Consumer Reports is a product testing and consumer advocacy nonprofit organization based in Yonkers, N.Y., founded in 1936. Edward M. Brecher was a journalist and free-lance science writer who served as Associate Editor of Consumer Reports publications in the 1940s-1950s. The Edward M. Brecher papers include clippings, correspondence, drafts of articles, research notes and other printed materials relating to some of Brecher's writing projects including articles co-written with Ruth Brecher. Topics represented include consumer education and protection, nursing home care, health and legal aspects of smoking, and urban transportation systems. Organizations represented include the American Cancer Society, Department of Health Education and Welfare, Federal Trade Commission, J. Walter Thompson, Liggett & Myers, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Acquired as part of the John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History.

Consumer Reports is a product testing and consumer advocacy nonprofit organization based in Yonkers, N.Y., founded in 1936. Edward M. Brecher was a journalist and free-lance science writer who served as Associate Editor of Consumer Reports publications in the 1940s-1950s. The Edward M. Brecher papers include clippings, correspondence, drafts of articles, research notes and other printed materials relating to some of Brecher's writing projects including articles co-written with Ruth Brecher. Topics represented include consumer education and protection, nursing home care, health and legal aspects of smoking, and urban transportation systems. Organizations represented include the American Cancer Society, Department of Health Education and Welfare, Federal Trade Commission, J. Walter Thompson, Liggett & Myers, and the U.S. Supreme Court.

William (Bill) Burk is a retired botany librarian, formerly at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The collection consists of a series of journals, handwritten with items pasted and tipped in, documenting Burk's care of his mother, Lillian Marie Renstrom Burk, in the last years of her life.

The collection contains 12 journals kept by William Burk about his visits to his mother, Lillian Marie Renstrom Burk, while she was a resident at Chapel Hill Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center. The journals are handwritten: 11 of them are in composition-style notebooks, while the earliest is on a yellow notepad. The dates range from July 2005 through June 2008.

In the journals, Burk meticulously documented every interaction with his mother, including his near-daily visits to her at the nursing home; her diagnoses, appointments, and medications; her reports to him about her mood, her activities, and her feelings; his observations about the care given to her and fellow residents of the center; his interactions with the nurses, doctors, and staff; and his thoughts and feelings about his overall visit each day. Burk also added email printouts, letters, cards, and other correspondence or materials next to each day's journal entry. These have been tipped-in to the book or glued on its pages. Burk continued the journals for several weeks following Lillian's death on April 5, 2008, adding condolence notes, obituaries, funeral and cremation materials, and final invoices from various medical facilities.

Also included in the collection is an undated black-and-white portrait of Lillian in Norwalk, CT, donated in 2010 by William Burk.