Correspondence (subject files), 1946-1987

This subseries was apparently the correspondence file maintained by Brayman during his retirement. After he left the Du Pont Company in 1965, Brayman maintained an office in the Wilmington Trust Building in Wilmington. The series was filed alphabetically and spans a wide range of subjects, personal names, and associations of interest to Brayman. Some of the material in the files date from 1946, but the bulk of the material is from Brayman's retirement.

The folders given separate labels represent Brayman's more regular correspondents or other areas of interest. Individuals mentioned in this series include Brayman's good friend and head of public relations at U.S. Steel, Phelps Adams; DeWitt Wallace, co-chairman of the Reader's Digest Company; and Clifford Stone, president of the Walnut Valley State Bank (Kansas) who was impressed with Brayman's public relations ideas. The files are full of newspaper clippings, editorials, opinions, and speeches related to business or public relations. Several letters to friends digress with anecdotes about political figures, stories which were often gleaned from Gridiron affairs. Many of Brayman's exchanges with colleagues consist of congratulations and/or critical comments for articles published in various newspapers or professional literature.

A number of files relate to organizations. There are several for the annual Du Pont Educators conference, and the Du Pont General file contains several miscellaneous speeches of interest: "Is Bigness Badness?" by Harold Haskell, "Vision in Industry and Business" by Irenee du Pont, and "In Anticipation of Frederick W. Taylor: a study of Work by Lammot du Pont, 1872" by Norman B. Wilkinson. The "Who's Who in America" file contains Brayman's entry as well as entries for several other executives from Du Pont.

For several years Brayman participated in a special trade mission sponsored by an organization known as International House. Brayman was special correspondent to the New Orleans Times-Picayune during the missions. Other files reflect his personal activities with the Lincoln Club (president 1965-1966); H.L. Mencken Society of Delaware; the Rotary Club of Wilmington; Quill and Grill, a club whose founding members included Howard Pyle, Charles M. Curtis, Willard Saulsbury, Jr., and Joseph Richardson; and the Wisemen, an informal public relations fraternity which met for dinners in New York.