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Citysearch

In Short – William Hayes Ackland was a Tennessee lawyer whose dream was to have "the people of his native South to know and love the fine arts." These very words appear on Ackland's tomb; however, Chapel Hill was not the site that he originally intended for the legacy of his art museum. Ackland had agreed to fund the construction of an art museum for Duke University, but amid odd circumstances following his death in 1840, the trustees at Duke refused the bequest and UNC found itself the beneficiary of Mr. Ackland's generosity.