Joseph A. Breig Papers (BRI), University of Notre Dame Archives (UNDA), Notre Dame, IN 46556
Correspondence, manuscripts, and printed material including clippings and offprints of articles, columns, and book reviews; representing Breig's interest in Catholicism, the Garabandal Apparitions, abortion, and
The collection consists of seven series: correspondence, chronological file, writings, editorial work, personal material, restricted material, and miscellaneous items. The papers span a period of 93 years from 1888 through 1981, though there is little material for the years 1888-1923 and 1928-1940, mostly just family correspondence and documents.
The bulk of the correspondence falls into the years 1923-1928 (when Breig was a student at Notre Dame) and from 1971-1981 . For the years in between little correspondence has survived. After Father Hesburgh approached Joseph Breig about donating his papers to Notre Dame in 1974, the volume of the correspondence saved increased considerably. Breig's writings are represented by both manuscripts and clippings. There are manuscripts of his books (published and unpublished), plays, short stories, articles, columns, book reviews, and speeches. While the manuscripts of his work as a writer date mostly from only the 1930s until the late 1950s, his work as a newspaperman is very well documented. There is an almost complete set of clippings of his columns from his days at the Pittsburgh
Some of Breig's work as an editor is documented in his correspondence regarding reader's letters (policy explanations, etc.), rewrites of NC News copy, background material for his columns, style and writing manuals (some of which Breig composed or contributed to), and editorial cartoons suggested by Breig and drawn by Earl Wolf. Only the background material folders about Abortion, Vietnam and the apparitions of Garabandal were created by Breig; the rest of these folders were created from material in his miscellaneous folders. Breig saved little in the way of background material until 1974 when he became aware that Notre Dame was interested in his papers.
In the personal material series one can find letters and other documents that Breig later annotated for explanatory reasons as well as personal documents and certificates (like his honorary doctorates), some documents about his relatives, clippings about Joseph Breig (his work, books and plays, awards, etc.), clippings about his family, photos of Breig and his family and relatives, and a family genealogy covering 1834 - circa 1977.
The last two series are very small and consist of only two folders, one of restricted material, the other of a few things that couldn't be linked to existing series or folders.
Further information about Breig's donation of his papers to the Notre Dame Archives is found in the correspondence series (box 1, folder 9).
Joseph Breig was born in Vandergrift, Pennsylvania, on February 28, 1905, the son of George and Clara (McKenzie) Breig. George Breig was an electrical contractor. Joseph was educated at St. Vincent Preparatory School, Latrobe, Pennsylvania (1918-1920), and graduated from Vandergrift High School in 1923. He entered the University of Notre Dame in September 1923 and left again in September 1924 due to his family's tight budget. He returned in September 1925 and finally left Notre Dame in June 1927 without receiving a degree. At Notre Dame Breig was active in student journalism, writing for the
Breig began his professional career in 1924 when he went to work for the
With his increasing interest in Catholicism, Breig decided that he would rather work for a Catholic newspaper. For this reason he moved to Cleveland in 1945 and became assistant editor of the
Over the years the topics for his columns included a vast number of subjects, including his efforts to outlaw boxing, his doubts of the genuineness of the apparitions of Garabandal and Bayside, his defense of the Vietnam War, and his opposition to the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. He also commented on statements by opponents of his Catholic beliefs such as Father Andrew Greeley, Father Hans Küng, the John Birch Society, and others who, in his view, tried to alter the Church's teachings on divorce, artificial birth control, and papal infallibility.
Breig stayed at the
Letters sent and received by Breig and a smaller amount of family correspondence. Divided into two sub-series (FAMILY LETTERS and GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE). Each sub-series is arranged chronologically with a few folders arranged by subject. Correspondence after 1974 is filed in the CHRONOLOGICAL FILE below.
FAMILY LETTERS (1888-1947, 2.5") consists of letters exchanged between Breig's parents, siblings, and other relatives as well as of letters Breig wrote to his family during his time away at school and after he left home, through 1947. The letters with the Universe Bulletin letterhead are found in this sub-series because of their private nature. One can also find a few official letters from Notre Dame to Breig's parents.
Breig must have inherited some of these letters from his parents because they are not addressed to him -- some even date from atime when he wasn't yet born. Some of these letters are from his siblings to his parents and others are letters between his parents, letters from other relatives to his parents, and so on. But most of these letters somehow deal with Joseph Breig.
The letters are generally only news updates to inform other family members of what was going on. The bulk of this sub-series consists of letters from Joseph Breig to his family while at Notre Dame (1923-1927?). Some letters carry the letterhead of the Scribblers Club and one folder consist only of undated letters with the
GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE (1941-1974, 1') contains almost all of Breig's extant correspondence until the end of 1974 except for what is to be found below in EDITORIAL WORK and PERSONAL MATERIAL. Fully half of the letters in this sub-series date from 1973 and 1974. This sub-series covers a broad spectrum of topics including columns by Joseph Breig, abortion, church-press relations, Father Andrew Greeley, G. K. Chesterton, Breig's trip to Israel, the beatification of Mother Seton, congratulations and greetings. Correspondents include his family (his sister, Sister Regina Clare, and his son James Breig, editor of the
In his position as associate editor and columnist of the three northern Ohio Catholic papers of Toledo, Cleveland and Youngstown he also received many letters from readers. The readers expressed their approval or disagreement with the paper and his columns. He often answered these letters. Similar letters are found in the EDITORIAL WORK series under LETTERS RE SUBMISSIONS. There are also quite a few letters to and from colleagues inside the
Three folders of subject files complete this series. The first contains correspondence between Breig and Notre Dame about the donation of his papers to the Notre Dame Archives. This folder provides a good look at the donation process and the difficulties that went along with it. The next folder contains letters about Breig's writings while he was at the Pittsburgh
The CHRONOLOGICAL FILE consists of all types of Breig documents dating from 1975 until November 1981. These documents were a second accession to the original shipment of papers to the Notre Dame Archives. The accession has been sorted into chronological order, but in general has been kept as it arrived at the Archives. Only the material dating before 1975, the Breig family genealogy (now in the PERSONAL MATERIAL series), and loose clippings (now in the WRITINGS and PERSONAL MATERIAL series) have been removed from this series and filed elsewhere.
There is a folder for every month of every year from 1975 until November 1981. At the end of each year there is also a folder with papers that could be connected to the year but not to a particular month. This series generally consists of correspondence, columns, articles, book reviews, etc. The nature of the correspondence is basically the same as described in the CORRESPONDENCE series. Breig corresponds with his family, his son James (assistant editor of the
This series also contains an abundance of manuscripts of columns. For the years before 1975 such manuscripts are found in the WRITINGS series. Breig wrote about various topics in religion, family, politics, sports, and nature. His articles for that period are mostly about religious subjects, and his book reviews are on books about journalism, sports, family, grammar, and religion. Breig repeatedly wrote about abortion, euthanasia, women in the Catholic church, artificial contraception,
This series contains all of Breig's pre-1975 manuscripts, offprints and clippings as well as clippings of many of his later writings. The rest of the clippings and manuscripts for the 1975-1981 period are found in the CHRONOLOGICAL FILE.
The manuscripts of five books (
The UNPUBLISHED BOOKS AND ABANDONED WRITINGS sub-series consists of five manuscripts of unpublished books and three unfinished book manuscripts. Most of these manuscripts are undated. For the unpublished books Breig couldn't find a publishing house. He abandoned the other manuscripts because he found out that mystery novels weren't his strength or because he didn't get anywhere with his topic. Most of these manuscripts are annotated by Breig.
PLAYS contains three manuscripts (
The SHORT STORIES sub-series consists of several manuscripts and two printed short stories. In his annotation to "The End Of The Old Women" Breig wrote that among all his writings this is his favorite. The two printed stories were published while he was still a student at Notre Dame. One appeared in the
The most extensive sub-series is ARTICLES, BOOK REVIEWS, AND COLUMNS IN NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES. It is divided between newspapers and magazines. Newspapers manuscripts, carbons, and clippings come first and are followed by their magazine counterparts. The newspaper part has been further divided into articles, book reviews, and columns sections. This distinction has not been made for the magazines.
The carbons of newspaper articles (3") are mostly undated. The exception is a folder with unpublished articles from the Pittsburgh
Breig wrote many book reviews which were for the most part, published by the NC News Service. There are therefore two folders (1.5") with NC News Service wire-service print-outs in this sub-series. Books he reviewed were about the Near East Crisis, the press and the media in general, religion, and politics.
Manuscripts and clippings of newspaper columns (2') account for the bulk of material in this sub-series. There are undated manuscripts of columns Breig wrote for the Pittsburgh
In the early years while he still worked at the Pittsburgh
There are some folders that contain only columns about special subjects. One is about an abandoned child (box 5, folder 35), one is about Joseph Breig's trip to Israel, 1968 (box 6, folder 51),and the last is about American Catholic intellectual inferiority (box 6, folder 71). At the end of the columns section there is a folder with clippings of readers' letters on Breig's columns (box 6, folder 72).
At the beginning of the magazine manuscripts and clippings section (1'7") one can find two small folders with clippings of Breig's articles in his high school and college papers (the
The end of this sub-series is formed by twelve folders of miscellaneous writings (3.75"). It is impossible to determine where these have been published, or even if they have been published, as many of them are untitled and undated. These writings are about the same subjects as his columns and range from 1939 to 1975.
SPEECHES is the last sub-series of this series. It contains two folders (1") with manuscripts of different speeches that Breig gave at various occasions. Most of the speeches are identified as to time and place of delivery. Sometimes Breig annotated them for explanation, as well. The time span ranges from 1951 until 1975.
This series consists of material that concerns Breig's work as an editor for the
CORRESPONDENCE REGARDING SUBMISSIONS consists of letters to and from Breig in his function as associate editor of the three northern Ohio diocesan newspapers. Most of his letters contain an explanation of the newspapers' policy and why they can't publish certain letters to the editor. He also answered questions from readers who wanted information from the
EDITORIAL WORK contains papers that show how Breig wrote his columns, how he rewrote NC News Service stories, and how he wrote his own news stories (that he himself researched). One can also find much correspondence which does not necessarily deal with his professional work, but which has been kept here because it had been filed here by Breig. This sub-series spans the years 1966-1974. The rewrite samples account for three-fourths of the material.
The SUBJECT FILES was, for the most part, created from approximately ten folders of miscellany concerning topics that Breig wrote about in his columns. For that reason it seemed best to add to the three existing subject folders (Apparitions of Garabandal, Vietnam War and abortion) fourteen new subject files. Two already existing folders (both titled Catholic Press, Liaison Journalism CPA, NCWS) have been removed from the EDITORIAL WORK sub-series and were filed here. These files date for the most part from the 1960s and 1970s with some material from the 1940s and the 1980s. The files about abortion account for the biggest share of the subject files. There are three STYLE AND WRITING MANUALS. Breig was co-author of the
CARTOONS BY EARL WOLF end this series. Earl Wolf made these cartoon drawings for the
PERSONAL MATERIAL is divided in five sub-series. The first sub-series consists of papers, articles, columns, articles by other authors, and correspondence that Breig thought significant and therefore annotated for explanatory reasons. The annotations are very complete and are significant documents in themselves.
The second sub-series is a collection of documents and certificates belonging to Breig and his family as well as papers and documents (Testaments of George and Clara Breig) that belonged to Breig's parents and aunts. Breig's own documents include his two honorary degrees.
The third sub-series contains clippings of articles about Breig as well as clippings about his immediate family (mostly his son James).
The fourth sub-series contains a family history for his father's side of the family as well as a fragment of a genealogy written by Breig's brother Robert which also includes their mother's side of the family. There is also folder with clippings about the rest of Breig's family.
The photos of this sub-series have been removed (as have all other photos of this collection) to the Breig photo collection (GBRI).Photocopies of the photo have been left in this sub-series. The photos show Breig as a little boy; Breig and his siblings; Breig in his high school yearbook (1923); Breig with a friend; Breig in the Notre Dame yearbook (1927); his family, 1950; Breig in the 1960s, and Breig with colleagues at the regional Catholic Press Convention in Youngstown, Ohio, 1976.
This series consists of one folder which will be opened in theyear 2024.