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Brown family collection


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    John Brown Collection

    Visual Materials

    A collection of photographs, prints and ephemera pertaining to abolitionist John Brown and his family. Images include portraits of Brown, his family members, supporters and other abolitionists; participants in the raid on Harper's Ferry and officials involved in Brown's trial; views of Harper's Ferry and buildings related to the raid; and views of Brown's grave and home in New York. There are also several views of Jason and Owen Brown's Las Casitas homestead in the mountains near Pasadena, California, and a scene of mourners gathered at Owen Brown's grave. The collection was compiled by Horatio Nelson Rust (1828-1906), who was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, and became a friend and supporter of John Brown. He also helped raise funds for Brown's family after John Brown's death, and was a friend to Brown's children Ruth, Jason and Owen, who moved to the Pasadena area in the 1880s. Rust was an early Pasadena resident and booster, as well as a U.S. Indian agent, collector of archeological artifacts and horticulturist.

    photCL 9

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    Horatio N. Rust Photograph Collection: John Brown Collection

    Visual Materials

    A collection of photographs, prints and ephemera pertaining to abolitionist John Brown and his family. Images include portraits of Brown, his family members, supporters and other abolitionists; participants in the raid on Harper's Ferry and officials involved in Brown's trial; views of Harper's Ferry and buildings related to the raid; and views of Brown's grave and home in New York. There are also several views of Jason and Owen Brown's Las Casitas homestead in the mountains near Pasadena, California, and a scene of mourners gathered at Owen Brown's grave. The collection was compiled by Horatio Nelson Rust (1828-1906), who was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, and became a friend and supporter of John Brown. He also helped raise funds for Brown's family after John Brown's death, and was a friend to Brown's children Ruth, Jason and Owen, who moved to the Pasadena area in the 1880s. Rust was an early Pasadena resident and booster, as well as a U.S. Indian agent, collector of archeological artifacts and horticulturist. A few additional items in the collection were acquired from other sources and transferred to the collection at various times.

    photCL 9

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    Correspondence, ephemera, photographs

    Manuscripts

    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.

    mssBrownfam

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    Brock Collection: Letters of Alexander Brown

    Manuscripts

    Letters, chiefly to Robert Alonzo Brock, dealing with Brown's genealogical research, his work on The Genesis of the United States, and the John Smith Controversy. Included are copies of eighteenth century documents

    mssBR Box 62

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    Cardella E. Brown letterpress copybook and autograph albums

    Manuscripts

    Three volumes belonging to Cardella E. Brown. The first is a letterpress copybook containing approximately 100 outgoing personal letters Brown wrote from 1859 to 1861 while he was living in Hartford, Connecticut and working as a clerk at Connecticut Mutual Insurance Company. The letters are addressed to Brown's parents, siblings, a cousin, and other family members and friends. The detailed and candid letters are written in a conversational tone devoid of usual epistolary formalities. The letters comment on a wide range of topics, including Brown's personal life and sexuality, goings on in Hartford, and state and national politics of the 1860 election year. He talks in detail about Stephen A. Douglass, the anticipated secession of South Carolina, the Buchanan administration, and the hanging of John Brown.

    mssHM 83477-83479

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    Brock Collection: Papers of James Brown

    Manuscripts

    Business records, legal papers, correspondence and miscellaneous documents of James Brown, his family and business associates, particularly Robert Burton and Robert Rives. Included are: correspondence about Brown's land holdings in Kentucky and Ohio, papers relating to the long litigation in settling the estate of Burton, whose widow married Brown, as well as complication in the matter of the estates of Mr. & Mrs. Brown in connection with the claims of the two sets of her children. There is also material regarding the liquidation of the firm Brown, Rives & Co

    mssBR Boxes 58-61