Skip to Main Content

Researching UNC Alumni: Archival Resources

Introduction

This page provides an introduction to archival resources available in Wilson Library. The most useful and relevant archival material for researching UNC alumni tends to be found in UNC's University Archives.  However, it is also possible that documentation concerning UNC alumni appear in collections of personal and family papers that are contained in the Southern Historical Collection and the Southern Folklife Collection, in addition to published material and photographs in the North Carolina Collection.

In addition to an online catalog record, each archival collection also has an online finding aid. These finding aids are keyword-searchable using the online finding aid search engine. The virtue of conducting a search using this tool is that the return set presents the search words in a textual snippet that allows researchers to help define the relevancy of a collection.

A good starting point would be to search for a student's name in both the library catalog and the finding aid search engine to see if the name appears anywhere in Wilson Library's collections. If no results are returned, see the boxes below for additional resources that may prove fruitful. 

Collections of Probable Interest

If you are researching alumni from the late 18th and very early 19th centuries, information concerning individual students may be found in a number of University Archives record groups that contain documentation from this time period. The most likely record groups are listed below along with a link to their descriptions. Clicking on a link will route you to the collection's finding aid, where you can view lists and descriptions of the individual collections' contents, view any digitized content in the collection that may be available, and request materials to use in the reading room.

As you will note when you review the description of these record groups, with few exceptions, personal names of students are absent. Thus, the best way to approach these collections is to review those sections of materials that date from a student's period of enrollment. Please note that in many instances, the information to be discovered within these record groups is quite brief, cursory, and duplicative—in essence, adding very little to the information contained in the digitized directories and histories listed in the sidebar at right.

Dialectic Society of the University of North Carolina Records #40152

The Dialectic Society was the first of two literary societies formed in 1795, the year the University of North Carolina opened. Throughout the nineteenth century, nearly all students were members of one of these societies. Students from the western portion of the state tended to belong to the Dialectic Society.

  • Records of the Dialectic Society include minutes, inaugural addresses of society presidents, commencement addresses, debates, bills and resolutions, correspondence, committee records, treasurer's records, membership records, the constitution and bylaws, library catalogs and circulation records, and publicity records.

Records of the Philanthropic Society #40166

The Philanthropic Society was the second of two literary societies formed in 1795. Throughout the nineteenth century, nearly all students were members of one of these societies. Students from the eastern portion of the state tended to belong to the Philanthropic Society.

  • Records of the Philanthropic Society include minutes, inaugural addresses of society presidents, commencement addresses, debates, bills and resolutions, correspondence, committee records, treasurers' records, membership records, the constitution and bylaws, library catalogs and circulation records, and publicity records. Treasurers' records include members' accounts, accounts of income and expenditures, records of fines, and receipts for payments of society debts. Membership records include membership lists and records of attendance at society meetings. 

Office of the Registrar of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Records #40131 

From the founding of the university through the nineteenth century, academic record-keeping was the responsibility of the secretary of the faculty. Originally student exams were oral, and no grades were given. The secretary of the faculty maintained a record of student absences from chapel, recitations, and class sessions. At the end of each term, the Committee on Visitation of the Board of Trustees met on the campus and administered the oral exams. By 1835 a system of grading had evolved and written exams were in use. In 1886 the Board of Trustees created the position of registrar, but the position was assigned to the secretary of the faculty until 1916.

  • The records of the Office of the Registrar include student academic records and other miscellaneous student records dating from 1795, the year the university opened, to 1907. 

University of North Carolina Papers #40005

The governing body of the University, from its founding until 1932, was a forty-member Board of Trustees elected by the General Assembly. The administrative structure of the University remained essentially the same until the twentieth century.

  • The collection consists of routine administrative correspondence and miscellaneous financial papers of the University of North Carolina as well as miscellaneous student and faculty records. 

Office of the Vice Chancellor for Business and Finance Records, #40095

The collection includes correspondence, budgets and financial records, building plans and specifications, and other files relating to the work of the Division of Business and Finance at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. This group also contains the historical financial records of the university from 1789 to 1920, including scattered accounts of the university's Board of Trustees, Treasurer, and Bursar.

Accessing Digitized Archival Content