Collection Guide
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Brown Family Collection
mssBrownfam
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
The Huntington Library
Title: Brown family collection
Creator:
Brown (Family)
Identifier/Call Number: mssBrownfam
Physical Description:
3 Linear Feet
(2 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1838-1945
Abstract: Collection of material compiled by Mrs. Ella Towne, John Brown's granddaughter, about him and the Brown family.
Language of Material: Materials are in English.
Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more
information.
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material,
nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and
obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
[Identification of item]. Brown family collection, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from Eleanor Blangsted, March 1990.
Ella Thompson Towne, of Pasadena, California, was the daughter of Ruth Brown Thompson, the eldest daughter of John Brown.
Collection of letters, photographs, newspaper clippings, and ephemera pertaining to the abolitionist John Brown and his family,
compiled by his granddaughter Ella Towne. There are letters written by John Brown's sons, John, Jr., Jason, Oliver, Frederick,
and Owen Brown, from Kansas in 1855 to 1856 to the family back in North Elba, New York; they are chiefly addressed to Ruth
Brown Thompson. The letters discuss family matters, business pursuits, the move to Kansas Territory, and the political situation
in Kansas. Also included are typescript copies of letters of Samuel Adair from Osawatomie July 1855 to February 1859 to T.H.
Hand and Stephen Davis. There are also letters dealing with honoring John Brown's memory, including a letter from Gerrit Smith
to Ruth Brown Thompson in 1874. Also included are ephemera, typescript articles, photographs, addresses, etc. There is also
a scrapbook made by Ella J. Towne for her daughter, Adeline Clausen, in December 1945, sound recordings of the address by
Dr. J. W. Shirley on John Brown delivered on May 9, 1943 and of a radio program at John Brown's grave on July 4th, 1943, views
of the Jason and Owen Brown's Las Casitas homestead, and photographs of the ceremony of re-internment of John Brown's body
in Lake Placid, New York, in 1899.
Processed by Harriet McLune in 1990. In September 2023, Brooke M. Black created a finding aid.
Individual call numbers included in the collection: mssHM 53560-53575.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Abolitionists -- United States -- Archives
California, Southern -- History -- Sources
Harpers Ferry (W. Va.)
Kansas -- History -- 19th century -- Sources
Kansas -- Politics and Government -- 1854-1861
Brown, John, 1800-1859
Brown, Owen, 1824-1889
Smith, Gerrit, 1797-1874
Thompson, Ruth Brown
Towne, Ella Thompson