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Rubin (Selma) papers
SBHC Mss 83
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Title: Selma Rubin papers
Identifier/Call Number: SBHC Mss 83
Contributing Institution:
UC Santa Barbara Library, Department of Special Research Collections
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
19.67 linear feet
(16 cartons, 6 document boxes, 2 oversize boxes, 1 shoebox, 4 audiocassettes, and 2 videocassettes)
Creator:
Rubin, Selma, 1915-
Date (inclusive): 1930s-2012
Date (bulk): 1969-2012
Abstract: Papers of Selma Rubin (1915-2012) American environmentalist and civic activist, documenting her personal life as well as her
involvement with numerous organizations on the state, local, and national level. Galvanized by the 1969 Santa Barbara oil
spill Rubin would go on to lead the successful effort to preserve the Gaviota Coast of California from development, as well
as to establish the Community Environmental Council in 1974 and the Environmental Defense Center in 1977.
Physical Location: Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library
The collection is open for research.
Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Research Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish
or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Research Collections. Permission for publication
is given on behalf of the Department of Special Research Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended
to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.
[Identification of Item], Selma Rubin papers, SBHC Mss 83. Department of Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library,
University of California, Santa Barbara.
Selma Rubin (March 28, 1915 – March 9, 2012) was an American environmentalist and environmental activist. She was called a
co-founder of Earth Day. Rubin was a member or adviser for more than forty organizations spanning more than 57 years. She
was raised in Toledo, Ohio, and served in the United States Navy from 1943 to 1945 during World War II. She and her husband,
Bill, moved to Santa Barbara, California, from Los Angeles in 1964, where she took a position as an accountant. Rubin had
been involved in some activism prior to 1969. However, the turning point for her came during the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill,
which began on January 28, 1969 and became the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history at the time. The spill, which
lasted for eleven days and polluted the Santa Barbara Channel with almost 100,000 barrels of crude oil, killed thousands of
seabirds and other aquatic wildlife. She, along with thousands of other volunteers, responded to the spill, which galvanized
her environmental activism. In 1970, she successfully led a voter campaign to preserve the Gaviota Coast of California from
a proposal to build 1,535 condos in the area. She and another activist, Anna Laura Myers, collected more than 12,000 signatures
for a ballot initiative, which easily defeated the proposal. Rubin spearheaded a compromise for the Gaviota Coast, which allowed
for much of the area's preservation, as well as the construction of the El Capitán Canyon Resort and a campground. She Rubin
co-founded the Community Environmental Council, one of the world's first environmental organizations, in 1974. She also co-founded
the Environmental Defense Center in 1977. Selma Rubin died at her home in Santa Barbara, California, on March 9, 2012, aged
96. Wikipedia. 2014. "Selma Rubin." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selma_Rubin. Accessed on 6 June 2014.
The collection contains files generated by Selma Rubin in the course of her involvement with many organizations on the local,
state, and national level, including the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU),
Coalition for Living Wage (CLW), Citizens Planning Association (CPA), Alzheimer's Association, Coalition Against Gun Violence,
Democratic Women of Santa Barbara, Environmental Defense Center (EDC), Friends of Earth, Get Oil Out! (GOO!), Jewish Environmental
League, Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinic, Planned Parenthood, Southern Poverty Law Center, Women Against Gun Violence, Fund
for Santa Barbara, Land Trust for Santa Barbara County, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF), Legal Defense Center, Sierra
Club, and Women's Political Committee (WPC).
Items associated with these organizations include correspondence, minutes, agendas, memorandums, reports, bills, receipts,
newsletters, programs, reprints, clippings, time sheets, tax forms, grants, financial statements, travel documents. The collection
also contains legal files created and maintained by Rubin, covering her judicial activism.
Personal files comprise of incoming correspondence from friends and fellow activists, birth, death, and marriage certificates,
handwritten notes, poems, anniversary cards, articles, newspaper clippings, and photographs and photograph albums of her travels
to China, Washington D. C., Boston, New York, New Hampshire, Alaska, San Francisco and Tijuana, Mexico. The photographs also
cover award ceremonies, birthday and wedding celebrations, and family members, including her husband William (Bill) Rubin.
Also contained in the collection are audiovisual materials of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation's ninth annual dinner in 1992
to honor Mairead Corrigan Maguire as a distinguished peace leader, a lecture by Dr. W.M. Paddock, and events by the Community
Environmenal Council (CEC) and the Sierra Club.
The collection has been organized into the following series: 1. Organizations, 2. Court/Legal Files, 3. Personal Files, 4.
Oversize, and 5. Audiovisual.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Sierra Club -- History
Community Environmental Council -- History
Political activists -- California -- Santa Barbara
Earth Day -- United States
Audiocassettes
Videocassettes
Environmental justice -- California -- Santa Barbara -- History
China -- Pictorial works
Environmentalism -- California -- Santa Barbara -- History
Nature conservation -- United States -- History
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation -- History
Environmentalists -- California -- Santa Barbara
Washington (D.C.) -- Pictorial works
Boston (Mass.) -- Pictorial works
Awards
Death certificates
Birth certificates
Minutes (administrative records)
Articles
Clippings (information artifacts)
Time sheets
Invoices
Grants
Receipts (financial records)
Greeting cards
Personal correspondence
Marriage certificates
Photographs
Newsletters
Poems
Travel documents
Financial statements
Agendas (administrative records)
Memorandums
Reprints
Reports
Notes
Programs (documents)
San Francisco (Calif.) -- Pictorial works
Tijuana (Baja California, Mexico) -- Pictorial works
Correspondence
Photograph albums
Legal documents
Alaska -- Pictorial works
New York (N.Y.) -- Pictorial works
New Hampshire -- Pictorial works
Democratic Women of Santa Barbara
Coalition Against Gun Violence
Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinic
Planned Parenthood Federation of America
Friends of Earth
Jewish Environmental League
Fund for Santa Barbara
Land Trust for Santa Barbara County
Southern Poverty Law Center
Women against Gun Violence
Rubin, William S.
American Association of Retired Persons
Maguire, Mairead Corrigan
Paddock, William
Environmental Defense Center
Citizens Planning Association
Alzheimer's Association
Get Oil Out
Legal Defense Center
Women's Political Committee
American Civil Liberties Union