Native of Tennessee; author, art collector, and Washington, D.C., lawyer. After his death Ackland's art collection and an endowment for a museum was given to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ackland's name was originally Acklen. Ackland travelled widely, spending part of each year in London and Florida, and moved in society in England and America. His papers, mostly dating from 1890, consist of extensive social correspondence; manuscripts of short stories, novels, and plays written by him; notebooks and scrapbooks on many subjects, especially reflecting social conditions during the Victorian age and into the early 20th century; personal diaries, 1894-1900 and 1927-1928; autograph letters and autographs of many British and American notables; reminiscences of his childhood near Nashville, Tenn., his education, and his legal practice and social life; and other items. Letters to Ackland include two, 1878 and 1879, from Henry W. Longfellow, and an eight-page letter, 1880, from Sidney Lanier about what he thought was involved in being a poet. Collected items incude single letters from Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1847, Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1884, and James Russell Lowell, 1886, and two letters from John Greenleaf Whittier.
