Henry B. Brown drawings, 1851-1852

Summary

Abstract:

This collection contains forty-two pencil drawings primarily of California Native Americans, California landscapes, Mexico, and Central America, drawn in 1851 and 1852 by American artist, and later United States Consul to Bermuda, Henry B. Brown.

Extent:

6.13 Linear Feet (3 boxes)

Language:

Materials are in English.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. Henry B. Brown drawings, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains pencil drawings drawn in 1851 and 1852 by American artist, and later United States Consul to Bermuda, Henry B. Brown. The forty-two drawings are arranged according to their five general subjects: California Native Americans (7), California landscapes (24), Mexico (4), Central America (6), and Other (1). Although the exact Indian tribes in Brown's drawings are not known, it is believed that they are the Maidu, Nomlaki, Patwin, Wintun, and/or the Shasta Indians because those tribes lived in the areas in California where Brown was traveling. These drawings include portraits of Indians and scenes of daily life in Indian villages. Five of these drawings have been published in Drawn from Life: California Indians in Pen and Brush by Theodora Kroeber, Albert B. Elsasser, and Robert F. Heizer, and Personal Narrative of Explorations and Incidents in Texas, New Mexico, California, Sonora, and Chihuahua by John Russell Bartlett. The twenty-four drawings of California landscapes include views of mining camps, a quartz mill, San Francisco, Marysville, Mount Shasta, Grass Valley, the Sacramento River, and Nevada City. The ten drawings of Mexico and Central America include views of Acapulco, the Gulf of California, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador. Also included in the collection is an undated drawing of the Susquehanna river in Port Deposit, Maryland, and a blank sheet of paper that was probably used as a mount for one of the drawings. The titles used are the titles supplied by the artist. Several of the drawings have sketches or inscriptions on the verso. A number of the Brown drawings have also been published in An Artist's Portfolio: the California Sketches of Henry B. Brown by Thomas C. Blackburn.

Biographical / historical:

Henry B. Brown was probably born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in January 1816. In the 1840s, he worked as a portrait artist and engraver, and in 1851 he traveled to San Francisco with his friend Jacob Bailey Moore. Brown worked for Moore for the next several months, gathering specimens and making drawings in the California countryside. In March of 1852, he was commissioned by John Russell Bartlett, head of the U.S.-Mexico Boundary Commission and a friend of Moore, to draw views of landscapes and Indians in Northern California, assist with collecting Indian vocabularies, and make maps of the area, with a view towards contributing to Bartlett's book "Personal Narrative of Explorations and Incidents in Texas, New Mexico, California, Sonora, and Chihuahua" (1854). Brown traveled to New York in the late summer of 1852, and presumably drew his coastal scenes of Mexico and Central America during the trip. From 1856 to 1859, he served as US Consul for Bermuda. Little is known of his life after that date; his health was poor at the time of his resignation in 1859, and he may have died in late 1860 or soon after. He should not be confused with the Maine artist Harrison Bird Brown (1831-1915) or with the escaped slave Henry "Box" Brown (b. 1816).

Acquisition information:

Purchased from Catherine C. Abbott, December 13, 2000.

Physical facet:

43 items

Rules or conventions:

Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Related resources

Alternative form available:

This collection has been digitized in its entirety and the digital reproductions are available in the Huntington Digital Library

Indexed terms

Subjects:

Artists -- California -- 19th century.
Drawing, American -- 19th century.
Indians of North America -- California -- Portraits
Maidu Indians -- Portraits
Mines and mineral resources -- California -- Pictorial works
Mining camps -- California -- Pictorial works
Nomlaki Indians -- Portraits
Patwin Indians -- Portraits
Shasta Indians -- Portraits
Wintun Indians -- Portraits
Drawings California 19th century
Drawings Central America 19th century
Drawings Mexico 19th century
Sketches California 19th century
Sketches Central America 19th century
Sketches Mexico 19th century

Places:

California -- Pictorial works
Central America -- Pictorial works
Grass Valley (Calif.) -- Pictorial works
Mexico -- Pictorial works
Mount Shasta (Calif.) -- Pictorial works
Nevada City (Calif.) -- Pictorial works
Ometepe Island (Nicaragua) -- Pictorial works
Port Deposit (Md.) -- Pictorial works
Sacramento River (Calif.) -- Pictorial works
Sacramento Valley (Calif.) -- Pictorial works
San Francisco (Calif.) -- Pictorial works
San Juan del Sur Bay (Nicaragua) -- Pictorial works
Susquehanna River -- Pictorial works
Tehama County (Calif.) -- Pictorial works

Restrictions:

Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more information.

Terms of access:

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.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. Henry B. Brown drawings, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Location of this collection:

Huntington Library, Manuscript Collections

1151 Oxford Road

San Marino, CA 91108, US

Contact:

(626) 405-2191

reference@huntington.org

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