Finding aid for the Brush Foundation Records

History of the Brush Foundation

The Brush Foundation was created in 1928 by Cleveland inventor Charles F. Brush (1849-1929) to promote "research in the field of eugenics and in the regulation of the increase of population." His initial bequest of $500,000 to establish the foundation derived from the fortune that Brush had amassed through investments and his many patents, most importantly the arc light. The foundation was intended as a memorial to his son, Charles F. Brush, Jr., who had died at the age of thirty-four in 1927. He and his wife, Dorothy, had been pioneers in Cleveland's early birth control movement.

The first Brush Foundation board consisted of three Brush family women, namely Dorothy Brush, Edna Brush Perkins, and Rosalyn Campbell Weir; the Reverend Joel Hayden and attorney Jerome Fisher, both close friends of the family; and Dr. T. Wingate Todd, a professor of anatomy at Western Reserve University. The foundation operated out of offices in Western Reserve University's Medical School during its early years. In 1942, Brush's grandson, Maurice Perkins, placed the Foundation on even more secure financial footing with a capital donation of $250,000.

Brush Foundation grant support evolved with the times. The first two projects funded were the Maternal Health Association's birth control clinic and the Brush Inquiry, a research project on the growth and development of children. In 1929, the foundation established the Ohio Race Betterment Association. In the early 1930s, research was conducted on what is now known as the rhythm method of birth control. With the discrediting of the eugenics movement after World War II, the foundation's focus changed considerably. From the late 1940s and into the 1960s, intensive research on human fertility and infertility, as well as on the circumstances of viral infection, was funded. Also during this time, the foundation began to operate on a national and even international level, playing a crucial role in the establishment of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. Since the mid-1960s, the foundation has focused on adolescent sexuality and pregnancy (especially sex education), defense of abortion rights, and public policy directed at limiting population growth. Grants are not available to individuals, nor for capital or endowment funds, scholarships or fellowships, or loans. By the early 1980s, the Brush Foundation had awarded approximately 2.75 million dollars in grants, and had assets worth more than 2 million dollars. Its president until 1988 (i.e., for much of this collection's scope) was Dr. David R. Weir, a relative of Charles F. Brush.

click here to view the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History entry for the Brush Foundation
click here to view the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History entry for Charles F. Brush

click here to view the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History entry for Planned Parenthood of Greater Cleveland
click here to view the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History entry for Edna Brush Perkins

click here to view the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History entry for Dorothy Hamilton Brush

Scope and Content

The Brush Foundation Records, 1928-1995 (1965-1990), consist of board minutes, correspondence, financial statements and income tax returns, newspaper clippings, reprints and photocopied journal articles, and various publications.

This collection is of value to researchers studying philanthropy in the Cleveland area and nationally, specifically in the realm of family planning and birth control. It is a source of information on the twentieth century birth control and eugenics movements, although an important caveat is that the bulk of the collection dates from the period after 1965. The two most significant exceptions to this are the minutes of the Board of Managers, which date back to 1928, and the folder of 1950s correspondence from Margaret Sanger (founder of the modern birth control movement), both in Series I. The most well-documented topics are those mentioned earlier, namely adolescent sexuality and pregnancy, sex education, abortion rights activism, and pre- and post-natal health care for mothers and children. A variety of grant-seeking organizations and institutions are represented in the collection, the best-documented local examples being Black Focus on the West Side, the Cleveland Health Education Museum, the Federation for Community Planning's Coalition for Adolescent Reproduction, Sexuality and Health, the Free Medical Clinic of Greater Cleveland, and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History's Hamann-Todd Osteological Collection.

Statement of Arrangement

Restrictions on Access

None.

The research should also consult MS 5077 Brush Foundation Records, Series II.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

Subjects:

Preferred Citation

[Container ___, Folder ___ ] Brush Foundation Records, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio

Acquisition Information

Brush Foundation, 1996

Processing Information

Processed by Todd M. Michney in 1996

Bibliography

The Brush Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, 1928-1958 (ca. 1958). The Brush Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, 1928-1980 (ca. 1980). Meyer, Jimmy Elaine Wilkinson, "Birth Control Policy, Practice and Prohibition in the 1930s: The Maternal Health Association of Cleveland, Ohio," Ph.D. Dissertation (Case Western Reserve University, 1993), pp. 108-147.

Detailed Description of The Collection