David Ross Brower Papers, - OAC PDF server

images of the canyon prior to flooding due to the construction of the Lake Powell Dam in 1963.After 50 years of waging personal battles for the environment, David Ross Brower died of cancer on November 5th, 2000.Brower and Anne had four children: a daughter, Barbara, and three sons, Kenneth, Robert, and John.Comments about Brower's efforts have ranged widely. Brower especially liked what Russell Train said when he was chairman ofthe Council on Environmental Quality in the Nixon administration: "Thank God for Dave Brower; he makes it so easy for therest of us to be reasonable."-Partially from the Earth Island Web Page (http://www.earthisland.org/brower/sub_bio.cfm)Published works on David Brower, which may be of use to the researcher:Brower, David R. For Earth's Sake: the Life and Times of David Brower. Layton, Utah: Peregrine Smith Books, 1990.Brower, David R. Work in Progress. Salt Lake City: Peregrine Smith Books, 1991.Brower, David R. and Steve Chapple. Let the Mountains Talk, Let the Rivers Run: a Call to Those Who Would Save the Earth.[San Francisco, Calif.]: HarperCollins West, 1995.David R. Brower - environmental activist, publicist and prophet: an interview, conducted by Susan Schrepfer, 1974-1978.Berkeley: Regional Oral History Office, the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 1980.McPhee, John A. Encounters with the Archdruid. New York: The Noonday Press, 1990, c.1971.Scope and Content of CollectionThe David Ross Brower Papers consist of records accumulated in the course of Brower's lifelong work as a conservationist.Included are Brower's correspondence, writings, testimonies and speeches on virtually every topic associated with theenvironmental movement in the twentieth century, including dams, energy resources and conservation, logging, nuclear powerand nuclear war, population control, wilderness preservation, and wildlife conservation. Constituting the bulk of thecollection are records from the conservation organizations he participated in or helped found. Papers pertaining to hisassociation with the Sierra Club include correspondence and writings dating from his early membership in 1933; editorialfiles from his work as editor of the Sierra Club Bulletin; files created during his final years as the club's ExecutiveDirector; and files created from his work as a board member after his resignation from the directorship through the finalyears of his life. The records of Friends of the Earth (FOE), which Brower founded in 1969 after leaving the Sierra Club,document conservation campaigns, issues, FOE's extensive publishing program, and affiliated organizations, including theJohn Muir Institute and Friends of the Earth Foundation, and the Conference on the Fate of the Earth. Also included arerecords regarding the founding and projects of Earth Island Institute, including Brower's campaign for Global Conservation,Preservation, and Restoration (CPR). Throughout all of the records from conservation organizations is documentation ofBrower's work to produce books in the Exhibit Format style he pioneered at the Sierra Club, combining beautiful photographyand powerful writing to bring major conservation issues to the public, and his ongoing use of advertising in national papersto bring attention to major causes. Other materials of significance include: diaries and correspondence pertaining toBrower's early mountaineering, including the development of new techniques and equipment; papers from his service in the10th Mountain Division in World War II; and files from the many organizations to which Brower belonged.Brower's Correspondence, Series 1, includes both incoming and outgoing correspondence with family and friends, mainly fromhis early days climbing in the Sierra Nevada, and during his work for the Yosemite Park & Curry Co., his enlistment in themilitary, and his years working at UC Press and editing the Sierra Club Bulletin. Topics include mountaineering,conservation issues, political events, and personal news. Correspondents include Dick and Doris Leonard, Ansel Adams, EliotPorter, George Rockwood, Hervey Voge, and other Sierra Club members; Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, and Earth Islandstaff; and figures such as Jimmy Carter, Horace Albright, Wallace Stegner, Edward Abbey, and Jacques Cousteau among others,that Brower met during the course of his work.Writings, Series 2, includes manuscripts and typescripts of books, including his memoirs, articles, forewords andintroductions to Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth books on a wide range of conservation topics, and works by others.Speeches, Appearances and Interviews, Series 3, includes typescripts of Brower's testimonies before Congress on issues suchas the Wilderness Act and the construction of dams on the Colorado River, and speeches on a variety of conservation topicssuch as population, nuclear power and nuclear war, wilderness, and Conservation, Preservation and Restoration (CPR) for theEarth.Sierra Club, Series 4, consists of records from Brower's work on the Sierra Club board of directors before and after histenure as Sierra Club Executive Director. There are also files Brower created in the course of defending himself againstcharges of fiscal mismanagement before his resignation in 1969, and documents on the formation of the Active BoldConstructive (ABC) Sierra Club. The files created while Brower served on the board of directors consist mainly of minutesand correspondence with other board and committee members on a variety of conservation issues and on club administration.Topics addressed include Zero Cut initiatives against logging, and various lawsuits related to club elections.Finding Aid to the David Ross BrowerPapersBANC MSS 79/9 c 6