carolina Historical Society began collecting manuscripts at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1844. The collecting stopped in the early twentieth century when the Society ceased operation. The holdings were then transferred to the University Library. 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." Hamilton began traveling
50-529: A description or list of most of the materials in the collection itself. Some of the subject strengths of the collection include: Time periods chiefly represented in the SHC include: Sarah Graham Kenan Sarah Graham Kenan (February 17, 1876 – March 16, 1968) was an American heiress and philanthropist. She inherited a third of her sister's share of the Standard Oil fortune in 1917 and established
75-547: A short illness, and, according to the Wilmington Morning Star , “…the news of her death produced a profound shock in the family and among many friends in the city and in other cities of the State…” Mary Lily was buried on July 31, 1917, after a service in the residence of Mary Lily's sister Sarah. The shock of Mary Lily's death seems to have quickly turned to suspicion about how she died. Headlines spoke of
100-706: A town named after her family. Kenan was educated in New York and in Raleigh, graduating from St. Mary's Junior College in 1893. After her brother-in-law's death, his oil fortune was inherited by her sister, Mary Lily Kenan Flagler Bingham . At her death in 1917, the fortune was divided equally between Kenan, her brother William, and her sister, Jessie Kenan Wise. She established the Sarah Graham Kenan Foundation and, throughout her life, made charitable contributions exceeded $ 12 million. She
125-544: A wedding present.” After their marriage, Henry lavished gifts and attention on Mary Lily. Henry built Whitehall, a “….75-room, 100,000-square-foot Gilded Age mansion…as a wedding present for his wife, Mary Lily Kenan Flagler. The couple used the home as a winter retreat from 1902 until Flagler's death in 1913, establishing the Palm Beach season for the wealthy of the Gilded Age.” Henry Flagler died in 1913, and passed
150-461: A “tragic mystery,” “foul play” and “murder” and seemed to imply that Mary Lily's husband may have had something to do with her death. Before they married, Judge Bingham waived his rights to the Flagler fortune and most of the estate was left to Mary Lily's birth family members. Judge Bingham did receive $ 5 million, and some of the concerns about him seem to have stemmed from this inheritance, which
175-750: The UNC School of Medicine and UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School . Kenan married her cousin, the attorney Graham Kenan, on December 19, 1912. Her husband died on February 5, 1920, in New York City. They had no children. After her husband's death, Kenan purchased a brick colonial house on Market Street in Wilmington. She travelled extensively, spending time in Palm Beach and St. Augustine, Florida , and Lake Placid, New York . Kenan died on March 16, 1968, in Wilmington. A funeral service
200-824: The University of North Carolina , participated in the Wilmington insurrection of 1898 . She was a sister of William R. Kenan Jr. and a sister-in-law of Henry Flagler , who co-founded the Standard Oil Company with John D. Rockefeller . Kenan was a descendant of the politician and American Revolutionary War veteran James Kenan . Her grandfather was the Confederate politician Owen Rand Kenan . Her family, members of North Carolina's planter class , owned Liberty Hall Plantation in Kenansville ,
225-570: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill start the Southern Historical Collection in their new library, which included letters, diaries, and plantation records. She provided a $ 25,000 endowment for the project. In 1965, she established the Graham Kenan Professorship at the University of North Carolina School of Law in honor of her husband. In 1968 she created additional professorships at
250-638: The Sarah Graham Kenan Foundation. Through her foundation, Kenan contributed financially to various institutions including the Episcopal Diocese of East Carolina , the University of North Carolina , Duke University , Saint Mary's School , and the Duplin County Board of Education . Her home, located in the Market Street Mansion District in Wilmington, North Carolina , now serves as the official residence of
275-747: The South, in his "faithful Fords," seeking out and gathering materials. On January 14, 1930, the Southern Historical Collection was officially established. 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 Southern Historical Collection now holds more than 15 million items, which are organized into over 4,600 discrete collections. The collection can be found in Wilson Library on
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#1732779912068300-415: The campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Materials are available for on-site research, but are non-circulating due to rarity and fragility. The collections held in the Southern Historical Collection are described in online and print finding aids , which contain information on the history or background of the entity (person, family, or organization) that created the collection, as well as
325-436: The chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington . In 1930, through an endowment she made, the Southern Historical Collection was established at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill . Sarah Graham Kenan was born on February 17, 1876, in Wilmington, North Carolina , to William Rand Kenan, Sr. and Mary Hargrave Kenan. Her father, a Civil War veteran, businessman, white supremacist , and trustee of
350-533: The late 1870s, her family lived in Wilmington, North Carolina Mary Lily attended Amy Bradley's Tileston school in Wilmington. Mary Lily was well-educated for a woman in the late 19th century: she both attended school in Wilmington, and attended Peace College in Raleigh. Kenan was also well known for her musical abilities and according to one account, she was North Carolina's “reigning belle” because of her vivaciousness, beauty, and accomplishments. By this time, Mary Lily had become well acquainted with some of
375-527: The majority of his wealth on to Mary Lily. Three years later, Mary Lily married a college friend of her brother's, whom she had dated previously in the 1890s. She and Judge Robert Worth Bingham married in New York City, at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Pembroke Jones in 1916. This second marriage did not last long. Mary Lily Kenan Flagler Bingham died in July 1917. Mary Lily Kenan Bingham's death also sparked scandal and controversy. Mary Lily died after
400-692: The matter of Mrs. Bingham's death. Bingham went on to be an ambassador to England in the 1930s, and parlayed Mary Lily's money into a newspaper empire. The results of the autopsy were never released. Rumors of syphilis, drug use, alcoholism, and murder have swirled around the life of Mary Lily Kenan Flagler Bingham ever since. The estate left was vast – “…estimated to be worth all the way from $ 65,000,000 to $ 130,000,000.” Mary Lily's marriage to Henry Flagler helped make her entire family extremely wealthy. William R. Kenan Jr. and her sisters Jessie Kenan Wise and Sarah Graham Kenan and niece Louise Wise, were all recipients of her will's largess. So
425-473: The millions she inherited to members of her family and to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill . Before she became famous and extraordinarily wealthy, Mary Lily grew up in an affluent household. She was the daughter of William Rand Kenan Sr and Mary Hargrave Kenan, Mary Lily was born in Duplin County , on June 14, 1867. When she was little, her father was a life insurance agent. By
450-470: The nation. In order to marry Mary Lily, Henry Morrison Flagler had to obtain a divorce from his second wife, who had become mentally ill over the course of their marriage. At that time, one had to cite certain specific reasons for divorce, as no-fault divorce did not yet exist. Henry changed his legal residence to Florida, and persuaded the Florida legislature to allow divorce on the grounds of insanity. He
475-515: The richest members of Wilmington society. She traveled with the Mr. and Mrs. Pembroke Jones and became socially intimate with the Jones’ friend, Henry Walters , as well as Mr. and Mrs. Henry Flagler . Mary Lily Kenan married the much-older Henry Morrison Flagler in 1901. She was his third wife. Henry Morrison Flagler was 72 years old. She was 34, but it wasn't only the age gap that scandalized
500-697: The university's campus is named after her. The library at Saint Mary's School is named in her honor. The University of North Carolina School of the Arts named a scholarship after her. Mary Lily Kenan Flagler Bingham Mary Lily Kenan Flagler Bingham (1867–1917) was an American philanthropist and heiress who became notorious when she married one of the richest men of the Gilded Age . Mary Lily outlived her first husband, Henry Flagler , inherited his huge fortune, married again three years later, and died under suspicious circumstances at age fifty. She left
525-584: Was a late addition to Mary Lily's will. So rather than remaining at rest in Oakdale Cemetery , Mary Lily Kenan Flagler Bingham's body was exhumed in September 1917, with armed guards stationed around the gravesite as her body was dug up in the night. The autopsy was requested by Graham Kenan, Mary Lily's sister Sarah's husband, not Robert Bingham. Despite these irregularities and mysterious circumstances, no charges were ever levied against anyone in
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#1732779912068550-677: Was a patron of the Catherine Kennedy Home in Wilmington, the Duplin County Board of Education , New Hanover County private schools, the Episcopal Diocese of East Carolina , St. James Episcopal Church , Duke University School of Medicine , the North Carolina Museum of Life and Science , Saint Mary's School, Durham Academy , Thalian Hall , the Kenansville Board of Education, and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington . In 1930, she helped
575-598: Was criticized for this action, partly due to societal attitudes toward Divorce in the United States , and partly because of her mental state. According to the Goldsboro Argus , “a Man who would thus cast off an aged wife, blameless herself, is simply beyond execration.” When the couple married in 1901 in Duplin County, Flagler gave Mary Lily Kenan “…a check for $ 1,000,000, and $ 3,000,000 in bonds as
600-411: Was held at St. James Episcopal Church on March 20, 1968. She was buried next to her parents in Oakdale Cemetery . After her death, her nephew, James Graham Kenan, gifted her home on Market Street to the state for the board of trustees of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. The house is now used as the official residence of the university's chancellor. The Sarah Graham Kenan Auditorium on
625-525: Was the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While Mary Lily Kenan attended Peace College at a time when women were not admitted to the University of North Carolina, one of her greatest legacies is the Kenan Professorship Fund, considered to be a milestone endowment in the university's history, consisting of $ 75,000 per annum in memory of her father and two uncles, who were university alumni. Mary Lily's legacy of giving to UNC
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