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Richard L. and Maurine Brown Neuberger photographs collection, 1893-circa 1997

Overview of the Collection

Title
Richard L. and Maurine Brown Neuberger photographs collection
Dates
1893-circa 1997 (inclusive)
1950-1966 (bulk)
Quantity
1.16 cubic feet, (142 photographic prints in 1 box and 5 oversize folders)
Collection Number
Org. Lot 1007
Summary
This collection contains photographs that document the personal and political lives of Richard L. and Maurine Brown Neuberger, Oregon's first married couple to serve together in the state legislature. The collection includes photographs of the Brown, Kelty, and Neuberger families, but the bulk of the images documents the political lives of Richard and Maurine in the Oregon Legislature and United States Senate from 1950 to1966.
Repository
Oregon Historical Society Research Library
1200 SW Park Avenue
Portland, OR
97205
Telephone: 503-306-5240
Fax: 503-219-2040
libreference@ohs.org
Access Restrictions

The collection is open to the public.

Languages
English
Sponsor
Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Funding for preparing this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
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Biographical Note

Richard Lewis Neuberger (1912-1960) and Maurine Brown Neuberger (1907-2000) were the first couple to serve together in the Oregon Legislature, Maurine in the House of Representatives and Richard in the House and Senate. Richard was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1954 and died shortly before completing his term. After Richard’s death, Maurine was elected the first woman U.S. Senator from Oregon, becoming the third woman ever to serve in the Senate.

Harvey Maurine Brown was born in Cloverdale, Oregon, to Ethel Kelty Brown (1875-1966), daughter of Oregon pioneers, and Dr. Walter T. Brown (d. 1929). Her brother, Robert, was born in 1907. It has been suggested that Maurine was named after her great-grandfather, the Rev. Amos Harvey. After two years at Monmouth Christian College, Maurine graduated from the University of Oregon and taught English at Lincoln High School in Portland for 14 years.

Richard Lewis Neuberger was born in Portland, Oregon, to Isaac Neuberger and Ruth Lewis Neuberger (d. 1980). His sister, Jane Neuberger (Goodsell), was born in 1921. Richard entered the University of Oregon in 1931 and was put in charge of the sports desk at the Oregon Daily Emerald. In 1932, he was elected editor-in-chief. At the urging of Dean Wayne Morse, he entered UO Law School in 1933. The next year, Richard was charged with copying answers. Although Morse supported him throughout the disciplinary hearing, the dean recommended Richard’s resignation from law school after he failed his Criminal Law class.

In 1935, Richard became a stringer for the New York Times . In 1940, he was elected a Democratic state representative from Portland. Richard and Maurine were married at Missoula, Montana, in 1945. After military service in Alaska as aide-de-camp for General O’Connor, supervising construction of the Alaskan Military Highway, Richard was elected to the first of four terms in the Oregon Senate in 1948.

Maurine was elected to the first of three terms in the Oregon House of Representatives in 1950. She became a household name in Oregon after her demonstration of the difficulty housewives experienced in coloring oleo margarine to look like butter. On the opening day of the 1951 Legislative Session, the Neubergers introduced a bill to end Oregon’s 38-year-old ban on colored margarine.

Richard was narrowly elected to the U.S. Senate in 1954, giving the Democrats a one-vote majority in the Senate and shifting the center of Oregon politics. Maurine resigned from the Oregon Legislature and served as her husband’s aide in Washington, D.C. Richard’s interests included journalism, conservation, and historic preservation. As the author of six6 books and more than 400 magazine and journal articles, he thought of himself as a journalist first and a politician second. Richard died March 9, 1960, of a massive cerebral hemorrhage.

Two days after her husband’s death, Maurine met the filing deadline for the primary ballot and was elected in November 1960 to the Senate, where she pursued education, health, and consumer issues. She sponsored one of the first bills to require warning labels on cigarettes and also worked for pollution controls on automobiles. She served on the Agriculture Committee, Banking and Currency Committee, Special Committee on Aging, President’s Commission on the Status of Women, and national board of the American Association for the United Nations.

In 1964, Maurine married Boston psychiatrist, Dr. Philip Solomon, and chose not to run for re-election in 1966. She taught at Boston College, Radcliffe, and Reed College, becoming the venerated elder stateswoman of Oregon. In 1972, the Neuberger Building at Portland State University was dedicated to Richard. In 1985, the U.S. Forest Service dedicated the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area in his memory.

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Content Description

Photographs of the personal and political lives of Richard L. and Maurine Brown Neuberger, the first married couple to serve in a legislature. The bulk of the collection documents the Neubergers' political lives, including both Richard's and Maurine's terms as Oregon state legislators and United States senators. Subjects include Maurine Neuberger's famous margarine demonstration in front of the Oregon house of representatives in 1951; the Neubergers with national political figures such as Dwight D. Eisenhower, Harry S, Truman, John F. Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson, as well as Oregon politicians Edith Green, Tom McCall, and Wayne Morse, among others; Democratic party events; and Maurine's professional and personal life after she left politics in 1967. The collection also includes photographs of various members of the Brown, Kelty, and Neuberger families, dating as far back as 1893. Includes color photographs.

Photographers represented in this collection include Fabian Bachrach, Allen J. deLay, Burt Glinn, and Carl Vermilya, among many others.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

The Oregon Historical Society is the owner of the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. Written permission must be obtained from the Research Library before any publication use. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all of the materials in the collections. Permission for reproduction or publication of some images must be obtained from the photographers. See individual photographs for further information.

Preferred Citation

Richard L. and Maurine Brown Neuberger Photographs Collection, Org. Lot 1007, Oregon Historical Society Research Library

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

This collection is organized in the following series and sub-series:

  • Series A. Maurine Brown Neuberger photographs, 1893-circa 1997
    • Subseries 1. Brown family photographs, 1893-1962
    • Subseries 2. Later years, 1980, circa 1997
    • Subseries 3.Oregon Legislature, 1950-1955
    • Subseries 4. Portraits, circa 1962
    • Subseries 5. U.S. Senate, 1960-1966
  • Series B: Richard Lewis Neuberger photographs, circa 1917-1959
    • Subseries 1. Early years, circa 1917-1941
    • Subseries 2. Book, The Lewis and Clark Expedition, circa 1951
    • Subseries 3. Oregon Legislature, circa 1954
    • Subseries 4. Portraits, circa 1954-1958
    • Subseries 5. U.S. Senate, 1955-1960
  • Series C: Richard and Maurine Neuberger photographs, 1950-1958
  • Series D: Democratic Party Functions, 1957-1958

Custodial History

Some prints from the collection were donated to the Oregon Historical Society by Maurine Neuberger in 1987, along with a collection of the papers of her and her husband, Richard. The prints were transferred to the Photographs Collections. The bulk of the collection was donated to the Historical Society by nieces, Kate Marquez, Ann Goodsell, and Molly Goodsell, in 2001.

Acquisition Information

Library accession no. 18396 (Photo accession no. 1987D031) and Library accession no. 24438 (Photo accession no. 2001D032).

Processing Note

Prints that came with the manuscript collection are annotated on the verso of the photograph as, “From Mss 791.”

Separated Materials

Some of the photographs in this collection were separated from the Richard Lewis Neuberger and Maurine Brown Neuberger Papers, Mss 791, in the Oregon Historical Society Research Library.

Bibliography

Neal, Steve, ed. They Never Go Back to Pocatello: The Selected Essays of Richard Neuberger. Portland: Oregon Historical Society, 1988.

Related Materials

Collections of Maurine Brown Neuberger and Richard Lewis Neuberger papers are located at the University of Oregon. A small collection of correspondence relating to agriculture from their Senate years is located at Oregon State University.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Dairy products industry--Law and Legislation--Oregon--Photographs.
  • Legislators--Oregon--Photographs.
  • Legislators--United States--Photographs.
  • Women legislators--Oregon--Photographs.
  • Women legislators--United States--Photographs.
  • Women’s rights--Law and Legislation--United States--Photographs.

Personal Names

  • Johnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines), 1908-1973--Photographs.
  • Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963--Photographs.
  • McCall, Tom, 1913- --Photographs.
  • Morse, Wayne L. (Wayne Lyman), 1900-1974--Photographs.
  • Neuberger, Maurine Brown, 1907- --Photographs.
  • Neuberger, Richard L. (Richard Lewis), (1912-1960)--Photographs.
  • Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962--Photographs.
  • Truman, Harry S., 1884-1972--Photographs.

Corporate Names

  • Democratic Party (Or.)--Photographs.
  • Democratic Party (U.S.)--Photographs.
  • Oregon. Legislative Assembly. House of Representatives--Photographs.
  • Oregon. Legislative Assembly. Senate--Photographs.
  • United States. Congress. Senate--Photographs.

Form or Genre Terms

  • Photographic prints.

Other Creators

  • Personal Names

    • Bachrach, Fabian, 1917- (photographer)
    • Glinn, Burt, 1925- (photographer)
    • Vermilya, Carl (photographer)
    • de Lay, Allen J. (photographer)

Finding aid prepared by Sharon M. Howe and Gayle Mirken
2003

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