Philip May Hamer was born on November 7, 1891 in Marion, South Carolina to Philip Bascomb and Fannie (Buck) Hamer. He earned his B.A. from Wofford College in South Carolina (1912), his M.A. from Trinity College (1915), and his Ph.D from the University of Pennsylvania (1918). He was married twice: first to Marguerite Bartlett on August 30, 1920 and second to Elizabeth Edwards on May 10, 1940. Hamer was a Professor of History at the University of Tennessee from 1919 to 1935, when he accepted a job at the National Archives. Here, he served in several capacities until 1961. In addition to his work at the Archives, Hamer wrote, edited, and contributed to many books about Tennessee history and was an organizer and president of the East Tennessee Historical Society. He died on April 10, 1971 in Maryland.

Harcourt Alexander Morgan was born on August 31, 1867 in Kerwood, Ontario, Canada. He earned his B.S. degree from Ontario Agricultural College at Guelph in 1889 and did some graduate work at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York and at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. He began his teaching career at Louisiana State University as a professor of entomology and horticulture. In 1904, he accepted a position as a professor of entomology and zoology and director of the Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of Tennessee. In this role, Morgan served as the primary contact between the University and the state's farmers. Through rotating farmers' institutes, exhibits, and short courses, Morgan helped to close some of the political divides that had appeared during the Civil War and established an excellent reputation for himself among Tennessee's farmers.

In 1919, Morgan succeeded Brown Ayres as President of the University of Tennessee. During his administration, he emphasized UT's role as a statewide institution and managed to get a number of appropriations from the state legislature to help the university fulfill its role as the vital center of the state's prosperity. In 1934, he left the University to become the Tennessee Valley Authority's agricultural specialist. Here, Morgan emphasized the need for the TVA to work with state and local organizations, took responsibility for convincing Tennessee's farmers that the TVA would be a positive influence in their lives, and continued to advocate scientific agriculture. He retired from the TVA in 1947 and died on August 25, 1950.