Papers

Abstract: Major topics of Muriel Brown's papers include parent education; the Pierre the Pelican program for first-time parents begun in Louisiana, and more generally Dr. Lloyd Rowland's work; teenage parent education and illegitimate children; the National Council (later Committee) for Education; the Children's Bureau under the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW); various associations, conferences, seminars, and other professional gatherings with which Brown was involved; her work with the U.S. Army of Occupation in post-WWII Germany; and other related topics.

The papers largely consist of published and secondary materials, many of them from local, state, and national organizations around the United States concerned with education. Many of these publications included Muriel Brown's writings, but not all. Other materials include manuscripts, lecture notes, correspondence, newsletters, educational materials, seminar and conference materials, etc. Many notes and annotations from Dr. Brown are scattered throughout her papers, providing context and more information about the materials. Mostly grouped topically.

Biog. Sketch (Full): Muriel Whitbeck Brown was born 29 October 1892 in Brighton, New York (now a part of Rochester). She attended Wellesley College (BA, 1915), Stanford University (MA, 1923), and Johns Hopkins University, where she received her PhD in psychology in 1926. While working on her education, she taught English in Philadelphia, helped establish the Philadelphia Trade School for Girls, and was supervisor for the Bureau of Special Education with the Pennsylvania State Department of Public Education.

From 1927-1933 Brown was director of the Child Study and Staff Training Mental Health Program with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in Rochester and Monroe County, New York. She was then a research associate for the National Council on Parent Education, working with the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to develop and supervise a national Emergency Parent Education Program and completing a survey on parent education programs in the public school systems of 18 different U.S. cities. She spent the next couple years with the California state department of education and then with the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma.

Brown joined the U.S. Office of Education in 1940 as a family life education specialist; she remained in this position until 1953, when she became a community development specialist and program officer in the International Division of the same department. From 1956 until 1962, she was with the Children's Bureau of the Office's successor agency, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW). Thereafter she began consulting and serving on boards for numerous councils, associations, and task forces, whose focuses included aging populations, mental health, families and children, and charitable causes.

Throughout her career, Brown held numerous international positions and assignments, including with the U.S. Army of Occupation, the World Federation for Mental Health, and the U.S. State Department, doing field work in such countries as Germany, England, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Egypt, Morocco, the West Indies, and elsewhere in Europe. In 1966 she co-wrote The Wagon and the Star with Margaret Mead.

Brown's professional focuses always centered on communities and education for both parents and children. She held numerous professional affiliations and received many honors awards for her work.