Gerald Wade Papers
This collection consists of correspondence written between Dr. Gerald Wade, former professor of Spanish as the University of Tennessee and later non-fiction editor, and Nathaniel Browder, a retired cryptographer who enjoyed a second career as a non-fiction author. The letters start out with professional inquiries, but quickly move to a friendly correspondence between the two men which lasted ten years. Most of the letters are addressed from Wade to Browder, and contain details both personal and professional, including subjects of literature, philosophy, history, and national and world news.
Ephemera items are included with some of the letters, including a magazine bill and a photograph of Gerald Wade and his wife Anna.
Dates
- 1974-1984
Conditions Governing Access
Collections are stored offsite and must be requested 5 days in advance. See www.lib.utk.edu/special for detailed information. Collections must be requested through a registered Special Collections research account.
Conditions Governing Use
The UT Libraries claims only physical ownership of most material in the collections. Persons wishing to broadcast or publish this material must assume all responsibility for identifying and satisfying any claimants. Please see www.lib.utk.edu/special for detailed information. Collections must be requested through a registered Special Collections research account.
Extent
0.25 Linear Feet (One quarter box)
Abstract
This collection consists of correspondence written between Dr. Gerald Wade, former professor of Spanish as the University of Tennessee and later non-fiction editor, and Nathaniel Browder, a retired cryptographer who enjoyed a second career as a non-fiction author. The letters start out with professional inquiries, but quickly move to a friendly correspondence between the two men which lasted ten years. Most of the letters are addressed from Wade to Browder, and contain details both personal and professional, including subjects of literature, philosophy, history, and national and world news.
Biographical / Historical
Dr. Gerald Edward Wade was born on November 20, 1896, to Daniel and Christina Weisenberger Wade. By 1918 he had met and married his wife Anna Drummond in Ohio, and in the early 1920s he was teaching high school. Wade later obtained a doctorate from Ohio State University and joined the faculty of the University of Tennessee in 1932, teaching Spanish until retiring in 1965. During his tenure in the Romance Languages department at UT, he was an advocate for schools teaching foreign languages at an early age, and served as a member of the South Atlantic Modern Language Association and the Southern Humanities Conference.
After his retirement from UT, Dr. Wade accepted a position at Vanderbilt University, where he taught for a further four years. He retired from teaching for good in 1969, and with his wife eventually moved to Pulaski, TN. Dr. Wade spent his retirement editing over 70 books for Twayne Publishers, a small publishing house in New York City which was devoted to short critical studies of world authors.
Dr Gerald Wade died on September 3, 1974, in Pulaski, Tennessee, and is buried in Giles Memory Garden.
Nathaniel Clenroy Browder was born in Hickory, N.C. on February 10, 1904, the son of Nathaniel Clenroy and Caroline Elizabeth Deitz Browder. He received a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 1930, and married Blanche Penwood that same year. Browder taught high school for several years, but returned to UNC for a graduate degree in English in 1938, followed by work for the Federal Writers' Project from 1939-1940. He began working as a cryptographer for the Signal Corps in Arlington, Va., in 1943, and continued this work for the National Security Agency until his retirement in 1965. Browder wrote several books on historical figures and events in North Carolina, and worked for six years on The Enciphered Diary of William Thomas Prestwood.
Nathaniel Browder died November 7, 1984, in Raleigh, North Carolina, and is buried in Union Hill Cemetery in Hayesville, North Carolina.
Arrangement
The material in this collecetion is arranged chronologically.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
This collection was donated to Special Collections by Nathaniel C. Browder and Blanche Browder in 1983 and 1985.
Repository Details
Part of the Betsey B. Creekmore Special Collections and University Archives, University of Tennessee, Knoxville Repository