COLLECTION DESCRIPTION
Papers of Dr. Joyce Brothers include correspondence, subject files, scripts, clippings, contracts, awards, photographs, video, film, tape recordings, and books documenting the over 50 year career of Dr. Joyce Brothers.
Dates
- 1927 - 2013
Creator
- Brothers, Joyce. (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
Boxes 63-67 are closed for 90 years from date of creation.
Conditions Governing Access
Due to the fragility and potential degradation of moving image and sound recordings, viewing and listening is limited to items that have been digitized. You may request to have view the digitized version, or request to have the item digitized for access. Information on ordering access copies may be found on the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections webpage. Audio visual material that has been digitized is noted in the finding aid. This restriction covers all film, all video, all tape recordings, and AV material in boxes 193-229, 240-244, and 250-251.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Joyce Diane Brothers (October 20, 1927 – May 13, 2013) was an American psychologist, television personality, advice columnist, and writer. She graduated from Cornell University in 1947, and with a PhD from Columbia University in 1953.
She first became famous in 1955 for winning the top prize on the American game show "The $64,000 Question." Her fame from the game show allowed her to go on to host various advice columns and television shows, which established her as a pioneer in the field of "pop (popular) psychology".
Brothers is often credited as the first to normalize psychological concepts to the American mainstream. Her syndicated columns were featured in newspapers and magazines, including a monthly column for Good Housekeeping, in which she contributed for nearly 40 years. Her television programs, where she read letters from viewers and offered advice, began in 1958.
As Brothers quickly became the "face of psychology" for American audiences, she often appeared in various television roles, usually as herself. From the 1970s onward, she also began to accept fictional roles that parodied her "woman psychologist" persona. She is noted for working continuously for five decades across various genres.
Extent
300 cubic feet.
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Papers of Dr. Joyce Brothers include correspondence, subject files, letters received, scripts, clippings, contracts, awards, photographs, films, videos, and articles and books by Dr. Brothers.
CUSTODIAL HISTORY
The first donation was made in 1986 by Dr. Brothers, with subsequent donations being made yearly. Upon her death in 2013, the rest of her material, including her filing cabinets of research and articles, was donated by her family. Thirteen filing cabinets containing notes, articles, and other documents, were badly damaged by storage conditions and never accessioned by Cornell. That material was destroyed in 2020.
An additional 5 boxes of material was retrieved from the Brothers' farm house in 2023.
- Advice columns
- Audiotapes.
- Celebrities.
- Cornell University. Class of 1947
- Cornell University.New York State College of Human Ecology.
- Motion pictures (visual works).
- Popular culture.
- Psychologists -- United States.
- Psychology--Popular works
- Psychology--Study and teaching.
- Television quiz shows -- United States.
- Videotapes.
- Women college students.
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Compiled by RMC Staff
- Date
- July 2007
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
Revision Statements
- 12/07/2018: This resource was modified by the ArchivesSpace Preprocessor developed by the Harvard Library (https://github.com/harvard-library/archivesspace-preprocessor)
- 2007-05-29: converted from EAD 1.0 to EAD 2002
- Box: *24A (old) (Mixed Materials)
- Box: *189A (old) (Mixed Materials)
- Box: *192A (old) (Mixed Materials)
- Box: 232 (Mixed Materials)
- Box: 239 (Mixed Materials)
- Box: 236 (Mixed Materials)
- Box: *206A (old) (Mixed Materials)
- Box: *213A (old) (Mixed Materials)
- Box: 244 (Mixed Materials)
- Box: *215A (old) (Mixed Materials)
- Box: 233 (Mixed Materials)
- Box: 234 (Mixed Materials)
- Box: 235 (Mixed Materials)
- Box: 230 (Mixed Materials)
- Box: 238 (Mixed Materials)
- Box: 237 (Mixed Materials)
- Box: 231 (Mixed Materials)
- Box: *14A (old) (Mixed Materials)
- Box: *57A (old) (Mixed Materials)
- Box: *65A (old) (Mixed Materials)
- mapcase folder: 3 (Mixed Materials)
- mu: 1263 (Mixed Materials)
- mu: 1796 (Mixed Materials)
- mapcase folder: 1 (Mixed Materials)
- mapcase folder: 2 (Mixed Materials)
- f: 2716 (Mixed Materials)
- video: 12643 (Mixed Materials)
- video: 12622 (Mixed Materials)
- video: 12645 (Mixed Materials)
- video: 12644 (Mixed Materials)
- video: 12627 (Mixed Materials)
- video: 12630 (Mixed Materials)
- video: 12638 (Mixed Materials)
- video: 12631 (Mixed Materials)
- Box: 272 (Mixed Materials)
Repository Details
Part of the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections Repository
2B Carl A. Kroch Library
Cornell University
Ithaca NY 14853
607-255-3530
607-255-9524 (Fax)
rareref@cornell.edu