Correspondence, speeches, diaries, notebooks, clippings, pamphlets, photographs, and other documents illustrating Brown's long and intensive involvement in Des Moines' educational and civic affairs. Subjects include city planning, the environment, public housing, population growth, and world peace. A separate series is devoted to her long campaign (1953-1974) to restrict billboards within the community and to prohibit their installation adjacent to interstate and state highways. A series on education illustrates her efforts (1950-1974) to promote greater recognition of academic excellence, greater student interest in mathematics and the sciences, a system of "enriched" courses to enable students to better prepare for college, student parking, athletics, and intramural sports. The papers also document Brown's contributions as a trustee of the Edmunson Art Foundation and the Des Moines Art Center, her unsuccessful attempts to preserve the Old Federal Building in Des Moines, and her success in convincing the Greater Des Moines Chamber of Commerce to acquire the land around Gray's Lake to protect it from commercial development and the subsequent establishment of the lake as a park and recreation area.
