William Hayes Ackland was an American author, lawyer and art collector.
Background
William Hayes Acklen was born on September 6, 1855 in Nashville, Tennessee. 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. He grew up at his family plantation home, the Belmont Mansion, in Nashville, and on family plantations in Louisiana.
Education
He received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Nashville, followed by a Bachelor of Laws from Vanderbilt University. Indeed, he was one of the very first students at Vanderbilt, as he attended when the university had just been opened.
Career
He later changed his last name to Ackland. His legal residence was in Washington, District of Columbia, where he officially practised as a lawyer 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.
He would go to England once a year for the English season.
He also wrote his memoirs. In the 1880s, he did some journalism in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
He also wrote plays and attended theater performances often. He also corresponded with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), Oliver Wendell Holmes, Senior
(1809-1894), James Russell Lowell (1819–1891), and John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892).
Additionally, over the years, he became an important art collector. To preserve his art collection, he wanted to establish a museum on a Southern university campus. However, the idea of a museum in his honor was rejected by Duke University and Rollins College.
Instead, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill agreed, and the Ackland Art Museum was established on its campus.
There is also a marble sculpture of him wearing Buster Brown shoes in the museum. Personal life
By the time of his death, he left an estate of United States$1,350,000.
Death
He died on February 16, 1940. He was buried in the Mount Olivet Cemetery.
However, his will stipulated that he be buried on the site of his museum.
He was thus buried a second time, at the Ackland Art Museum.
Membership
He became known as a genteel gentleman and a member of high society.