University of North Carolina at Asheville
D. Hiden Ramsey Library
Special Collections/University Archives

Oral History Register
for

Virginia Bryan Schreiber

Virginia Bryan Schreiber
The Summit, 1940, University Archives
D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, UNC Asheville, 28804

Title

Creator

Subject

Subject

Keyword: Solon Bryan ; T. Conn Bryan ; Buncombe County Junior College ; Depression ; Bluets ; Mabel Wolfe ; Wilma Dykeman ; John Ehle ; Roy Taylor ; Seely Castle

Description

Virginia Bryan Schreiber began teaching at Buncombe County Junior College at the age of nineteen.  She taught composition, literature and creative writing through all the college's many moves and name changes, until Asheville-Biltmore College moved into two buildings on the present campus.  She describes how  the school managed to continue through the financial hard times of the Depression and declining enrollment during World War II.  

Mrs. Schreiber shares memories of some of her best-known students, such as Wilma Dykeman and John Ehle, and experiences of the Wolfe family.

Transcript of interview only: no tapes.

Publisher

D. H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville, NC, 28804

Contributor

Date

Electronic Record Issued: 2001-07-25

Type

Text

Format

Identifier

Source

Louis D. Silveri Oral History Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804

Language

English

Relation

Coverage

Acquisition

Donor number: 23 ;  Date of acquisition: August, 1977

Processed By

Interview Date

Biography

Virginia Bryan Schreiber was the daughter of Solon Bryan, a preacher, writer, and newspaper columnist.  His Piedmont Lyceum Bureau offered concerts, festivals, artists, lectures, Chautauqua programs, etc. throughout the South. 

Virginia Bryan joined the faculty of Buncombe County Junior College in 1928, the second year after its founding, teaching freshman composition and sophomore English literature.  She and her students began a magazine for student creative writing called Bluets, which frequently won prizes in national competitions.  During the Depression, as head of the English Department and Dean of Women, she earned an annual salary of $1100.

Miss Bryan stayed with the college as it became Biltmore College, then Asheville-Biltmore College and finally UNC Asheville. During the years in Seeley Castle on Sunset Mountain, she served as Dean of Women.  After her marriage to Alf  E. Schreiber, she continued to teach, including one year after the move to the present campus.

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