BRITTON FAMILY PAPERS
1935-1965

East Tennessee State University
Archives of Appalachia
Box 70295
Johnson City, Tennessee 37614

E-mail: archives@etsu.edu
Telephone: (423) 439-4338

INTRODUCTION

ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Provenance: The Britton Family Papers were donated to the Archives of Appalachia on March 26, 1987 by Nancy Britton, Kingsport, Tennessee.

Access: The papers are open for research.

Processing Information: Ed Speer completed processing and the collection was opened to researchers in January 1997.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Charles Edward Clifton Britton was born in Norwood, Massachusetts, in 1913. He earned both undergraduate (1933) and graduate (MBA, 1935) degrees from Boston University. His wife, Nancy Blanchard Britton, was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1915 but moved to Stoneham, Massachusetts, at the age of two. She studied two years at Women's College, Middlebury [Vermont]. Mr. Britton moved to Kingsport, Tennessee, in 1936, and, the following year, the Brittons were married. Mr. Britton was employed as an accountant at Holliston Mills in Kingsport until his retirement in 1975.

Charles Britton was an air raid warden during World War II. He was a first aid instructor, a member of the Kingsport Life-Saving Crew, and an honorary life member of the Kingsport Theatre Guild. Nancy Britton was a member of the Watauga Audubon Society, the Parent-Teachers' Association (PTA), the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the Symphony Orchestra Association. Both Mr. and Mrs. Britton were members of Friends of the Reece Museum.

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

The Britton Family Papers contain newsclippings, correspondence, playbills from Barter Theatre (Abingdon, Virginia), single copies of periodicals, an almanac, a church bulletin, a paper written by Mrs. Britton for a college public speaking course, lists of children's records published by Victor Records, the script of a radio program, and a manuscript copy (carbon typescript) of a play. The collection provides information about business in Kingsport, Tennessee; St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Kingsport, Tennessee; Girl Scouts in Kingsport; the Kingsport Life-Saving Crew; the University of the South's Sewanee Summer Music Center; and a blizzard in New England (February 1940).

Organization: The collection is arranged alphabetically by subject or document type in a single series. Some of the material in the collection is undated, while the remainder of the collection is dated from 1935 to 1965.

Important subjects of the collection include:

Almanacs
Barter Theatre
Blizzards--New England
Britton family
Girl Scouts--Tennessee--Kingsport
Kingsport Lifesaving Crew
Kingsport (Tenn.)--Commerce
Kingsport (Tenn.)--Drama

FOLDER LIST

1. Banks in Kingsport, Tennessee, undated
2. Blizzard in New England, February 1940
3. Barter Theatre--playbills, undated and newsclipping, July 17, 1938
4. Forward in Tennessee, vol. 4, no. 5 , [newspaper published by the Episcopal Bishop of Tennessee], September 1939
5. Girl Scouts, Kingsport, Tennessee, 1940 and undated
6. Kingsport Life-Saving Crew (program on WKPT Radio), August 26, 1950
7. Newsclippings, 1938 and undated
8. Press Piper, vol. 4, no. 12, [published monthly by Kingsport Press, Inc.], September 1938
9. "The Psychology of Humor in Public Speaking"--paper prepared by Nancy E. Blanchard for public speaking class at unidentified school, April 16, 1935
10. St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Kingsport, Tennessee, 1939, 1940, and undated
11. Swamp-Root Almanac, 1940
12. University of the South. Sewanee Summer Music Center, 1965
13. The Valiant--play by Holworthy Hall & Robert Middlemass, 1939 and undated
14. Victor Records--information on children's records, 1939
15. W. A. Allen Chevrolet Co. Picture News, vol. 6, no. 4, undated

INDEX*
*Citation refer to folder in which information on the subject will be found.

Almanac: 11
Barter Theatre (Abingdon, Virginia): 2
Blizzard in New England, February 1940: 3
Boston, Mass.--blizzard, February 1940: 3
Britton, C. E. C.: 6

Britton, Nancy: 7, 9, 14
Broad Street Methodist Church (Kingsport, Tennessee)--kindergarten: 7
Children's records: 14
First National Bank (Kingsport, Tennessee): 1
First National Bank of Sullivan County: 1

Forward in Tennessee, September 1939: 4
Girl Scouts in Kingsport, Tennessee: 5
Hall, Holworthy: 13
Kingsport Life-Saving Crew: 6
Kingsport (Tenn.)--Commerce: 1, 8, 14, 15

Kingsport (Tenn.)--Drama: 2, 13
Lea, Rev. William S.--rector of St. Paul's Episcopal Church (Kingsport, Tennessee): 10
Middlemass, Robert: 13
Picture News, undated: 15
Press Piper, September 1938: 8

"The Psychology of Humor in Public Speaking": 9
St. Paul's Episcopal Church (Kingsport, Tennessee): 10
Stiles, John: 6
Swamp-Root Almanac, 1940: 11
University of the South--Sewanee Summer Music Center, 1965: 12

The Valiant (play): 13
Victor Records: 14
W. A. Allen Chevrolet Co. (Kingsport, Tennessee): 15

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