Title:

Majorie Brush papers, approximately 1886-2019 (bulk 1935-1993)

Creator/Contributor:

Brush, Majorie Edwards, 1901-1996, creator, creator.

The Majorie Brush papers document her life as a bohemian socialite and her professional career. Personalia and biographical material include scrapbooks and photo albums; financial, household, and legal records; family documents; newspaper clippings about Brush; datebooks and a travel journal. Correspondents include Bill Burkhardt, editor of the San Francisco Call-Bulletin, and Brush's lover; Art Hoppe; John Brush; novelist Christopher Coe; playwright Edward Albee; Mayris "Tiny" Chaney; Brush's father, brother, and niece Louise Raquello; Brooke; Milton Wilson; and Pieter Smoor. Black and white prints, color snapshots, and Polaroids capture Brush's family, and her active social life in San Francisco. Writings include articles, poetry, and a manuscript by R.R. Edwards. Files related to her career included CVs and jobapplications, business correspondence, a scrapbook of clippings about heart disease, and materials related to her work with community chests, the United Cerebral Palsy Association of San Francisco, and the California College of Arts and Crafts. Audio recordings appear to capture social evenings filled with conversation, songs, and poetry, and Brush talking about her life with her friend, the artist Kit Cameron. One cassette is labeled Brush/Edward Albee. Cameron provided a box inventory, which is included. The arrangement of materials has changed but Cameron's listing should shed light on the contents of, and provide context for, the collection.

Date:

1935 (issued)

Subject:

n-us-ca

Brush, Majorie Edwards -- 1901-1996 -- Archives

Social work administration -- California

Public health administration -- California -- San Francisco Bay Area

San Francisco Bay Area (Calif.) -- Social life and customs -- 20th century

DIGITAL MATERIALS: UNPROCESSED. UNAVAILABLE FOR USE. Inquiries regarding these materials should be submitted to The Bancroft Library via the Notice of Interest in Unprocessed Collections form. http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/libraries/bancroft-library/unprocessed-collections-form

COLLECTION STORED, IN PART, OFF-SITE: Advance notice required for use.

Majorie Brush papers, BANC MSS 99/133 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

In English.

Majorie Edwards Brush was born in Alaska in 1901. Her father, William R. Edwards, published a newspaper in Nome, and, during her teen years, operated a lemon farm in Chula Vista, California. Brush attended the University of California, Berkeley and the Pacific School of Religion. She worked as a reporter and editor in the 1920s and had a long, distinguished career in social work and public health in the Bay Area starting in the mid-1930s through her retirement in 1973. Brush worked with the California Heart Association and several Community Chests; she served as executive director of the San Francisco chapter of the United Cerebral Palsy Association. Brush was briefly married to PR man John Brush in the 1950s; the two spent time in Mexico in 1950. She was an active member of the Urban League, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Telegraph Hill Dwellers and was a trustee of the California College of Arts & Crafts. Herb Caen referred to Brush as "the grand dowager of Reno Place on 'the Hill.'" At 91, he continued, "Majorie still negotiates four flights of stairs daily but says the real secret of her longevity is 'martinis and black Havana cigars.'" Brush died in 1996, a month after her 95th birthday.

Type:

Photographs.

6.4 (4 1

11 4

1

English

Origin:

California

DIGITAL MATERIALS: UNPROCESSED. UNAVAILABLE FOR USE. Inquiries regarding these materials should be submitted to The Bancroft Library via the Notice of Interest in Unprocessed Collections form.

COLLECTION STORED, IN PART, OFF-SITE: Advance notice required for use.