Brashear Association Records

The records and publications of the Brashear Association range from 1890-1978. The collection contains executive correspondence, grant proposals, conference reports, extensive scrapbooks, press releases, notices of activities and meetings, brochures, newspaper clippings, building blueprints and equipment specifications, invoices, and photographs. The collection also documents the activities of various individuals or divisions of the Association: the Phoebe Brashear Club, the Brashear Museum and Astronomy-Science Workshop, individual settlement houses, and the Claudia Virginia Trees Camp. A large number of photographs document activities and quarters of various settlement houses and the Claudia Virginia Trees Camp.

The papers of and relating to John Brashear span the years 1891 to 1977. Included are incoming and outgoing correspondence, photographs of Brashear and his wife, birthday memorabilia, and a small amount of correspondence pertaining to genealogical queries about the Brashear family. A large proportion of the collection consists of a variety of published and unpublished biographical items and tributes to Brashear, including Brashear's autobiography.

About John Alfred Brashear and the Brashear Association.

John Alfred Brashear was born in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, on November 24, 1840. The oldest of seven children, John Brashear attended school in Brownsville through the age of 15 and did not receive further formal education.

In 1861, Brashear found employment as a mechanic in a rolling-mill in Pittsburgh. During this time period, he met Phoebe Stewart. They were married on September 24, 1862.

After his marriage, Brashear pursued his interest in astronomy after work hours. At the age of 32, Brashear built his own astronomy workshop next to his house at 3 Holt Street, where he ground and polished a telescope lens utilizing homemade tools. Brashear's five-inch refracting telescope was completed in 1876. He contacted Samuel Pierpont Langley, Director of Pittsburgh's Allegheny Observatory, and donated the telescope to the observatory. He then went on to create a 12-inch reflecting telescope. Although the silvering methods Brashear developed at this time became the industry's standard procedure, he never patented this or any of his inventions or techniques; all were freely shared with other scientists and manufacturers. In 1881, financial support from William Thaw enabled Brashear to devote all his time to producing telescope apparatus and designing other scientific instruments.

In 1894, Brashear became Chairman of the Allegheny Observatory Committee of the Western University of Pennsylvania (now the University of Pittsburgh). He served as Acting Director of the Observatory from 1898-1900. During this time, he was in charge of raising funds and obtaining a site for a new observatory, which was dedicated in 1912 and called Allegheny Observatory. In 1896, Brashear became a member of the Board of Trustees of Western University of Pennsylvania, serving as Acting Chancellor of the University a few years later.

When Henry Clay Frick founded a Commission for the continuing education of public elementary school teachers in 1909, he wished to remain anonymous and designated Brashear director of what became the Frick Educational Commission. In 1912, a group of teachers who had benefitted from the fund formed the Phoebe Brashear Club, for the purpose of doing settlement work including classes for immigrants.

Starting around 1916, Brashear's health deteriorated until his death in 1920. The abundant literature in praise of "Uncle John" attests his status as a Pittsburgh legend even before his death. Coming from a poor family, motivated to educate himself, he symbolized perseverance, self-improvement, and dedication to making and sharing scientific discoveries. The founders of the Brashear Association saw the charitable organization as a monument to these qualities.

Brashear Association.

The Brashear Association was founded in 1916, largely through the efforts of Harriet Duff Phillips who led the Mother's Club of Carrick in fund raising efforts for a settlement organization as a monument to the work of her friend, John Brashear. John and Phoebe Brashear's Holt Street home and workshop were converted into a community center. In addition to recreational activities and skill-building classes for children and adults, the settlement offered Americanization classes for foreigners.

The Brashear Association expanded from its original Holt Street location with the acquisition of additional property and buildings donated by prominent Pittsburghers. Joseph G. Trees donated a farm near Zelienople, Pa. for the Claudia Virginia Trees Camp, in memory of his wife. Here the Brashear Association operated a summer camp for settlement families. Former County Commissioner Joseph Armstrong donated his house to the Association, opening in 1936. Two years later, the Martha C. Hoyt House was opened. In 1941, the George Washington Carver House was dedicated by the Association and became the location for settlement activities for African Americans.

For the most part, segregation was in effect until the new Brashear Center was built in 1956 at 2005 Sarah Street which centralized the functions of the previously separate locations. Three years later, in an adjacent building, the Brashear Museum and Astronomy-Science Center was completed. The Henry Kaufmann Center at 2201 Salisbury St was completed and dedicated in 1964.