Title: Miriam Brown Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1990-2015

Creator:

• Brown, Miriam, 1939-

Call Number: Mss 1204

Quantity: 0.2 cubic feet (1 archives box)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Papers, 1990-2015, of Miriam Brown, O.P., documenting her work as Executive Director (1989-2003) of the Churches' Center for Land and People (CCLP), an organization focused on rural life and spirituality, family farming, and environmental stewardship. Included are Sister Miriam's reflections on CCLP history, hearing testimony, event materials, copies of the CCLP newsletter, letters of appeal to supporters, and news clippings.

Note:

Forms part of the Organic and Sustainable Agriculture Collection.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss01204

 ↑ Bookmark this ↑

 ↑ Bookmark this ↑

Miriam Brown was born in 1939, and was raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She entered the Sinsinawa Dominican motherhouse in Sinsinawa, Wisconsin as a teenager, and took her vows in the Ordo Praedicatorum or Order of Preachers (O.P.), as a Sinsinawa Dominican. After graduating from Rosary College with a degree in secondary education, she taught in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Madison, Wisconsin; and Chicago, Illinois; then returned to teaching in Madison and later worked in a coal mining community in West Virginia. Sister Miriam also holds master's degrees in English from the College of St. Thomas and in religious studies from Fordham University.

The farm closings brought on by the financial crisis of the 1980s led to the founding of the Churches' Center for Land and People (CCLP), an ecumenical organization focusing on “Spirituality, Community, Earth Stewardship, and Justice.” A steering committee of laypeople and clerics, including Roman Catholics and members of several Protestant denominations, convened a series of meetings during 1989, and incorporated as the Churches' Center for Land and People in 1990. CCLP worked to support farming communities in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa, by publishing a newsletter and sponsoring workshops and Annual Rural Life Gatherings to connect people and organizations with similar concerns. Part of the 450 acres on which the Sinsinawa Mound Center is located is devoted to a farm that uses sustainable practices, and the Center served as the venue for the Upper Midwest Organic Farming Conference from 1994 to 1999. Sister Miriam served as Executive Director of CCLP from 1989 until the summer of 2003. In 2015, the name of the organization changed to the Food, Faith and Farming Network (FFFN).

Sister Miriam currently serves as a spiritual director at the Siena Retreat Center in Racine, Wisconsin.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Sister Miriam Brown, Racine, Wisconsin, December 16, 2016. Accession Number: M2017-084

Processing Information

Processed by Julia Wong, June 2017.

Mss 1204	Churches' Center for Land and People (CCLP)
Box   1 Folder   1	General history, 1990-2014
Box   1 Folder   2	Mailings to supporters, 2011-2015
Box   1 Folder   3	News clipping and magazine articles, 1991, 1998, 2001, 2004
	Newsletters
Box   1 Folder   4	Clippings, 1994 October-November to 2003 July-September Note: Incomplete run.
Box   1 Folder   4	Voices for the Land & People, 2005 June