University of Central Florida Special Collections and University Archives. All rights reserved.
William L. Bryant. donated these materials to the University of Central Florida Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives in 1973.
The entire collection is open for research.
Unpublished manuscripts are protected by copyright. Permission to publish, quote or reproduce must be secured from the repository and the copyright holder.
Bryant Ephemera Collection, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida.
This collection is related to the William L. Bryant Collection, including audio, slides and parliamentary acts, as well as The Legacy of the Spirit Virtual Exhibit available on the Special Collections website. The Bryant collection of Spanish works can be found at Dartmouth College, where they are housed in the Baker Library. The papers of the William L. Bryant Foundation and the papers of William Junior Bryant and Bryant Family are housed in the Rauner Special Collection Library, also at Dartmouth College.
William Junior Bryant, or June, as he preferred to be called, was born May 4, 1904 in Springfield Vermont. He attended Springfield High School, Phillips Exeter Academy, and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1925. Bryant worked for Bryant Chucking Grinding Co., a machine tool company founded by his father, William Leroy Bryant, from 1928 to 1946, becoming president in 1946. He started the William L. Bryant Foundation in 1950, named for his father, to begin excavations in Florida, Spain and the Caribbean. The Foundation helped Bryant to pursue his interest in archeology which fueled his passion for collecting works of art, cultural and ethnic items and books.
June Bryant divided the year between properties in Woodstock, VT from May until November, and the warmer climate of Tangerine, FL from November until May, each year, after retiring from the Bryant Chucking Grinding Co. in 1960. It was in this time that Bryant was able to dedicate more time to his other pursuits. Over the years he had started collecting works of art from areas in Spain, Florida and the Caribbean. These Florida and Caribbean works were collected over a period of twenty years.
Bryant purchased some of the collection himself, through catalogues and an art dealer in New York, but a considerable amount of the purchasing was done by Eleanor Sleight. She was the director of the Central Florida Museum in the late 1960s and later became the representative of the William L. Bryant Foundation. A large part of the collection was gathered in the trips Sleight took to the islands from 1969-1972.
The Bryant West Indies Collection was moved in 1972 from the Central Florida Museum to the library of Florida Technological University, now the University of Central Florida. Bryant thought it was important to keep the collection in Florida where he felt it would be better valued due to the close proximity to the West Indies. Part of the Bryant West Indies Collection is displayed annually.
This collection was arranged according to geographic area. It was divided into three main areas, the Greater Antilles, the Lesser Antilles and the islands and nations of South America.
The Bryant Ephemera Collection is apart of the larger William L. Bryant West Indies Collection and includes tourism brochures, pamphlets, booklets and newspaper clippings from the islands and nations of the Caribbean and South America.
Series I: Greater Antilles, 1901-1996 contains materials related to the islands in the Western portion of the Caribbean. Islands included in this series are Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica and Puerto Rico.
Series II: Lesser Antilles, 1882-1996 consists of materials related to the islands in the Eastern portion of the Caribbean. Islands included in this series are the Windward Islands, including Barbados, Saint Lucia and Trinadad and Tobago, as well as Dominica.
Series III: South America, undated contains materials related to the islands and nations of South America. This includes islands such as Surinam and French Guiana.
Similar records may be found by searching under the following index terms.