Scope and Content Note
The papers of Francis Edwin Brennan (1910-1922) span the years 1927-1984, with the bulk of the material dating from the 1940 to 1979. Brennan spent most of his career in journalism as an art director and consultant at various magazines. The papers are arranged into four series. The Diaries and Datebooks series chronicles Brennan's work, not his personal or family activities. The Chronological File consists mostly of general correspondence with an occasional news clipping or other printed matter. The Subject File consists of many types of material, including correspondence, art work, and photographs. Samples of Brennan's art work have been placed in the last series, Design Projects.
Brennan began his career at Conde Nast Publications under the tutelage of art director M. F. Agha. In the late 1930s, he began a long association with Time, Inc., first at Life and Fortune magazines and after World War II as art advisor to Henry Robinson Luce. In addition to consultant and design work on Time, Inc. magazines, Brennan provided a wide variety of services to Luce, such as helping design the new Time-Life buildings in New York and London and assisting Henry and Clare Boothe Luce in building their art collection. Although there is little in the papers prior to World War II, considerable material exists from the 1940s to the 1960s, including correspondence with both the Luces in the Subject File and Chronological File series.
During World War II, Brennan worked for the Office of War Information (OWI), first as chief of the graphics division in Washington, D.C., and then as chief of graphics and exhibitions in London and Paris. Material from this period can be found in the Subject File. Particularly well documented are a policy dispute in 1943 at OWI, which led to the resignation of about twenty writers and artists, and OWI exhibitions in France in 1945.
Other important segments of the papers include material from Brennan's work at McCall's during the 1960s, at Newsweek during the next decade, and work he did for the opening of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and for the Camargo Foundation. Notable correspondents include Norman Cousins, Henry Moore, Arthur M. Schlesinger (1917-2007), and E. B. White.