Last Member Drive of 2025!

Your year-end tax-deductible gift powers our local newsroom. Help raise $1 million in essential funding for LAist by December 31.
$1,004,925 of $1,000,000 goal
A row of graphics payment types: Visa, MasterCard, Apple Pay and PayPal, and  below a lock with Secure Payment text to the right
Audience-funded nonprofit news
radio tower icon laist logo
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Subscribe
  • Listen Now Playing Listen

This archival content was originally written for and published on KPCC.org. Keep in mind that links and images may no longer work — and references may be outdated.

KPCC Archive

UC Berkeley library gets grant to catalog Pat Brown documents

Truth matters. Community matters. Your support makes both possible. LAist is one of the few places where news remains independent and free from political and corporate influence. Stand up for truth and for LAist. Make your year-end tax-deductible gift now.

Governor Jerry Brown recently became the longest serving governor in California history. And now researchers may get a chance to learn more about his late father: former Governor Edmund "Pat" Brown.

UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library is organizing its large archive of Pat Brown documents.

The library has received a $164,000 grant to help it tackle the task. The archive includes 1,030 cartons of documents, seven boxes of photos,  and five boxes of audio material donated to the campus in 1968—and only a small amount has been put in order.

"For the most part we’re just looking at a lot of papers on different topics related to the ‘60s," said project archivist David Ulich, who has two assistants helping him sort all of them out. "Right now, I’m just actually sorting through his office papers from when he was a governor."

But as the team plows through the material, it has stumbled upon some interesting items, such as a 1923 newspaper clipping featuring a very young Pat Brown.

"It looks like a high school newspaper and Pat Brown is right on the front striking kind of a pose, and he’s basically a student body secretary," said Ulich. "So I thought that was a lot of fun, especially seeing that his political proclivities started so young."

The archivist hopes to have all of the documents in order by January 2015.

Sponsored message

Pat Brown served two terms as governor of California from 1959 to 1967. He died in 1996 at the age of 90.

You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our connected community. We are free to tell the full truth, to hold power to account without fear or favor, and to follow facts wherever they lead. Our only loyalty is to our audiences and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen our community.

Right now, LAist has lost $1.7M in annual funding due to Congress clawing back money already approved. The support we receive before year-end will determine how fully our newsroom can continue informing, serving, and strengthening Southern California.

If this story helped you today, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.

Your tax-deductible donation keeps LAist independent and accessible to everyone.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief

Make your tax-deductible year-end gift today

A row of graphics payment types: Visa, MasterCard, Apple Pay and PayPal, and  below a lock with Secure Payment text to the right