Farris and Julia Bryant Florida History Preservation Fund Endowment Will Preserve Florida History And Culture
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida’s 34th Governor, C. Farris Bryant, is contributing $300,000 to endow The Farris and Julia Bryant Florida History Preservation Fund at the George A. Smathers Libraries of the University of Florida. The gift is eligible for available matching state funds of 50 percent, bringing the total amount of the endowment to $450,000.
Along with the endowment, Bryant’s collection of papers covering his political and public career from 1942 to 1970 have been donated to the P.K. Yonge Library of Florida History in the Department of Special and Area Studies Collections.
This gift makes possible significant funding for digitization lab equipment to better preserve and widely disseminate the Bryant papers and those of other 20th century political leaders. The Bryant papers culminate years of dedicated public service and are of interest to those researching Florida legislative and gubernatorial politics and activities from 1950-1960.
“The Governor’s gift enables the creation and delivery of electronic library resources via the Internet in support of the University of Florida’s teaching and research objectives,” explains Erich Kesse, director of the Digital Library Center. “But, perhaps most important, Gov. Bryant’s gift provides the hardware infrastructure to develop and serve these and other resources to the people of the state of Florida.”