Clarissa Brown Winsor Collection

TITLE: Clarissa Brown Winsor Collection  

DATE RANGE:  1940-1983

CALL NUMBER: Y-MS 26

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 2 linear feet (2 boxes)

PROVENANCE: Unknown

COPYRIGHT: Unknown

RESTRICTIONS:  None

CREDIT LINE:  Clarissa Brown Winsor Collection, Y-MS 26, Yuma County Library District

PROCESSED BY:  Benjamin Findley, 2013

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE:  

Clarissa Brown was born in Tucson, Arizona on September 3, 1880, the child of James and Olive Brown.  She was reputed to be the third white child born in Tucson.  She spent her childhood on a ranch on the Santa Cruz River between Tucson and Nogales and later attended the University of Arizona.  In 1903 she married newspaper publisher Mulford Winsor, founder of Yuma Sun. They moved on a ranch near Yuma.  She raised three children and remained on the ranch while her husband carried on his political career in Phoenix as an associate of Governor George W.P. Hunt, and later as President of the State Senate and the second Arizona State Librarian.  

In 1940 she became active in the preservation of the Yuma Territorial Prison as a museum. The following year became its first curator, a position she held until her retirement in 1965.  That same year she was selected as Yuma “Man” of the Year and the Mayor proclaimed “Clarissa Winsor Day.”  Winsor was a leader in numerous civic activities.  She was a charter member of the Yuma Woman’s Club. In addition she belonged to the Yuma Garden Club, the Zonta Club, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Order of Eastern Star, and the Business and Professional Women’s Club. She died March 8, 1974 and was posthumously inducted into the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame in 1986.

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE:  The collection consists of biographical files and two scrapbooks, 1940-1968, primarily documenting her career as the Yuma Territorial Prison Museum curator.  The scrapbooks contain numerous original photographs.  The collection also contains Anaconda Mining Company stock certificates under her name, and two articles written by her daughter, Eleanor Winsor Davis, about Clarissa Winsor’s parents at the Sahuarito Stage Station Ranch south of Tucson in the 1870s and 1880s.

CONTAINER LIST: