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.
From the guide to the Bryant Ephemera Collection., 1882-1996., (Special Collections and University Archives, University of Central Florida Libraries, )
