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The Supreme Court Gives UNC the Ackland Art Museum
by Charly Mann
William Hayes Ackland was born into a wealthy family in 1855. Throughout his life his main pursuits were writing poetry, travel, society, and collecting art. He had no close friends, and had only one brief marriage when he was 40. He died in 1940 and his will started a ten year court battle that ended at the United States Supreme Court. As a , UNC received one of its most important and stately buildings, The Ackland Art Museum.
Ackland Art Museum at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Ackland had been a collector of art all of his adult life and wanted to leave his collection and an endowment for a museum to Duke University. Duke was to have received $1,700,000, of which $300,000 would go toward the construction of a museum. (That would be $4,500,000 in today's dollars for the building itself.) The only problem was Duke was not interested in accepting the terms of his will which stated the endowment would be managed by trustees Ackland had appointed, and that his body had to be entombed within the museum.
William Hayes Ackland, poet and art lover
After Duke's rejection Ackland‘s heirs fought in the courts claiming they should receive this money. Within a year the courts determined that the intent of the will was for the "advancement of the cause of art in the South". Because Ackland had mentioned Rollins College in Florida and UNC in an earlier will as possible recipients of the funds, both schools hired lawyers to secure the museum. Both of these schools said they would happily allow Ackland to be buried in the building. The District Court of the United States in Washington, DC ordered the trustees of the estate to determine which of these two schools could best carry out the spirit of the will.
Tomb of William Hayes Ackland in Ackland Art Museum Chapel Hill
After a detailed investigation and heavy lobbying by the state of North Carolina, the trustees stated that UNC was the best location for the Ackland museum. Their primary reason was because as a state institution the museum could receive financial support from the state of North Carolina if needed, and this would ensure its permanence. Also UNC was only eight miles from Duke, the first choice of Ackland, and Chapel Hill was at the center of southern culture. UNC also had a graduate program in art and Rollins did not.
Inscription over tomb of William Hayes Ackland
In spite of the trustees' recommendations, the court ruled that Rollins should get the museum. This time UNC appealed to the Supreme Court which in February of 1949 reversed the decision of the lower court, and gave UNC the Ackland museum and endowment. Finally after years of delays because of material shortages and design controversies the Ackland Art Museum was opened on September 20, 1958 and eighteen years after his death, William Hayes Ackland's body could finally be laid to rest.
Comments:
Blaine Edwards
7:13 PM Sat 9/26/2009
I guess Ackland is the only person buried on the UNC campus, and as I recall not only did he never attend Carolina, but never visited Chapel Hill in his lifetime.
Carl Dalton
3:03 PM Sat 9/26/2009
How much art did the Ackland museum get from his estate, and are any these paintings on regular display?
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Investment strategies and advice about Apple Inc. and related technology companies by Charly Mann. www.appleinvesting.com
Investment strategies and advice about Apple Inc. and related technology companies by Charly Mann. www.appleinvesting.com
Chapel Hill is located on a hill whose only distinguishing feature in the 18th century was a small chapel on top called New Hope Chapel. This church was built in 1752 and is currently the location of The Carolina Inn. The town was founded in 1819, and chartered in 1851.
What is it that binds us to this place as to no other? It is not the well or the bell or the stone walls. or the crisp October nights. No, our love for this place is based upon the fact that it is as it was meant to be, The University of the People.
-- Charles Kuralt
Dark Side of the Hill -- Pink Floyd, the creators of the most popular album in history, Dark Side of the Moon, took the second half of their name from Floyd Council, a Chapel Hill native, and great blues singer and guitarist. He once belonged to a group called "The Chapel Hillbillies".
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Oklahoma Birds and Butterflies
http://oklahomabirdsandbutterflies.com
Oklahoma Birds and Butterflies
http://oklahomabirdsandbutterflies.com
There would probably be no Chapel Hill if the University of North Carolina Board of Trustees in 1793 had not chosen land across from New Hope Chapel for the location of the university. By 1800 there were about 100 people living in thirty houses surrounding the campus.
The University North Carolina's first student was Hinton James, who enrolled in February, 1795. There is now a dormitory on the campus named in his honor.
The University of North Carolina was closed from 1870 to 1875 because of lack of state funding.
William Ackland left his art collection and $1.25 million to Duke University in 1940 on the condition that he would be buried in the art museum that the University was to build with his bequest. Duke rejected this condition even though members of the Duke Family are buried in Duke Chapel. What followed was a long and acrimonious legal battle between Ackland relatives who now wanted the inheritance, Rollins College, and the University of North Carolina, each attempting to receive the funds. The case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court, and in 1949 UNC was awarded the money for the museum. Ackland is buried near the museum's entrance. When the museum first opened, in the early sixties, there were rumors that his remains were leaking out of the mausoleum.
The official name of the Arboretum on the University of North Carolina campus is the Coker Arboretum. It is named after Dr. William Cocker, the University's first botany professor. It occupies a little more than five acres. It was founded in 1903.
Chapel Hill's main street has always been called Franklin Street. It was named after Benjamin Franklin in the early 1790s.
Chapel Hill High School and Chapel Hill Junior High were on Franklin Street in the same location as University Square until the mid 1960s.
The Colonial Drug Store at 450 West Franklin Street was owned and operated by John Carswell. It was famous for a fresh-squeezed carbonated orange beverage called a "Big O". In the early 1970s, I managed the Record and Tape Center next door, and must have had over 100 of those drinks. The Colonial Drug Store closed in 1996.
Sutton's Drugstore, which opened in 1923, has one of the last soda fountains in the South. It is one of the few businesses remaining on Franklin Street that was in operation when I was growing up in the 1950s.
Future President Gerald Ford lived in Chapel Hill twice. First when he was 24, in 1938, he took a law couse in summer school at UNC. He lived in the Carr Building, which was a law school dormitory. At the same time, Richard Nixon, the man he served under as Vice President, was attending law school at Duke. In 1942, Ford returned to Chapel Hill to attend the U.S. Navy's Pre-Flight School training program. He lived in a rental house on Hidden Hills Drive.
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