Henry Wilkins Lewis was a faculty member and director of the Institute of Government, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; active layman of the Episcopal Church; and authority on North Carolina family genealogy and the history of the Episcopal Church in North Carolina. The collection includes Lewis's personal correspondence; diaries; papers relating to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Episcopal Church in North Carolina, and other organizations; family history materials; and papers of members of Lewis's family. Correspondence and diaries document Lewis's life as a student at UNC and Harvard Law School; his army career during World War II; and several vacations to Europe, 1953-1983. Correspondents include Joseph Blout Cheshire, Jr., Albert Coates, James B. Cook, Jr., John van Gaasbeek Elmendorf, Frank Porter Graham, Blackwell Pierce Robinson, and Ellen Douglas Staton. Reports, memos, and other papers document Lewis's career as a faculty member and director, 1973-1978, of the Institute of Government; his tenure as acting vice-president of UNC-CH, 1968-1969; and his service on several UNC-CH boards and commissions. Papers also document Lewis's service to the Episcopal Church, both at the Diocesan level and locally at the Chapel of the Cross, Chapel Hill. Other papers document Lewis's associations with the North Carolina Bar Association; the Bank of Northampton in Jackson, N.C.; the board of trustees of the Virginia Episcopal School, Lynchburg, Va.; the Roanoke-Chowan Group; the Southampton Historical Society; and the Northampton Historical Society. There are also materials relating to Lewis's research and writings on the history of the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina. Series 7-11 are family history materials relating chiefly to Lewis's genealogical studies. They include papers documenting the property and business interests of members of the Alston, Lewis, Long, Wilkins, and Williams families, and the history of the Alston, Blunt, Brodnax, Bruce, Burgwyn, Johnson, Jones, Kinchen, Lewis, Lucas, Peterson, Raines, Seddon, Wilkins, and Williams families of Northampton County and elsewhere in northeastern North Carolina. Among members of Lewis's immediate family who are well documented are Edmund Wilkins Lewis, H. Stuart Lewis, Sue Dabney Lewis, Henry Wilkins Lewis (1856-1936), Jane Crichton Williams Lewis, John J. Long, Mary Lewis Williams, and Edmonia Cabell Wilkins.
