Restrictions to Access

This collection contains additional materials that are not processed and are currently not available to researchers. For information about access to these materials, contact Research and Instructional Services staff. Please be advised that preparing unprocessed materials for access can be a lengthy process.

Restrictions to Use

These papers may be read for information only. Copying, citation, quotation, or publication of any material written by a living individual is prohibited without the written permission of that individual.

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 Southern Historical Association Records #4030, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from various sources beginning in 1978. (Acc. 78038, 79026, 79056, 80012, 80036, 80038, 80056, 81063, 81099, 82061, 82130, 82152, 83209, 84093, 84112, 84152, 85028, 85037, 85086, 85092, 86141, 86169, 87005, 87021, 87046, 88036, 88096, 89014, 89085, 89122, 89123, 89125, 90055, 90077, 90112, 90116, 90131, 90148, 90154, 91084, 91109, 91111, 91120, 92006, 92069, 92082, 92102, 92110, 92111, 92113, 92118, 92120, 92125, 92127, 92184, 92193, 93079, 93114, 93120, 94043, 94070, 94105, 95013, 95037, 95053, 95063, 95101, 95107, 96025, 96129, 96178, 97081, 97084, 97099, 97162, 98021, 98143, 98165, 98258, 98260, 98336, 98357, 98387, 98496, 98554, 98670, 98718, 98750, 98855, 98862, 98980, 99056, 99172, 99376, 99389, 99408, 99445, 99548, 99732, 99777, 99846, 99906, 99927, 100144, 100278, 100360, 100481, 100560, 100652, 100766, 100767, 100857, 100898, 100942, 101246, 101305, 101349, 101497, 101498, 101583, 101746, 101747, 101748, 101757, 101842, 101845, 101997, 102662, and 20230915.3)

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: Manuscripts Department Staff, 1978-2000

Encoded by: Roslyn Holdzkom, September 2002

Updated in May 2004 by Linda Sellars, in November 2006 by Dawne E. Howard, in May and August 2007 by Rachel Canada, in February 2013 by Danielle Fasig and Julie Seifert, and in December 2016 by Gergana Abernathy.

Updated: April 2019, January 2021, September 2023

When requesting material from this collection, please indicate both series and folder/box number.

Additions received since July 2004 have not been integrated into the original deposits. Researchers should always check additions to be sure they have identified all files of interest to them.

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.

• Fite, Gilbert.
• Higginbotham, Sanford W.
• Historians--Southern States--History--20th century.
• Historians--Southern States--History--21th century.
• History--Study and teaching--Southern States.
• Journal of southern history.
• Patton, James Welch, 1900-
• Southern Historical Association.
• Southern States--History--Societies, etc.
• Wall, Bennett H.
• Women historians--Southern States--History--20th century.
• Women historians--Southern States--History--21th century.

Eighteen historians from seven southern states organized the Southern Historical Association in November 1934, "to promote interest and research in Southern history, to collect and preserve Southern historical records and to encourage state and local historical societies," and secondarily to foster the teaching and study of all branches of history in the South. The Association's principal activities have been the publication of the Journal of Southern History, which appears quarterly, and an annual meeting held in November of each year. The Association also awards three prizes for outstanding publications in Southern history.

The Association is governed by a president, a vice-president (also president-elect), a secretary-treasurer, and an executive council, all elected by the members during the annual meeting. Committees appointed by the president are responsible for the annual program and membership solicitation. Before the adoption of new bylaws in 1973, the president also appointed the nominations committee. The Executive Council now appoints committee members. Ad hoc committees are occasionally appointed to study specific problems (e.g. constitutional revision, selection of meeting sites).

There is a complete list of all Association officers, committee chairmen, editorial staff members, meeting sites, and award winners in series A, folder 689, Perpetual List of Officers and Committees.

For additional information on the history of the Association see Walter Posey, "The Southern Historical Association: Its Founding and First Year," Journal of Southern History, XLIII (1977); George B. Tindall, The Pursuit of Southern History, (Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 1964); Wendell Holmes Stephenson, The South Lives in History: Southern Historians , (Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 1955); Southern History in the Making: Pioneer Historians , (Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 1964). Occasional articles in the Journal of Southern History also mention facets of the Association's history.

The records of the Southern Historical Association are organized into five main series. Series A, Records of the Office of the Secretary-Treasurer, contains correspondence, committee reports, Executive Council reports, and annual reports of both the Secretary-treasurer and the managing editor of the Journal of Southern History. The files of the office of the managing editor of the Journal of Southern History (including correspondence about articles submitted, rejected, and published in the Journal) comprise Series B. Correspondence files of a few of the presidents and vice-presidents of the Association are found in Series C. Series E contains photographs. Series F contains all additions received since July 2004. Other papers that pertain to the Association, but may not fit into existing categories comprise Series D. Note that there is considerable overlap between materials in various series.