The William J. Bryant Archaeological Artifacts collection consists of ceramic fragments (sherds), bones, stone tools, and shells excavated by William J. Bryant or his associates from sites in Florida, the Virgin Islands and the West Indies. This collection is useful to anthropological and historical research on Caribbean and Floridian artifacts. William Junior Bryant, or June, was born May 4, 1904 in Springfield Vermont. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1925 and started working for Bryant Chucking Grinding Co., a machine tool company founded by his father, William Leroy Bryant in 1928, eventually becoming president of the company in 1946. Bryant started the William L. Bryant Foundation in 1950, named for his father, which funded excavations in Florida, Spain and the West Indies. The foundation collected these items from sites in Florida, the Virgin Islands, and the West Indies. William J. Bryant died in 1998 and the foundation dissolved in 2005.
