Skip to main content

History of the Department

In 1990, Carl H. Pegg wrote an unpublished manuscript entitled “History and Historians in the University of North Carolina, 1790 to 1950.” Pegg entered UNC as an undergraduate in the 1920s and, after earning his PhD, was a faculty member in our department from 1930 to 1975. His papers are in the UNC Library. Read Pegg’s history of our department here.

The below Department Timeline was researched and written by Joshua Michael O’Brien, Class of 2022. Additional support from the Digital History Lab. To see the full bibliography for the timeline, click here.


554A Pauli Murray Hall*
102 Emerson Dr., CB #3195
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3195

*Though the History Department uses the name Pauli Murray Hall for our building, on official maps you will find it as Hamilton Hall. Joseph Grégoire de Roulhac Hamilton’s intellectually dishonest historical and archival work promoted white supremacy. In contrast, Pauli Murray marshaled unassailable evidence and analysis in the service of racial and gender equality. In July 2020, all of the departments housed in the building agreed to adopt the name Pauli Murray Hall in place of Hamilton Hall. An official request with the Chancellor is pending. For more information, please see here.
phone: 919.962.2115
fax: 919.962.1403
email: history@unc.edu
Black and White   Black and White   Black and White   Black and White