Stewart Brand papers, 1954-2000

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Summary

Creators:
Brand, Stewart and Brand, Stewart
Abstract:
The Steward Brand papers contains correspondence, personal journals, manuscripts, photographs, project records, articles, and publications.
Extent:
53 Linear Feet (120 manuscript boxes, 4 flat boxes, 17 seven-inch reels, 15 audiocassettes, 140 micro-cassettes, 3 hard disk cartridges)
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

[identification of item], Stewart Brand Papers (M1237). Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.

Background

Scope and content:

The Stewart Brand papers are arranged in the following order:

Series I, Boxes 1-16: Correspondence, 1954-1994

Series II, Boxes 17-22: Personal notebooks, datebooks, address books, 1955-1999

Series III, Boxes 23-29: Biographical, 1952-1997; Series IV, Boxes 30-107: Projects, 1967-2000

Series V, Boxes 108-116: Miscellaneous (includes newspaper/magazine articles)

Series VI, Boxes 117-119: Media

Series VII, Boxes 120-124: Business records, 1962-1993 ((RESTRICTED)

Biographical / historical:

Writer, editor, entrepreneur, and futurist Stewart Brand was born December 14, 1938 in Rockford, Illinois. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, and attended Stanford University where he studied biology with Paul Ehrlich. After graduating he joined the U.S. Army and was trained as a parachutist and later photographer. He studied design at the San Francisco Art Institute and photography at San Francisco State. In 1962, Brand took his first LSD trip in 1962 under the guidance of James Fadiman at the International Foundation for Advanced Study in Menlo Park. In the mid-60s Brand co-produced the Trips Festival as well as other happenings such as America Needs Indians. He was loosely associated with the Merry Pranksters, USCO, and other countercultural groups, and spent much of the 1960s traveling and visiting communal experiments.

Brand created the original Whole Earth Catalog in 1968 to provide practical information on tools that would be useful for people creating and living in communes. The Catalog went on to gain wide popularity. In 1972 he also co-founded the Point Foundation, the non-profit organization that runs all Whole Earth activities. Between 1974-1985, Brand founded, edited, and published CoEvolution Quarterly, which continued as the Whole Earth Review (1985), then later as the Whole Earth Magazine. Brand was also the editor-in-chief of the short-lived Whole Earth Software Catalog, and in 1984 he organized the first Hacker's Conference in Marin County. The following year, Brand and Larry Brilliant founded The WELL ("Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link"), a prototypical online community inspired by Douglas Engelbart's Augmentation work; Brand had been a camera operator for "The Mother of All Demos" in 1968.

After getting involved with MIT's Media Lab and organizing strategic planning conferences for various corporations, Brand was one of the founders of the business consulting firm Global Business Network. GBN's parent company the Monitor Group was acquired by Deloitte in 2013. Brand's most recent venture has been with the Long Now Foundation, which promotes long-term thinking through a number of projects including the construction of a millenial clock.

His books include The Clock Of The Long Now (1999), How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They're Built (1994) and The Media Lab: Inventing the Future at MIT (1987). In Two Cybernetic Frontiers (1974), which focused on Gregory Bateson and cutting-edge computer science, he coined the term "personal computer." His most recent book is 2009's Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Stewart Brand, 2001. Accessions 2001-163, 2017-252, 2017-331, and 2017-332.
Physical location:
Special Collections materials are stored offsite and must be paged 36 hours in advance. For more information on paging collections, see the department's website: http://library.stanford.edu/depts/spc/spc.html.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for research, with the exception of Series VII: Business Records, which are closed until Brand's death. Note that material must be requested at least 36 hours in advance of intended use. Audiovisual materials are not available in original format, and must be reformatted to a digital use copy. Selected audiovisual material has been transferred and is available digitally.

Terms of access:

While Special Collections is the owner of the physical and digital items, permission to examine collection materials is not an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Any transmission or reproduction beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the owners of rights, heir(s) or assigns.

Preferred citation:

[identification of item], Stewart Brand Papers (M1237). Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.

Location of this collection:
Department of Special Collections, Green Library
557 Escondido Mall
Stanford, CA 94305-6004, US
Contact:
(650) 725-1022
specialcollections@stanford.edu
Website