Dialectic & Philanthropic Societies Foundation

Founded by University of North Carolina students in 1795, the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies (Di-Phi) have been collecting books, furniture, and paintings since 1818. The Societies’ extensive book collection was donated to the University and formed a large portion of the original library holdings. The furniture and paintings, aside from those on display in the Dialectic Chamber or the Philanthropic Chamber, were loaned out to various University departments over the years. By the mid-twentieth century, the portraits were scattered across the University and state of North Carolina. In the early 1970s, two UNC students, George Blackburn and Roger Kirkman, scoured the campus identifying and reclaiming portraits that belonged to the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies. They saw the need for a nonprofit organization dedicated to maintaining and restoring these portraits with more permanence than the four-year student turnover rate allows. In pursuance of this, they incorporated the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies Foundation in 1974 in order to ensure that the portraits received the care and attention they deserved. Since that time, the Foundation has expended its mission to adding further works of art and acting as an unofficial alumni association for past members of the Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies. The Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies Foundation holds one of the largest privately held portrait collections in the United States, composed mainly of 19th- and early-20th-century portraits of prominent former members, many of whom held positions of power in the State of North Carolina. It is believed that the Foundation has either the largest or second largest collection of William Garl Browne portraits in the world. In addition, the Foundation holds a number of pieces of mid-19th-century furniture in both chambers, some of which are pieces known to have been made by the famed free black furniture-maker Thomas Day.