William Hayes Ackland
| William Hayes Ackland | |
|---|---|
| Born |
William Hayes Acklen September 06, 1855 Nashville, Tennessee |
| Died | February 16, 1940 |
| Resting place | Ackland Art Museum |
| Residence | Belmont Mansion |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation |
Author Lawyer Art collector |
| Spouse(s) | Laura Crocker |
| Parent(s) |
Joseph Alexander Smith Acklen Adelicia Acklen |
| Relatives | Joseph H. Acklen (brother) |
William Hayes Ackland (1855-1940) was an American author, lawyer and art collector.
Biography
Early life
William Hayes Acklen was born on September 6, 1855 in Nashville, Tennessee.[1][2][3][4] He later changed his last name to Ackland.[1][2] He was the son of Colonel Joseph Alexander Smith Acklen (1816-1863), a lawyer from Alabama who had served in the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848, and Adelicia Acklen (1817-1887), a wealthy widow and socialite.[2][5] His maternal grandfather, Oliver Bliss Hayes (1783-1858), was a lawyer and later Presbyterian minister from South Hadley, Massachusetts; he was related to Rutherford B. Hayes (1822–1893), who went on to serve as the 19th President of the United States from 1877 to 1881.[2][5] His brother, Joseph H. Acklen (1850-1938), served as U.S. Representative from Louisiana from 1878 to 1881.[2]
He grew up at his family plantation home, the Belmont Mansion, in Nashville, and on family plantations in Louisiana.[2] He received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Nashville, followed by a Bachelor of Laws from Vanderbilt University.[2][4] Indeed, he was one of the very first students at Vanderbilt, as he attended when the university had just been opened.[2]
Career
His legal residence was in Washington, D.C., where he officially practised as a lawyer.[2] However, he became a socialite, spending much of his time attending society galas and balls in Washington, but also in Ormond Beach, Florida, Lake Mohonk, and York Harbor, Maine.[2][3] He would go to England once a year for the English season.[2][3] He became known as a genteel gentleman and a member of high society.[2]
He published a novel about Sterope, one of the seven Pleiades in Greek mythology, and three volumes of poetry.[2][3][4] He also wrote his memoirs.[2] In the 1880s, he did some journalism in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[2] He also wrote plays and attended theater performances often.[2][3] He also corresponded with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894), James Russell Lowell (1819–1891), and John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892).[3]
Additionally, over the years, he became an important art collector.[2][4] To preserve his art collection, he wanted to establish a museum on a Southern university campus.[4] However, the idea of a museum in his honor was rejected by Duke University and Rollins College.[4][5][6] Instead, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill agreed, and the Ackland Art Museum was established on its campus.[3][5][7] There is also a marble sculpture of him wearing Buster Brown shoes in the museum.[6]
Personal life
He married Laura Crocker (1871-1931) on June 2, 1896 in Cleveland, Ohio.[1][4] They had had no children and divorced a year later.[1][4] He inherited US$100,000 from one of his late half-sisters.[4] By the time of his death, he left an estate of US$1,350,000.[4]
Death
He died on February 16, 1940.[1] He was buried in the Mount Olivet Cemetery.[1] However, his will stipulated that he be buried on the site of his museum.[1] He was thus buried a second time, at the Ackland Art Museum.[1]
Bibliography
Primary source
- William Hayes Ackland, Sterope: The Veiled Pleiad (Washington, D.C., 1892).[8]
Secondary source
- John Emil Larson, William Hayes Ackland, 1855-1940 (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Ackland Memorial Art Center, 1958).
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 FindAGrave: William Hayes Ackland
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Ackland Art Museum: Biography of William Hayes Ackland
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 UNC University Libraries
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Robert Franklin Durden, The Launching of Duke University, 1924-1949, Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1993, p. 288
- 1 2 3 4 Daphne Athas, Chapel Hill in Plain Sight, Eno Publishers, 2010, p. 193
- 1 2 James Vickers, Chapel Hill, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 1996, p. 114
- ↑ Sue Clark, Angela Harwood, Steve Kirk, Artie Sparrow, Anne Holcomb Waters, Travel North Carolina: Going Native in the Old North State, John F. Blair Publisher, 2010, p. 261
- ↑ Google Books