Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Tremaine, Kit, 1907-1997
- Abstract:
- Mainly records of the Santa Barbara-based Sunflower Foundation, as well as some personal and family papers of Katharine W. Tremaine, a local philanthropist.
- Extent:
- 26 Linear Feet (24 cartons, 3 document boxes, 1 half-size document box, 1 oversize box, 29 audiocassettes, and 7 VHS tapes)
- Language:
- English
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of Item], Katharine W. Tremaine Collection. SBHC Mss 43. Department of Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Background
- Biographical / historical:
-
Katharine "Kit" Williams Tremaine (January 9, 1907-February 3, 1997) was raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. She married Warren Draper Tremaine (1906-1987) in the mid-1930s. Together, they had a daughter, Diana Tremaine McGowan (1936-1985) and she also had a son, Theodore Middleton Simmons (1928-1999), from an earlier marriage. The family lived in Montecito, California throughout most of the 1940s, 50's and 60's, before Kit and Warren's divorce in 1969.
Kit continued to live in Montecito and was an active member in both the local community and national politics. She was an author, philanthropist, and social activist who was known for campaigning against the Vietnam War, boycotting Apartheid, advocating for the homeless, women's rights, Native American issues, and labour relations.
For more information about her life, see Kit's autobiographical published writings, Butterfly Rises and Fragments, which includes information about the Sunflower Foundation, as well as some of the important individuals in her life such as Daniel Lentz, John Tomson, Verna Yater.
[Excerpted from: The Sunflower Foundation: General Information and Grant List, 1985]:
The Seed Fund and The Sunflower Foundation distribut[ed]funds to a wide variety of progressive social change organizations throughout the country - with grants ranging from $2,000 to $25,000.
The Seed Fund/Sunflower Foundation [aimed to assist] organizations addressing the root causes of problems in our society, rather than those treating the surface symptoms of the problems. Funding decisions demonstrated a preference for programs designed to alter change in public policy or public consciousness around an issues; to protect and strengthen the rights of U.S. residents who are people of color, including activists and community leaders believed to be targeted by the government for their political activities; to mobilize workers and improve the working conditions of workers (with a focus on unorganized workers and Third World workers in the organized labor force); and to influence and alter U.S. foreign and military policy, in the interests of peace and non-intervention in the affairs of other countries. Seed/Sunflower funds not only [supported] anti-nuclear activists and educators, but others working to preserve our environment and natural resources.
The Seed Fund and The Sunflower Foundation also [had an] interest in supporting educational efforts, including investigative journalism and dissemination of findings, community education on economic and military issues, and the exchange of information and ideas among social change activists, including professionals working for progressive social change.
These categories of funding are not all-inclusive, but [are a suggestion of] the advocacy aspect of programs funded by Seed/Sunflower. Their emphasis is on change - not provision of direct services. And they only fund[ed] groups which would have difficulty securing funds from traditional funding sources.
- Acquisition information:
- Donations by Katharine W. [Kit] Tremaine and the Tremaine estate, 1992-1999.
- Processing information:
-
Collection was previously identified as Katharine W. Tremaine collection, Mss 138.
- Arrangement:
-
The collection has been arranged by topic into four series:
- Series 1: Personal materials
- Series 2: Financial and legal records
- Series 3: The Sunflower Foundation and Seed Fund
- Series 4: Photographs
- Physical location:
- A portion of the collection is located at the Systemwide Library Facility: South.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
The collection is open for research. A portion of the collection is stored offsite. Advance notice is required for retrieval.
- Terms of access:
-
Property rights to the collection and physical objects belong to the Regents of the University of California acting through the Department of Special Research Collections at the UCSB Library. All applicable literary rights, including copyright to the collection and physical objects, are protected under Chapter 17 of the U.S. Copyright Code and may be retained by the creator and the copyright owner, heir(s), or assigns.
All requests to reproduce, quote from, or otherwise reuse collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Department of Special Research Collections at UCSB at special@library.ucsb.edu. Consent is given on behalf of the Regents of the University of California acting through the Department of Special Research Collections at UCSB as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner, heir(s), or assigns. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or their assignees for permission to publish where the UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of Item], Katharine W. Tremaine Collection. SBHC Mss 43. Department of Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.
- Location of this collection:
-
UC Santa Barbara LibrarySanta Barbara, CA 93106-9010, US
- Contact:
- (805) 893-3062