Clippings and scrapbooks, 1923-1942

The newspaper clippings in this subseries (all of which have been copied onto acid free paper for preservation) were collected by Harold Brayman and his wife, Martha, to document Brayman's career. All of these were loosely kept in cardboard boxes with the good intention to one day paste them into scrapbooks. These have been arranged in approximate chronological order, following the original order of the clippings as removed from the boxes. Many of the articles are undated with no citation.

The clippings include some of Brayman's earliest work as a reviewer of vaudeville and movies at Proctor's Grand (Middleburgh or Watertown, New York?), 1923-1924. In one review, he described Bill Robinson as "a warm-footed colored performer, with a keen understanding of rhythm ..." and mentioned other actors in movies such as Jackie Coogan in "Long Live the King."

His early New York articles appeared in the Knickerbocker Press and Albany Evening News, the Middleburgh News, the Albany Journal, and the Watertown Times. Among the sensational stories he covered from Albany was the 1927 case of state census irregularities by Mrs. Florence E .S. Knapp, secretary of state to Governor Al Smith.

Issues covered during his years in Washington include legislative debate on the repeal of prohibition, U.S. participation in the League of Nations and the World Court, the veterans' bonus, economic recovery during the Depression, and the beginning of World War II. Dates are lacking on many of the articles, but the arrangement of the articles as removed from the original boxes provides a steady coverage of Washington news from the late 1920s to the United States' entrance into World War II.

Immediately following the clippings files are folders of preservation copies of Brayman’s scrapbooks. (The original scrapbooks are shelved with the collection and are also available. Folder contents F87 - F96 correspond to scrapbook volumes.) These scrapbooks were compiled by Mrs. Brayman and consist of more of the same type of newspaper clippings as described above. Of particular interest are the final two files/scrapbooks containing Brayman's syndicated column, "Daily Mirror of Washington," 1937-1940.