Title: Helen Finkelstein Bruner and Ervin Bruner Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1933-2010
Bulk Dates: 1933-1984

Creators:

• Bruner, Helen Finkelstein

• Bruner, Ervin

Unique Identifier: uac82

Quantity: Collection includes primarily paper documents, photographs, and negatives.

• 1 Linear Feet
• One record storage carton

Repository:

University of Wisconsin-Madison. University Archives and Records Management

Abstract:

Helen Finkelstein Bruner worked at the University of Wisconsin School for Workers in the 1940s and 1950s and later at the UW Extension Center for Community Leadership Development, where she served as a specialist on Latin American migrants from 1966-1976. Her husband, Ervin M. Bruner, founded two interracial cooperatives at UW-Madison, served as a Dane County Family and Juvenile Court Judge, and was elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly. The Helen Finkelstein Bruner and Ervin Bruner Papers include organizational and academic records, correspondence, publications, newspaper clippings, ephemera, photographs, and negatives documenting: Helen Finkelstein Bruner's academic career; Ervin Bruner's work in the Youth Hostel and cooperative movement; his involvement in the Boy Scouts of America Troop 1B S.A and Troop 100; the couple's life in the Truax Project for veterans; and the students and faculty of the School for Workers. The collection was compiled by their daughter Cathie Bruner and donated to the UW Archives in 2015.

Language: English .

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-ua-uac82

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Helen Finkelstein Bruner was born in 1922 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. She came to Madison in 1941 as a University of Wisconsin student. She received her BA in Economics in 1943. She married Ervin Bruner. She worked at the School for Workers from 1943 until the mid 1950s, the UW School of Home Economics from 1960-1961, the UW Economics Department from 1961-1966, and at the UW Extension Center for Community Leadership Development from 1966-1976, where she served as a specialist on Latin American migrants. She was active in Democratic politics, the League of Women Voters, and the Dane County Latin American Project, among other organizations. She served on the Governor's Committee on Migratory Labor and as a conflict mediator between Black and White students at Whitewater State University (now UW-Whitewater.) She died in 2014.

Ervin M. Bruner was born on November 12, 1915 in Lenoir, North Carolina. He was a member of the Boy Scouts of America Troop 1B S.A in High School, and later became Scoutmaster of Troop 100. He attended the Milwaukee State Teachers College, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and the University of Wisconsin Law School. During World War II, he served as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army in Germany and France. He founded two cooperatives as a student: the Circle Pines Cooperative and the Rochdale Men's Housing Cooperative, which were respectively the first student-run cooperative and one of the first interracial rooming houses at UW-Madison. Ervin Bruner practiced law under Al Lawton. Bruner was also elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly and served as a Dane County Family and Juvenile Court Judge. He emphasized rehabilitation over incarceration. He and Helen moved to a farm between Mount Horeb and Verona, WI in 1953, where he raised sheep and cattle. He died on November 24, 2008.

This collection includes no known access restrictions.

Collection materials may be subject to laws governing rights. Researchers are solely responsible for determining the rights status of the materials they use. Permission may be required for some uses such as publication or reproduction.

Gift of Cathie Bruner, 2015

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.

Former accessions 2015/065 and 2015/066

Wisconsin School for Workers in IndustryHousing cooperativesMigrant agricultural laborers -- WisconsinUniversity of Wisconsin--Extension

Box [89125678003]   1   folder 1	Union for Democratic Action Records, 1942
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 2	Helen Finkelstein Bruner Correspondence, 1940-2008 (bulk 1940-1950)
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 3	School for Workers Records, 1943-1945
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 4	Helen Finkelstein Bruner UW Extension Center for Community Leadership Development Papers, 1966-1975
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 5	Helen Finkelstein Bruner Academic Publications and Speeches, 1971-1984
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 6	Helen Finkelstein Bruner "You Can Be the Life of the Party" Radio Program Materials, 1952-1956
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 7	Helen Finkelstein Bruner Newspaper Clippings, 1946-2014
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 8	Helen Finkelstein Bruner Undergraduate Diploma, 1938
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 9	Ervin Bruner Youth Hostel Movement Materials, 1938
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 10	Ervin Bruner Alpha Phi Omega Materials, 1938
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 11	Ervin Bruner Correspondence, 1935-1938
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 12	Ervin Bruner Milwaukee State Teachers College Materials, 1935-1943
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 13	Ervin Bruner Newspaper Clippings, 1946-2008
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 14	Ervin Bruner Cooperative League Ephemera, 1938, some undated)
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 15	Ervin Bruner Philosophy of Democracy: Study of John Dewey Papers, 1938
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 16	Ervin Bruner Troop 1B S. A. Materials, 1933-1983
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 17	Ervin Bruner Troop 100 Materials, 1936-1938
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 18	Ervin Bruner Planner, 1933-1934
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 19	Cooperative Movement and Robert J Lewis Papers, 1934-2011 (bulk 1934-1942)
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 20	Ervin Bruner Academic Papers, 1915-1946
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 21	Ervin Bruner Law School Papers, 1946
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 22	Miscellaneous UW Pamphlets and Ephemera, 1940-1976
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 23	Devils Lake Youth Hostel Trip Photographs, 1941-1957, some undated
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 24	Trip to Devils Lake, School of Workers Picnic, and Memorial Union Swimming Pier Negatives 1941-1947
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 25	Miscellaneous Campus Photographs, 1942, some undated
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 26	Memorial Union Swimming Pier and Campus Observatory Photographs, circa 1940-1950
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 27	Campus Observatory and miscellaneous Negatives, 1946-1957
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 28	Truax Project Photographs, 1946
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 29	Truax Project Negatives, 1946
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 30	825 Chandler Street Photographs, 1946-1947
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 31	825 Chandler Street Negatives, 1946-1947
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 32	Alpha Epsilon Phi and Miscellaneous Social Event Photographs, 1941-1943
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 33	Ervin Bruner Law School Photographs, 1942-1943, some undated
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 34	School for Workers Church Leadership Institute and Trainings Photographs, 1941, some undated
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 35	School for Workers Picnic Photographs, 1947
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 36	School for Workers Student Photographs, 1941-1950
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 37	School for Workers Faculty and Classes Photographs, 1943, some undated
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 38	Political Organizing Photographs, 1968-2008
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 39	Miscellaneous Photographs and Ephemera, 1941-1957
Box [89125678003]   1   folder 40	Deed of Gift, 2014