The bulk of Helen Finkelstein Bruner's papers concern her career as a faculty member of the
UW Extension Center for Community Leadership Development. The folder on the Center includes
correspondence, resumes, and program reports documenting her work as a "migrant specialist,"
service on the Governor's Committee on Migratory Labor, and leadership of programs serving
juvenile offenders and underprivileged youth in Dane County and local Latin American
migrants. Her academic publications and speeches include her remarks at the memorial of her
former employer Professor Elizabeth Brandeis Raushenbush and papers on collective decision
making and the development of higher education for women.
Her papers also include: organizational records including meeting notes from the Union for
Democratic Action in 1942; personal correspondence including a letter from Circle Pines
Cooperative and Rochdale Men's Lodging House member Robert J. Lewis describing Ervin's
impact; the annotated script of her 1952 radio program "You Can Be the Life of the Party" on
behalf of the League of Women Voters and related correspondence; and newspaper clippings
including her appearances at a NAACP fundraiser and a luncheon honoring Jaqueline
Kennedy.
Ervin Bruner's papers do not focus on his legal career, which is only documented in
newspaper clippings, but rather his involvement in social organizations ranging from the
Alpha Phi Omega fraternity to the Cooperative League to the Boy Scouts of America and his
time at UW-Madison's Law School. His papers include: Youth Hostel Movement materials
including a 1938 application to the American Youth Hostels National Training Course;
correspondence, speeches, certificates, and troop records from the Boy Scouts of America
Troops 1B S.A and 100; correspondence with former cooperative members Robert J. Lewis and
Marie Woychik; and papers and notes from his 1938 class "Philosophy of Democracy: A Study of
John Dewey."
The photographs and negatives focus on the period from 1941-1957 and document the couple's
life in the Truax housing project for veterans, their travels such as a Youth Hostel trip to
Devils Lake, and the students and faculty of the School for Workers. The Truax Project
photographs include labeled photographs of some of their neighbors, including Eleanor
Coleman, Pat Bryne, and Virginia Hoover. Photos also document social events by the Jewish
sorority Alpha Epsilon Phi. They also document their time living at 825 Chandler Street in
Madison, WI with Henry Hart and Virginia Hart. Ervin Bruner's Law School photographs include
images of Governor Gaylord Nelson in his youth with the Bruners and Ervin Karl Lee.
The School for Workers photographs document classes and recreational activities largely
from 1941-1947. The student photographs include participants such as Marion Thompson, Martha
Wells, Bev Freginberg, Gloria Ruthstein, Ruth Doyle, and Katie Doyle. The Church Leadership
Institute and Training photographs illustrate interracial groups of workers who attended
trainings at the school. The faculty and class photographs include images of Director Ernest
Schwarztrauber and his daughter Claire Schwartztrauber. The picnic photographs include notes
from Helen Finkelstein Bruner. Photographs documenting Helen Finkelstein Bruner's political
organizing include an image of her marching to Ebenezer Baptist Church in the wake of Martin
Luther King Jr.'s assasination and images of her at Obama campaign events.
