Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Collection
Title
Daniel M. Braum papers
Date(s)
- 1935-1998 (Creation)
Extent
10.00 Linear Feet, 16.00 boxes
Post-Fire Oversize Extent:
Box 16 (16.5 x 20): 509S: 20/27/2
Box 15 (16.5x20.5): 509S: 20/30/5
Name of creator
Biographical history
Daniel M. Braum was born on February 1, 1896, in Jackson County, Kansas. He graduated from Denison High School, Denison, Kansas in 1913 and attended Prep School in Agriculture at Manhattan, Kansas from 1913 to 1915. After prep school, Braum attended Cooper College in Sterling, Kansas. In 1918, he was pulled into military service and served in World War I. On December 20, 1920, Braum married Roberta M. Myers. For the next two years, he was a farmhand for his father, John Henderson Braum, south of Denison, Kansas.
Braum graduated from Kansas State Agriculture College with a Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture in 1924. After college, he worked as a County Farm Bureau Agent in Burlington, Kansas until 1927, when he moved to northeast Kansas and began operating his own farm. In 1930, Braum moved to Iola, Kansas, where he served as the County Farm Bureau Agent for five years. From 1935 to 1940 he worked as a Soil Conservation Service Training Specialist for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) where he directed training in at least fifty-nine camps in the Central Plains including the camp at Salina, Kansas and Amarillo, Texas.
Between 1940 and 1950, Braum worked with the Training Division of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in Washington, D. C. He helped to install the National Farm Work Simplification Laboratory at Purdue University. During this time he began using principles of Scientific Management to develop a method of construction training programs and delivered two papers regarding this method.
In 1947, Braum was the delegate to International Management Congress in Stockholm, Sweden. While there he delivered his paper entitled “Progress of Scientific Farm Management.” His second paper was delivered in 1949, at the Third General Semantic Congress, Denver, Colorado, entitled, “Peaceful Approach to Work.”
Braum’s international experience landed him the job of Chief of Training for the General Services Administration where he served as a consultant in Public Administration to the Philippine government between 1950 and 1952. Simultaneously, he served as a delegate to the International Management Congress in Brussels, Belgium in 1951. His work garnered him a fellowship to District of Columbia (D. C.) Chapter of the Society for the Advancement of Management.
Braum’s familiarity with the Philippine government furthered his career when he accepted a professorship on the faculty of the University of Philippines as Director of In-Service Training in the New Institute of Public Administration from 1952 to 1955. He directed the training of supervisors, executives, and bureau chiefs, and conducted government-wide conferences in budgeting, personnel management and records management. Braum assisted Dr. Lillian M. Gilbreth in organizing the Philippine Council of Government when it was given membership in the International Committee of Scientific Management. With Philippine officials, he developed training policies and plans for the Philippine government. His work led to the publication of his book, Thousand Questions on Supervision in the Philippine Government.
The next ten years found Braum back in the United States working as a training officer of Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service of the USDA in Washington, D. C. There he developed training policies and plans for the Service which was responsible for price support and management of surpluses for the United States. In 1957, he was assigned for three-and-a-half months to the Indonesian Government to demonstrate management training where he prepared dual language flip charts for instruction that were published.
In 1959, Braum was a delegate to the International Management Conference in Paris. This same year he participated in the American Society for Public Administration Management Institute at the University of Colorado and he received the USDA superior service award. Braum served as a member of the Board of Governors for the planning of the International Industrial Engineers Conference in New York City in 1963. That same year he was a delegate to the International Management Conference also held in New York City. In 1964, he was awarded life membership to the D. C. Chapter of the Society for the Advancement of Management.
In 1965, Braum’s retired from USDA Commodity Stabilization Service. He became a part-time consultant for the Agriculture International Development Foreign Training Division within the USDA until 1980. During this time he developed and conducted the management program for foreign trainees. In 1966, Braum received the Gilbreth Medal for his contributions to the application of time and motion studies. He was recognized in 1978 by the National Republican Committee from President Ronald Regan for his generosity and service to the Republican Party.
Daniel M. Braum died on October 26, 1981, in Rockville, Maryland. His body was brought home to Denison, Kansas for burial at the Denison Cemetery.
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
The Daniel M. Braum Papers document the professional career of Braum from 1940-1965. They also include information about his personal activities and family during that time as well as after his death in 1981 when the information was added to the collection by the family covering the years 1982-1998.
The bulk of the collection consists of information regarding his involvement with the advancement of farm work simplification, scientific management, and public administration with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, General Services Administration, University of the Philippines, and Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service. The papers contain both personal and business correspondence received from numerous people throughout Braum’s life. Braum is the author of A Thousand Questions on Supervision in the Philippines, and a typescript of the book is preserved in the collection.
The Braum Papers are divided into eight series: 1) Correspondence, 1935-1991; 2) Subjects, 1943-1998; 3) Literary Works; 4) Organizations and Conferences, 1948-1958; 5) Certificates, Awards, Diplomas 1924-1978; 6) Printed Material, 1938-1957; 7) Photographs; and 8) Over Size.
The first series, Correspondence (1935-1991), is divided into two subseries. The first includes both business and personal correspondence received from numerous people throughout Braum’s life. The letters are organized alphabetically and include correspondence from Roberta Braum and John H. and Mary Ann (Loughridge) Braum. The series contains numerous letters with Dr. Lillian Gilbreth that involves their work with farm work simplification, as well as personal matters after Daniel and Roberta Braum became close friends with Gilbreth. Gilbreth became known as the “mother of modern management” and, with her husband, Frank pioneered industrial management techniques that are still practiced. Correspondence with Dan Copell, E.C Young, Lowell Hardin, the farm work simplification project director and a number of other individuals also address Braum’s involvement with farm work simplification. White House correspondence includes a small number of invitations and personal notes sent to Braum by Presidents Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter. The second subseries contains general correspondence and is organized chronologically from 1935-1975. The majority of these letters are related to Braum’s professional career and his involvement with farm work simplification, public administration, and scientific management. The letters also address a number of committees and conferences Braum was involved with throughout his career including the Executive Committee, Agricultural Committee, and the Agricultural Management Conference at Purdue.
Subjects (1943-1998) is divided into 10 subseries: 1) The Braum Family contains newspaper clippings and articles concerning Bill Braum and other Braum family members; 2) Denison, Kansas History includes information about the history of the town; 3) Farm Work Simplification involves reports, literary works, and other information including course outlines and material, charts/graphs, and printed material outlining Braum’s involvement in the development of farm work simplification; 4) Lillian Gilbreth contains biographical information and printed material about Dr. Gilbreth and her work with time and motion study analysis; 5) Lectures consists of a class orientation lecture and a lecture series given in 1949; 6) Open Door Policy (1946) includes the policy and contract used when this program was established; 7) Philippines contains documents and other papers including Braum’s literary works from his time spent teaching in that country; 8) Semantics (1948-1949) includes course material and information on semantics taught at Purdue University; 9) Scientific Management and Christianity consists of 3 papers written by Braum on the subject and also his notes and Christian publications; and 10) Management involves literary works by Braum on management applied to the home, management development, and labor management, also includes Braum’s notes on the topic and charts/graphs.
The third series, Literary Works, contains two important works written by Braum. The first is entitled “A Peaceful Approach to Work.” A number of abstracts, critiques, and drafts are included. Also, a complete typescript of Braum’s book A Thousand Questions on Supervision in the Philippines is retained in this series.
The series Organizations and Conferences consists of seven subseries. The first is the American Society of Mechanical Engineers that includes information about the Farm Management Committee set up by Braum in 1948. The second, Bureau of Ships, contains papers on leadership and communication. The third sub-series is the International Committee of Scientific Management (CIOS) and contains a day book written by Braum while attending one of its conferences in Paris in 1957. The fourth is the International Management Conference. It contains papers written by Braum to be presented at the 8th and 9th Conferences. The fifth subseries contains the Purdue Farm Cardiac Project (1958). The sixth, The Society for the Advancement of Management, houses information and papers on the advancement of management. The final subseries includes miscellaneous papers and documents from unidentified organizations and/or conferences.
The Certificates, Awards, and Diplomas series contains eleven certificates, awards, and diplomas Braum received throughout his lifetime. The series includes certificates of merit from the USDA, ten and twenty-year service awards from the USDA, and a certificate of recognition from Ronald Reagan and the National Republican Party for Braum’s service to the Republican Party.
Printed Material, the sixth series, contains various items that are related to most of the other series or subseries. These include Farm Work Simplification, the Philippines, International Committee of Scientific Management, the International Management Conference, Scientific Management, and a copy of Braum’s book A Thousand Questions on Supervision in the Philippines.
The Photographs series contains several hundred images including those of the Braum family, Philippines, China, Hong Kong, USDA, International Management Conference, International Committee on Scientific Management, and miscellaneous. They provide excellent pictorial documentation of family members and the locations where Braum worked.
The final series, Over Size, contains photographs, certificates, awards, diplomas, posters, photo albums, and memorabilia from Braum’s life including an audiotape of Dr. Lillian Gilbreth and a photograph album that includes photographs from Braum’s service in World War I and other personal and family photographs.
Included with the papers were nineteen books from Daniel and Roberta Braum, many of which were signed and presented to them by the authors. They have been cataloged and added to the library of the University Archives.
System of arrangement
Comprising 8 linear feet of shelf space, the Braum Papers are contained in fourteen document boxes and two flat boxes and span the years 1935-1998. The Braum Papers are divided into eight series: 1) Correspondence, 1935-1987; 2) Subjects, 1943-1998; 3) Literary Works; 4) Organizations and Conferences, 1948-1958; 5) Certificates, Awards, Diplomas 1924-1978; 6) Printed Material, 1938-1957; 7) Photographs; and 8) Over Size.
Conditions of access and use elements
Conditions governing access
No access restriction: All materials are open for research.
Physical access
Original materials available during open hours of repository and any digitized materials that are online are available with the Internet.
Technical access
The collection contains audiovisual materials that are not accessible without proper technology.
Conditions governing reproduction
The researcher assumes full responsibility for observing all copyright, property, and libel laws as they apply.
Languages of the material
- English
Scripts of the material
- Latin
Language and script notes
Finding aids
Alternative finding aid found here: https://web.archive.org/web/20210602162359/http://www.lib.k-state.edu/depts/sc_rev/findaids/pc2005-07.php
Acquisition and appraisal elements
Custodial history
The Daniel M. Braum papers were donated by his daughter in 2005. It received accession number P2005.07.
Immediate source of acquisition
Acqusition Source: Wava Skaggs (daughter)
Acqusition Method: Donation
Acqusition Date: 2005-12-00
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information
Accruals
Related materials elements
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related archival materials
Related descriptions
Specialized notes
- Citation: [Item title], [item date], Daniel M. Braum papers, Box [number], Folder [number or title], Morse Department of Special Collections, Kansas State University Libraries.
Alternative identifier(s)
Archon Collection ID
Description control element
Rules or conventions
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Sources used
Archivist's note
Finding Aid Author: Casey Thilges
Processing Info: The processing of the papers was completed by Casey Thilges, student processor, in January 2006.
Archon processing completed by Edward Nagurny, graduate research assistant, October 2014.
Publication Date: 2015-10-25