Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

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 William Starr Myers Papers #3260, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alternate Form of Material

Transcription of college notebook available.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Mrs. William Starr Myers and her daughters in 1956-1957; from Mrs. John McLean, daughter of William Starr Myers, in 1957 and 1960; from Princeton University Library in 1957 (which holds diaries, 1887-1902); and from Mr. John McLean through the University of North Carolina Alumni Association in 1998.

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.

Processed by: SHC Staff, 1960-1991

Encoded by: Linda Sellars, Roslyn Holdzkom, June 2005

Updated by: Dawne Howard Lucas, May 2021; Nancy Kaiser, September 2023

Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

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.

• Asheville (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
• Central Methodist Church (Asheville, N.C.).
• College students--North Carolina--Social life and customs--19th century.
• Family--North Carolina.
• Henderson, Archibald, 1877-1963.
• Methodist Church--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• Myers, J. Norris.
• Myers, Laura Virginia Starr.
• Myers, William Starr, 1877-1956.
• North Carolina--Social life and customs.
• Student notebooks--History--19th century.
• Students' songs--North Carolina--History--19th century.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--Songs and music--History--19th century.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--Students--History--19th century.

• William Starr Myers Papers (MC#098) at Princeton University (includes diary 1887-1902).

William Starr Myers, son of J. Norris Myers and Laura Virginia Starr Myers, was born on 17 June 1877 in Baltimore, Md. In 1890, the Myers family moved to Asheville, N.C., where J. Norris Myers operated a shoe store.

William Starr Myers received his A.B. degree from the University of North Carolina in 1897 and his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1900. At the University of North Carolina, Myers was a member of Beta Theta Pi and Phi Beta Kappa. He was editor of the university yearbook, the Hellenian and of the newspaper, the Tar Heel. He also wrote the words for "Hail to the Brightest Star", sung to the tune of an old college song, called "Amici" and performed for the first time by the University Glee Club in 1897. This song evolved into the University of North Carolina alma mater, "Hark the Sound".

Myers was a master at the Gilman School for Boys in Baltimore, Md., 1900-1906, and then was assistant professor and preceptor at Princeton University, 1906-1918. He was a professor at Princeton from 1918 until his death in 1956. While on faculty at Princeton, Myers was a member of a local chapter of the Immigration Restriction League, an organization that used racial eugenics, support for white supremacy, and anti-political radicalism to justify opposition to immigration.

William Starr Myers married Margaret Barr on 8 June 1910.

Papers of William Starr Myers include letters and clippings sent to him, 1894-1895, while he was a student at the University of North Carolina by his parents, J. Norris Myers and Laura Virginia Starr Myers, in Asheville, N.C., concerning family and friends and the Central Methodist Church. Most of these letters are accompanied by clippings from the Asheville Citizen on local subjects. Other letters include several from Archibald Henderson, May and December 1918 and 1924. Also included are diplomas from the Asheville, N.C., high school, 19 May 1893, from the University of North Carolina, 2 June 1897, and from John Hopkins University, 12 June 1900; a University of North Carolina class reunion certificate, 1947; a drawing book of Myers when he was a child; "The Book of William Starr Myers," compiled while he was a student at the University of North Carolina and containing doggerel, college songs, a class poem, copies of poems, a list of classics read by Myers, and educational expense account; a manuscript music book of Myers when he was a child; and a picture of Myers's room at Gilman Country Day School in Baltimore, Md.