{"id":111,"date":"2020-02-07T17:40:43","date_gmt":"2020-02-07T17:40:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/archives\/?p=111"},"modified":"2020-02-07T17:40:43","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T17:40:43","slug":"charles-faulkner-bryan-and-edith-bryan-love-letters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/archives\/2020\/02\/07\/charles-faulkner-bryan-and-edith-bryan-love-letters\/","title":{"rendered":"Charles Faulkner Bryan and Edith Bryan Love Letters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Megan M. Atkinson<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of my\nfavorite formats in the archives are love letters.  It is a little voyeuristic and the content was\nobviously personal to the authors, but these letters can often offer insights\ninto past relationships, customs, current events of the time, and of course, romance.\n War time love letters offer glimpses of\nbattles or of camp life.  Language\nreflects etiquette and customs. Even though the letters\u2019 initial intent was\nprivate, love letters come to archives and become part of creating a historical\nnarrative of a person or time.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tennessee\nTech has many love letters, but the largest collection are of Charles Faulkner\nBryan and Edith Inez Hillis from the 1930s. Many readers may know of Charles\nFaulkner Bryan as the namesake of the Bryan Fine Arts Building and the Bryan\nSymphony Orchestra.  Others may have\nheard his compositions.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charles\nwas an American composer and musician and the director of Tennessee Technological\nUniversity\u2019s (then Tennessee Polytechnic Institute) Music Department.  Edith taught in the public schools until her\nretirement from McMinnville in 1976. The letters represent their courtship\nbefore they were married in 1935 and after and include two boxes of materials\nwith hundreds of letters!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Valentine Telegram from Charles to Edith, 1935.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When\nseparated, the couple wrote back and forth regularly, sometimes more than once\na day and occasionally just sending a telegram with a simple \u201cI Love You.\u201d They\nreferred to each other with endearments such as darling, husband, dearest,\nprecious, and even \u201cLittle Piggie,\u201d as Charles lovingly called Edith in some\nletters or she signed in others.  Letters\nclosed with \u201calways,\u201d \u201cbelieve me, I am yours,\u201d \u201cI love you, body and soul.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Letter signed by Edith to Charles. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The\nletters offer a glimpse into how much the couple\u2019s life revolved around music,\nwith letters often beginning with Edith telling Charles about listening to the\nradio or telling him how a song reminded her of him. Edith, on January 5, 1934,\n\u201cWhen I was listening to the radio, I heard \u2018Smoke Gets in Your Eyes\u2019 and again\nthere was that dull ache in my heart.\u201d \nHe often started with his review of a show at the Ryman Auditorium or\nWar Memorial.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charles\u2019s life was cut short at the age of 43 when he had a sudden heart-attack.\u00a0 As the archivist reading the letters, you have the hindsight and already know the end of the story. As the dates become more recent, you have been immersed in the romance and charmed by the sweetness of the relationship so you become pretty emotional because you know the tragic loss that is coming. This does not stop your emotional investment in finishing the letters, and the story, and learning the history of the couple.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Wedding photograph of Charles and Edith.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The collection description can be found here: https:\/\/www.tntech.edu\/library\/pdf\/RG42-CharlesFaulknerBryanPapers.pdf<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Megan M. Atkinson One of my favorite formats in the archives are love letters.  It is a little voyeuristic and the content was obviously personal to the authors, but these letters can often offer insights into past relationships, customs, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[25,52,55,53,54,6,5,4,51],"class_list":["post-111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-archives","tag-bemine","tag-charlesfaulknerbryan","tag-love","tag-loveletters","tag-techyeah","tag-tntech","tag-ttuarchives","tag-valentinesday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions\/115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.tntech.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}