The papers attest to Bruce's strong sense of history and his desire to document his own considerable place in it. Unfortunately, the papers presented to the Historical Society were selected and arranged with that purpose in mind by Bruce or his family, and thus they do not have the value for research of complete, organic files. Moreover, Bruce's career prior to his retirement is very incompletely documented in the collection.
Nevertheless, the collection provides information on a wide variety of topics relating to Milwaukee history and to Bruce's career. The papers consist of correspondence, memoranda, clipping scrapbooks, reports, speeches and writings by Bruce and others, financial records, minutes, and promotional material. This material is organized as Biographical Material, Correspondence, Subject Files, Speeches and Writings, and Bruce Publishing Company Records.
The BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL was originally comprised primarily of a large number of scrapbooks (“A History in Scrapbooks,” Bruce called them) of newspaper clippings and memorabilia. Because of the scarcity of primary material on many aspects of Bruce's early career, these volumes are of great importance. In 1988 the deteriorating volumes and some supplementary materials (including a morgue file about Bruce apparently maintained by the Milwaukee Journal) were microfilmed and the originals destroyed. Also grouped with the biographical material are testimonials, biographical sketches, a bibliography of Bruce writings in the SHSW library, and memorabilia.
The CORRESPONDENCE is divided into two general categories: bound volumes and loose papers. The bound correspondence, which was donated to the Historical Society in 1965, consists of family and business letters indicating Bruce's multi-faceted involvement in Milwaukee's civic, commercial, and religious life. Except for one volume of miscellaneous items dating from the period 1843-1927, coverage of this section is most extensive for the years after 1923. As a result, the early and most important years of his career are largely undocumented by correspondence. Typical examples of incoming correspondence in the papers include requests to endorse elected officials in campaign years, invitations to Holy Name Society banquets, and thanks for services performed. These volumes were grouped by year by the donor and then arranged alphabetically by correspondent name. A typed table of contents begins each volume. Some additional coverage of Bruce's activities may be found in the unbound correspondence received by the Society in 1975 and 1979, but this, too, is primarily limited to the later period of his life.
Somewhat more useful is the segment of the Bruce Papers which has been arranged as SUBJECT FILES. This alphabetical file, which also incorporates minutes, reports, and other types of documents as well as correspondence, contains information on a variety of Bruce's concerns, particularly his membership on the Board of Harbor Commissioners, his interest in St. Lawrence Seaway legislation during the 1930s, and the centennial-planning 1948 Corporation.
The collection contains very extensive documentation of Bruce's SPEECHES AND WRITINGS. This material is arranged by genre, with articles and speeches filed separately from books written or edited by Bruce. The speeches and articles are then arranged by their physical form as bound volumes or loose material. The volumes were each bound by the donor into broad chronological periods. Each volume's contents were then ordered alphabetically by title and a table of contents prepared. Because there is considerable overlap between the volumes, researchers are warned of some inconvenience in using this section. In the Archives the volumes have been arranged chronologically by the earliest date in each book.
The loose speeches and articles were received in the Archives as alphabetical subject files. A large number of the writings were undated, but it is likely that the unbound files primarily date from the 1920s and 1930s, and this section is therefore later than the bound volumes. Because of the overlapping nature of the subject categories, researchers are cautioned not to rely completely on the supplied folder headings. At the end of the subject file are uncategorized writings and fragments. Of these, the dated items have been arranged chronologically, and the remainder are unorganized.
The collection also contains material on several of the books written or edited by Bruce, although printed copies of the books which were within the collecting scope of the SHSW Library were transferred there. Retained with the papers were copies of his books on commercial organizations and school administration and architecture and draft chapters of his nearly complete, but unpublished book on anti-Semitism in the United States.
Records of the BRUCE PUBLISHING COMPANY primarily consist of financial records from his business's first two decades. Included are ledgers, cash journals, and journals listing advertisers in the American School Board Journal. Also included are microfilm copies of reprints from the Journal and Industrial Arts, 1912-1919, the disassembled contents of two scrapbooks of examples of all printed materials ordered by the company from 1905 to 1918 (together with information on costs and the numbers ordered of each item), and miscellany concerning the 50th anniversary of the company.
From the company's later history the papers consist only of a file of typesetter's manuscripts of religious books and pamphlets published by the Bruce Publishing Company received, not from Bruce or the Bruce estate, but from Mount Mary College. Because of the wide availability of most Bruce Company publications (including an example of all Bruce imprints which was presented to the Milwaukee Public Library during the 1940s), only manuscripts with extensive editorial revisions or those which were not located in the RLIN and OCLC databases were retained. To aid researchers, a bibliography of all manuscripts received as part of this accession is filed. Of special note among the retained manuscripts are several titles by Bishop Fulton J. Sheen. Also relating to Bruce Publishing Company history are runs of the Bruce Cooperator and the Bruce Buzzer, a newsletter for company employees, held by the SHSW Library.
