Nan M. Brewster cartoons and clippings
Scope and Contents
The collection consists of artwork by and newspaper clippings relating to Nan M. Brewster, an artist and newspaper columnist from Portland, Oregon. The artwork in the collection consists of 27 ink cartoons and 3 pencil sketches that Brewster drew for her column, "Faces and Places." The bulk of the clippings in the collection, which are both loose and pasted to scrapbook pages, are of Brewster's column. Other clippings include an announcement of Brewster's engagement to William L. Brewster, Jr.; a 1931 clipping of Brewster displaying her artwork; and a 1975 clipping about a showing of her cartoons at the Portland Art Museum.
Dates
- Creation: 1930-1975
- Creation: Majority of material found within 1930-1944
Creator
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
The Oregon Historical Society owns the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners.
Biographical Note
Frances Ann Brewster (née Montgomery, known as Nan M. Brewster in her life) was born in 1903 in Portland, Oregon. She was the granddaughter of bookstore founder Joseph Kaye Gill and the daughter of J. K. Gill company president William A. Montgomery. She studied at the University of Oregon and at the Museum Art School in Portland. In 1937, the Oregonian newspaper in Portland hired Brewster to write and illustrate a weekly column, titled "Faces and Places." The column ran on Sundays in the newspaper's society section. When the United States entered World War II, Brewster incorporated subjects relating to the homefront experience into her column, such as rationing, selling war bonds, and rolling bandages for wounded soldiers.
Brewster married William Lewis Brewster, Jr. (1905-1993) in 1931; the couple had two daughters. Nan M. Brewster died in 2005.
Sources: Obituary on OregonLive (accessed January 30, 2025), https://obits.oregonlive.com/us/obituaries/oregon/name/nan-brewster-obituary?id=19565564; vital records via Ancestry.com.
Extent
0.46 Cubic Feet (1 flat box (14x18))
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Ink cartoons and pencil sketches by Nan M. Brewster (1903-2005) of Portland, Oregon, who wrote and illustrated a weekly column, "Faces and Places," in the Oregonian newspaper in the 1930s and 1940s. Also included are clippings of Brewster's column and articles about her.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Nan Brewster, October 1993 (Lib. Acc. 21464).
Processing Information
Scrapbook of newspaper clippings was unbound and its covers discarded prior to 2025, most likely in the 1990s.
Subject
- Title
- Guide to the Nan M. Brewster cartoons and clippings
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Jeffrey A. Hayes
- Date
- 2025
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid is written in English.
Repository Details
Part of the Oregon Historical Society Research Library Repository
1200 SW Park Ave.
Portland OR 97205 United States
5033065204
5033065240
libreference@ohs.org