EDWIN HACKER BROWN:
An Inventory of the Edwin H. Brown and Family Papers at the Minnesota Historical Society
Manuscripts Collection
OVERVIEW
| Creator: | Brown, Edwin Hacker, 1875-1930, creator. | |
| Title: | Edwin H. Brown and family papers. | |
| Dates: | 1844-1960. | |
| Abstract: | Correspondence and related papers, reports and other business records, legal and financial documents, diaries, scrapbook contents, and photograph albums documenting the life of a Minneapolis architect and engineer and of various members of the related Brown, Hall, and Christian families. | |
| Quantity: | 3.2 cubic feet (3 boxes, including 15 volumes, 4 volumes in 1 partial box, and 2 oversize folders, unboxed) and 1 microfilm reel. | |
| Location: | See Detailed Description for shelf locations. |
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Edwin Hacker Brown
Edwin Hacker Brown was born in Worcester, Massachusetts on July 29, 1875, the son of Edwin and Marianna Mifflin Earle Brown. He received his education in the Worcester public schools (1880-1887), Charles E. Fish's School for Boys (1887-1891), Harvard University (1892-1896), and the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (1896-1898). From the latter he received a degree in mechanical engineering. During September through December, 1898 he taught in the Worcester English High School physics department. Over the next thirteen years he was associated with a number of mining and construction companies, including the Pioneer Mining Company of Alaska (1899), the Cape Nome Hydraulic Mining Company as a director and assistant general manager at its Alaska claim sites (1900-1902), and the Perfect Combustion Company of America, Inc. (also known as the American Kiln and Construction Company), which he served as engineer and European manager in Madrid, Spain (September-December 1903) and as an engineer on the United States east coast and in Minneapolis (1904). In Minneapolis he was also affiliated with Winston, Harper, Fisher, and Company in an attempt to construct a peat processing plant. From May through October (1905) he was again in Alaska, employed as engineer for the Cedric Ditch Company near Nome. He then returned to Minneapolis and was associated with the Minneapolis Steel and Machinery Company. In 1911 he joined his brother-in-law, Edwin H. Hewitt, to form Hewitt and Brown, Architects and Engineers, a position he held until his death.
Brown also traveled extensively during his early years, not only making several trips to Alaska but also visiting Europe (February-May 1899) and traveling around the world (October 1902-April 1903).
During World War I he took a leave of absence from Hewitt and Brown to serve in the American Red Cross as field director for the thirty-fourth division, based at Camp Cody, Deming, New Mexico (September 1, 1917-July 5, 1918) and then as associate director and director of the Bureau of Camp Service in Washington, D.C., and chief liaison officer with the United States War Department (August 1918-April 1919).
Brown was very active in both his profession and his community, serving as the national secretary (1923-1926) and a fellow (1927-1930) of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), as founder and president of the Architects' Small House Service Bureau, Inc. (1920-1930), and as a member and/or officer of the United States Department of Commerce's Building Code Committee (1921-1930), President's Conference on Unemployment (1921), American Society of Mechanical Engineers, American Society for Testing Materials, Association of Harvard Engineers, Engineers Club of Minneapolis, Minnesota State Federation of Architectural and Engineering Societies, Minneapolis Chapter of the AIA, and the Minneapolis Red Cross chapter.
He married Susan W. Christian (circa 1879-August 1, 1954), daughter of John Augustus and Mary Ellen Hall Christian, on June 1, 1912 in Minneapolis. They adopted twin boys in 1916, Lucian Hall (1915-March 17, 2007) and Winthrop Lane (1915-May 25, 1996). Brown died of pneumonia on April 21, 1930.
Hall Family
Nathaniel (1805-1888) and Hepzibah Seavey (1814-1893) Hall settled near Dayton, Minnesota sometime prior to 1860. They had four children: Caroline Arabella (1838-1918), Albert R. (1941-1905), Emma (circa 1842- ), and Mary Ellen (1851-1881).
Caroline ("Carrie") Arabella, the first child of Nathaniel and Hepzibah Hall, was born in Boston in 1838. In April 1866 she first spoke to her uncle, Oliver H. Kelley, about his plans for a new agrarian organization, the Patrons of Husbandry (Grange). Upon the group's 1867 organization, Carrie became Kelley's secretary, moving with the Kelley family to Minnesota, Washington, D.C., Louisville (Ky.), and Florida. She held the position of lady assistant steward of the Grange for approximately six years, beginning in 1873. In 1881 she returned to Minneapolis to care for the children of her deceased sister Mary. She later moved to Knapp, Wisconsin to care for her brother Albert. Following his death she divided her time between Minneapolis and California until her own death on December 12, 1918.
The second child of Nathaniel and Hepzibah Hall, Albert R., was born in 1841 in Windsor, Vermont. He served with the second and eleventh regiments of Minnesota Infantry during the Civil War (1861-1865), was involved in real estate and flour milling in Minnesota following the war, and was a member of the Minnesota legislature (1869-1874, 1877), serving as speaker of the house from 1872 through 1874. He moved to Knapp, Wisconsin in 1880 and served from 1890 through 1902 in the Wisconsin legislature, where he was considered a pioneer in reform legislation. He died on June 2, 1905.
Christian Family
Mary Ellen Hall, fourth child of Nathaniel and Hepzibah Hall, was born in 1851. She attended the St. Paul Female Seminary (St. Paul) and St. Mary's Hall (Faribault, Minn.) prior to her June 24, 1874 marriage to John Augustus ("Gus") Christian. Christian, born in 1832, was one of several brothers highly influential in developing the Minneapolis flour milling industry. The couple had four children: Caroline Mary (1875- ), Anna (1876- ), Susan W. (circa 1879- ), and John Augustus, Jr. (circa 1880-1892). Mary Hall Christian died in 1881 and John Augustus Christian in 1896. The children were first placed under the care of their aunt, Caroline Arabella Hall, and then their uncle, George H. Christian.
Caroline ("Carrie") Mary Christian, the first child of Mary and John A. Christian, was born on January 31, 1875 and originally called May Virginia. Along with her sister Anna, she attended the Misses Ely's School in Brooklyn, New York during 1889-1890. She married Edwin Hawley Hewitt, son of Charles Nathaniel and Helen Robinson Hawley Hewitt of Red Wing, Minnesota, on April 18, 1900. Hewitt later became the partner of her brother-in-law, Edwin Hacker Brown, in the Minneapolis firm of Hewitt and Brown, Architects and Engineers. The couple had two children--Charles Christian (1901- ) and Helen (1904-1911)-- and later adopted three others: John Edwin, Mary, and Elizabeth ("Betty").
Mary and John A. Christian's second child, Anna, was born on October 21, 1876. She also attended the Misses Ely's School (1889-1890), later pursued a career in photography, and, in 1918, married Sam Auchincloss in New York.
Biographical data was taken from the collection, the 1870 and 1880 United States censuses, and Who Was Who in America, Vol. I, 1897-1942 (Chicago: Marquis-Who's Who, Inc., 1968), p. 147. For further biographical information about Brown, see Brown, Edwin Hacker, Department of Commerce Building Code Committee Papers and Brown, Edward Josiah, Genealogical Data on William Brown and Related Families, both in the Minnesota Historical Society manuscript collections.
SCOPE AND CONTENTS
Correspondence and related papers, reports and other business records, legal and financial documents, diaries, scrapbook contents, and photograph albums documenting the life of a Minneapolis architect and engineer and of various members of the related Brown, Hall, and Christian families.
Brown's papers document his student years at Harvard University (1892-1896) and the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (1896-1898); his positions as engineer and officer with various mining and construction companies in Nome, Alaska (1898-1905); as a partner in the Minneapolis engineering and architectural firm of Hewitt and Brown (1911-1930); as American Red Cross field director at Camp Cody (N.M.) and director of its Bureau of Camp Services in Washington, D.C. (1917-1919); as a member of the President's Conference on Unemployment (1921-1922); and as an officer of the American Institute of Architects and the Architects' Small House Service Bureau. His travels in Europe and the U.S., and a trip around the world (1902-1903), are other topics.
Family papers document many aspects of the lives of members of the Brown, Hall, and Christian families, including information on girls' private school education in Minnesota (1860s) and New York City (1889-1890), Minnesota Grange administration (1860s-1870s), the Minneapolis flour milling industry (1860s-1870s), especially the Washburn "A" Mill explosion (1878), and early Wisconsin and Minnesota state politics.
ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
Availability:
The collection is open for research use.
Preferred Citation:
[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Edwin H. Brown and Family Papers. Minnesota Historical Society.
See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples
Microfilm Production:
Microfilm. Saint Paul, MN : Minnesota Historical Society, 1999. 1 microfilm reel ; 35 mm.
Accession Information:
Accession number: 4725; 13,127; 15,662; 17,340
Processing Information:
Catalog ID number: 990017304600104294
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
| Box | |||||||||||
| P1455 | 1 | Biographical information, undated. | |||||||||
| Biographical sketches of Brown, Edwin H. Hewitt, Caroline A. Hall, and William Peter Christian, Brown's birth and health record, notes on his childhood, and a record of his education. | |||||||||||
| Correspondence and related papers, undated and 1866-1916. 11 folders. | |||||||||||
| Chronologically arranged letters, telegrams, financial papers, clippings, reports, appointments and certificates, and memorial resolutions, primarily detailing the activities of various members of the Brown, Hall, and Christian families. The following annotated folder list further specifies the section's contents. "Brown" refers to Edwin Hacker Brown. | |||||||||||
| Undated. Includes samples of Brown's stationery as AIA secretary, and Hewitt and Brown's weekly time and expense and superintendent's reports. | |||||||||||
| 1866-1887 (3 folders). The majority of the correspondence from 1866 through 1879 is written by members of the Hall and Christian families to Carrie A. Hall during her travels as secretary for Grange president Oliver H. Kelley. The major correspondents include her brother Albert R., sisters Mary and Emma, mother Hepzibah, brother-in-law John A. ("Gus") Christian, and nephew Willis Jones. Much of the correspondence simply details the activities of family members and friends, illnesses, social events in Minneapolis and Dayton, Minnesota, and Grange activities. Also included are a series of letters between Hepzibah Hall and her cousin Isabella ("Belle") Seavey, Hampton, New Hampshire (1885-1887), concerning efforts to raise funds for a monument on the grave of their great-great-grandfather, Joshua Lane, and a pamphlet about the Lane family. The following annotations further highlight the contents of these letters. | |||||||||||
| 1866-1873. Contains comments on Albert's plans to open a grocery store in St. Paul (March 1866), Mary's schooling at the St. Paul Female Seminary (March 1867), Albert's request to borrow money (March 1873) and his repayment with a deed to land in St. Paul (November 1873), Hepzibah's visit with relatives in Vermont (September 1873), and Emma's production of Grange regalia (December 1873). | |||||||||||
| 1874-1875. Includes letters detailing Mary's schooling at St. Mary's Hall; Albert's position as speaker of the Minnesota House, and Mary's upcoming marriage (January 1874); Albert's move to Manomin Township, Anoka County, Minnesota (April 1874); Mary's leaving school due to illness (May 1874); Mary and Gus's wedding (June-July 1874); the sale of Albert's Dayton property, his new career in flour milling, and Minnesota state politics (November 1874); the birth of Mary and Gus's first daughter (February 1875); Albert's loss in the Manomin Flour Mills, his future job at the Washburn Mill, and his possible purchase of land near Oliver H. Kelley's Itasca (now Elk River), Minnesota farm (June 1875); Carrie's visit to Minnesota (October 1875); activities at Kelley's farm during Hepzibah and Nathaniel Hall's residence there (October 1875); and the price of shipping flour to the East (December 1875). | |||||||||||
| 1876-1887. Contains comments on Kelley's trip to Florida (February 1876) and visit to Dayton (April 1876); crop production on Kelley's farm, particularly honey (July 1876); the birth of Mary and Gus's second daughter (October 1876); Mary and the children's visit with Carrie in Louisville, Kentucky (May 1877); Albert's purchase of land near St. Paul for his parents (June 1877); and the explosion of the J. A. Christian and Company-operated Washburn-Crosby "A" Mill in Minneapolis, with the loss of Albert's warehouse (April 1878). | |||||||||||
| 1889-1890 (2 folders). The correspondence from October 1889 to May 1890 is largely composed of letters from Carrie and Anna Christian, enrolled at the Misses Ely's School in Brooklyn, New York, to their aunt Carrie A. Hall. There are also several to their younger brother and sister, John A. ("Gus") and Susie, their aunt Emma Jones, and their grandmother Hepzibah Hall. The letters mainly describe the school, their lessons and teachers, social activities, and excursions into New York City. Specific comments include: a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge (October 14), Anna's birthday party (October 22), the school's credit system (October 24), their view of the Statue of Liberty and Coney Island (November 3), smallpox vaccinations (November 14), a Christmas matinee of "Little Lord Fauntleroy" (December 26), dancing school and a visit to the Statue of Liberty (January 17), Carrie's fifteenth birthday party and attendance at her first German opera (February 2), the mandatory speaking of French at the school (February 22), their plans to spend the summer with their uncle George H. Christian's family in Minneapolis (April 27), and a visit to the circus (May 11). Also included are letters to Carrie A. Hall from friends Mary A. and Margaret Hubbard detailing their stay in Germany (April 10 and May 13, 1889), and an undated photograph of the school (1889). | |||||||||||
| 1892-1901. Contains letters from Brown, at Harvard University, to his parents detailing his classes, teachers, and social activities (November 1892-March 1896); his first term tuition bill from Harvard (December 1892); letters from Brown to his mother describing sailing off Marblehead Harbor, Massachusetts (July 1897); a clipping on Brown's election as Worcester Polytechnic Institute senior class president (February 1898); recommendation letters for Brown from the Worcester English High School physical lab director and principal (December 1898); Susan W. Christian's diploma from Mrs. Delafield and Mrs. Colvin's School (June 1900); a copy of the "Local Rules and Regulations Governing the Cape Nome Mining District" (June 1901); letters from Brown, with the Cape Nome Hydraulic Mining Company (CNHMC) in Alaska, to his parents (June-September 1901), detailing the company's indebtedness and Major L. H. French's efforts to get it back into operation (June 12-13), work at the mine sites (June 15), and trouble with the Wild Goose Mining Company over the CNHMC's title to the No. 19 Ophir mine site (September 18-20); and a copy of Brown's diary of a trip with his brother Caspar on a Russian expedition to Siberia (August 27-September 1), with comments on Russians in general, the landscape, vegetation, wildlife, natives, their boats and huts, trade items, and a reindeer station. | |||||||||||
| 1902. Letters from Brown in Alaska to his parents (May-October) comment on his forty-day trip from Seattle to Nome due to ice blockages, the CNHMC's precarious financial condition, and the lawsuit over the No. 19 Ophir mine site title; Brown's being placed in sole charge of the No. 5 Anvil Creek mine site (August 2-3); a description of Council City (September 10); his initiation into the Arctic Brotherhood, participation in several ping-pong games, and his wish to never return to Alaska (September 14); and details of a trip to the Arctic and the Cape Lisbourne coal mines (October 5). Returning home via Japan and India he describes Macao and his sampan ride from Hong Kong (December 17). Also present are reports of CNHMC operations during the summers of 1901 (January 1) and 1902 (December 1). | |||||||||||
| 1903. Continues Brown's letters from his trip around the world, with descriptions of Monte Carlo, Marseilles and Nice (France), and Monaco (February 25), and the cathedral at Lincoln, England (April 9, 11). Also contains a series of letters between Brown, Major L. H. French, and W. J. Scanlon (July-December) concerning their mutual affiliations in the Alaskan mining industry and the Perfect Combustion Company of America, Inc. (PCC) and as private friends. Included are comments on French's proposal to form a company for the coking of peat (August 3); Brown's journey to Madrid, Spain to erect a kiln for the Cresna Compania de Materiales y Construction (August 28); the reorganization of the PCC into the American Kiln and Construction Company (AKCC), with French as treasurer, Scanlon as secretary, and Brown as European manager (October 13-15); Brown's hospitalization with rheumatic fever and the continuing No. 19 Ophir mine lawsuit (November 9); and problems with both the contract and the construction of the Spanish kiln (November) with the Spanish company deciding to halt all work on the kiln (December 4). Also included are Brown's appointment as PCC engineer on the Spanish project (August 28) and notice of his election as a junior member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (November 25). | |||||||||||
| 1904. The majority of the 1904 materials detail Brown's further involvement with the CNHMC and the No. 19 Ophir mine lawsuit (February-August) and his attempts, on behalf of the AKCC and Winston, Harper, Fisher and Company, to develop a peat processing operation in Minneapolis (March-July). There are letters from his CNHMC associate Lena Walton and her attorney concerning the No. 19 Ophir lawsuit and her formation of the Tundra Fuel Company (February; June); from French describing Walton's operation of a CNHMC office in Worcester (April 13), the U.S. Supreme Court's decision against them in the No. 19 Ophir mine case (April 23), and outlining the condition of the CNHMC (July 10); correspondence with his brother Earle concerning the legal implications of Brown's connection with Walton and her new company (May-June); an affidavit signed by Walton stating that she never implied that French had used bad management in the operation of the CNHMC (July 28); and a letter from French detailing Walton's recent visit to Nome during which she sold the same mine several times and sold title to claim sites she did not own (August 22). The peat processing letters include correspondence with several manufacturing companies concerning their equipment (March-July) and with French concerning the AKCC's role in the operation (April); Brown's expense accounts to the AKCC (April-May); and a letter from Earle describing a peat processing operation in Boston (June 6). Also included are letters to Brown from his father concerning Brown's handling of his parents' taxable stock (February 24), his father's position with the American Card Clothing Company (February 24, June 20), and general family news; from Major French detailing the formation of and fund raising for the Solomon River Ditch Company (April-May) and its construction of a ditch near Nome (June, August); from Katherine A. O'Connor, a New Rochelle, New York scalp specialist, concerning Brown's treatments (March, June), and from Caspar detailing his exhibit at the St. Louis World's Fair (June). | |||||||||||
| 1908-1916. Includes Susan Christian's Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts fellow card (February 1908), Brown's Christmas cards (1908-1910, 1912), and letters from Lucian Hall, Petrograd, Russia, and Caroline A. Hall, Los Angeles, congratulating the Browns on the adoption of twin boys (April-June 1916). | |||||||||||
| Hall family letters, undated, 1844, 1860-1866, 1879, 1890. 4 folders. | |||||||||||
| Correspondence of Albert R. Hall, principally covering his service with the Company D, Second Minnesota Regiment (1861-1864) and Company G, Eleventh Minnesota Regiment (1864-1865). Additional family letters (1844-1890) detail home front activities in Dayton. | |||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| P1455 | 2 | Correspondence and related papers, 1917-1951. 3 folders. | |||||||||
| 1917-1918. Mainly diary style letters written by Brown during his American Red Cross service at Camp Cody, New Mexico. He describes the landscape and wildlife, the camp, the weather, the town of Deming, the incoming troops and officers, and his duties. Included are comments on the constant construction in the camp, jack rabbit hunting, the order prohibiting cameras in the camp, and his first trip to nearby Columbus, New Mexico (September 1917); his treatment at the Mimbres Hot Springs hospital in Sherman, New Mexico for sciatica (October 1917); a trip to the Mountain Division chapters of the Red Cross conference in Denver, the visit of the Red Cross's director of camp services to the camp, Brown's establishment of a contact camp for soldiers in quarantine, his home service work, officer's school, work with the Young Men's Christian Association representative, and distribution of Red Cross packets (November 1917); delivery of the Red Cross Christmas packets (December 1917); participation in a gas preparedness course (January 1918); the trip home for his father's funeral (February 1918); a demonstration of trench mortars, the proposed construction of a Red Cross house in camp, and his attendance at a Passover Seder (March 1918); and his regret upon leaving the thirty-fourth division (June 1918). Also included are Susan C. Brown's American Red Cross life membership certificate (June 1917); an article in the Red Cross's Northern Division Bulletin describing Brown's work at Camp Cody (February 1918); articles in the camp's weekly newsletter, The Renville, about and by Brown on the importance of the volunteer social organizations at Camp Cody (June 1918); Brown's various Red Cross appointments and authorizations; and letters regarding application for a commission in the signal corps. | |||||||||||
| 1919-1929. Continues Brown's Red Cross materials, including a letter accepting his resignation (March 1919). Also includes an agreement detailing Brown's donation to the St. Mark's Episcopal Church chapel of a memorial window to the J. A. Christian family (September 1919); an article by Brown and other data on the Architects' Small House Service Bureau; a few items on his AIA and civic activities; a pamphlet by Brown entitled "What Is The Use of An Architect?" (1924); and childhood letters from his sons. | |||||||||||
| 1930-1951. Contains numerous memorial resolutions and sympathy letters following Brown's death, including items from several civic and professional organizations (April-June 1930); obituaries and funeral clippings (April 1930); a letter from Boston architect William Stanley Parker, suggesting the establishment of a memorial fund to create a permanent staff for the Architects' Small House Service Bureau (April 1930); AIA magazine articles on Brown's death and the Edwin H. Brown Memorial Fund (July 1930); letters and clippings on Lucian's and Winthrop's football and other activities at Milton Academy (1931-1933) and their stay in Paris (June-July 1934); copies of two letters written by Brown in 1916 to be given to the boys on their twenty-first birthday (December 1936) detailing the proceedings of their adoption; several clippings on the April 17, 1937 marriage of Lucian and Mary Adelaid Fisher (April 1937); and a thank-you letter from Pearl S. Buck and award of recognition signed by Madame Chaing Kai-shek, sent to Susan C. Brown for her contribution to the China Relief Legion (May 1942). | |||||||||||
| Albert R. Hall political correspondence, 1895-1897. | |||||||||||
| During his service in the Wisconsin legislature, Hall was a major backer of Robert M. LaFollette's gubernatorial candidacy in both 1896 and 1898, and of legislation to stop the railroads' practice of issuing free passes to legislators. Included are an undated resolution favoring LaFollette's candidacy; letters from constituents urging him to support the anti-pass legislation (March 1895); a letter from Fola LaFollette thanking Hall for his work in her father's behalf (July 1896); letters between Hall and J. H. Waggoner, Oconto (Wisconsin) County Reporter, discussing the anti-pass legislation, Governor Edward Scofield's alleged abuse of the free railroad passes, Waggoner's wish to propose Hall for governor in 1898, and Waggoner's proposals on how to save the Republican Party in Wisconsin (February-April 1897); and letters from Nils P. Haugen of River Falls, Wisconsin, Robert M. LaFollette, and several journalists (September-October 1897) concerning LaFollette's gubernatorial campaign against Scofield, the anti-pass legislation, and Hall's support of both. | |||||||||||
| Legal and financial documents, 1912-1927. | |||||||||||
| Contains Caroline A. Hall's undated will; an undated estate sale inventory for Susan Christian Brown; an inventory of her investments in account with the Hardwood Manufacturing Company (1912); a warranty deed from C. Bertram and Carol C. Newton to Susan C. Brown for land on Christmas Lake, Hennepin County (1919); Edwin H. Brown's will (1925); and financial statements of the Edwin H. and Susan C. Brown Agency and the Susan Christian Brown Trust No. 1 (1927). | |||||||||||
| President's Conference on Unemployment, 1921-1924. 4 folders. | |||||||||||
| The conference's purpose was to study and assess the most important matters that required constructive and immediate settlement if business and permanent employment were to be more expeditiously accomplished and to make recommendations to implement those settlements. Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover asked Brown to join its committee on construction on October 7, 1921. The file contains letters, committee reports, statements, membership lists and directories, and background materials. The main correspondents include Hoover and Arthur Woods, chairman of the Committee on Civic and Emergency Measures. Included are a summary of the conference's recommendations for immediate adoption and prosecution (September 29, 1921); a statement concerning the conference by President Warren G. Harding (October 4, 1921); various committee reports, including those studying employment agencies, foreign trade, public works, agriculture, and mining (September-October 1921); lists of members' committee assignments (October 1921); the conference's general recommendations for measures for the permanent recovery of employment (October 11, 1921); closing remarks of Secretary Hoover and Samuel Gompers (October 13, 1921); a statement by employer members of the conference (October 13, 1921); a series of letters released to the media and various city government detailing what other cities were doing to combat unemployment (December, 1921; January-April 1922); letters to Brown from Hoover thanking him for his service and enclosing the conference's final report (December 17, 1921); letters from Edward Eyre Hunt, conference secretary, detailing the conference's continuing activities (March 20, 1922) and describing its analytical study of the causes of the business cycle (April 1923) and its study of the seasonal operation of construction employment (July 21, 1924); and a folder of materials detailing the English guild system (1921). | |||||||||||
| Scrapbook materials, 1900-1945. | |||||||||||
| Due to the rapidly deteriorating condition of both the scrapbook pages and the clippings mounted on them, the volume was dismantled in August 1984. Each scrapbook page was first photocopied. Then all clippings were photocopied and the originals discarded. The clippings photocopied were then refiled into their original location among the full-page photocopies. The clippings consist of obituaries, wedding and engagement descriptions, and articles detailing the activities of Brown, Edwin H. Hewitt, various members of the Brown, Hall, and Christian families, and the architectural and engineering firm of Hewitt and Brown. | |||||||||||
| Photographs, undated and 1900, 1917-1918. | |||||||||||
| Includes an undated photograph of the Hewitt and Brown offices in Minneapolis; several photographs from Brown's Red Cross service at Camp Cody, particularly of the Fifty-ninth Depot Brigade officers, including Brown and Brigadier General George H. Harres, and of Brown standing in front of his tent (1917); four photographs of Taos, New Mexico (July 11, 1918), found loose in volume 9; and a photograph of the American Red Cross headquarters building in Washington, D.C. (1918). | |||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| P1455 | 3 | Diaries: | |||||||||
| Volume 1. Edwin H. Brown, 1899 February 25-September 23. | |||||||||||
| Contains daily entries (February 25-May 27) detailing Brown's European trip as tutor to Jack and Stokes Waite. Includes descriptions of an eruption of Mount Vesuvius (March 8); sightseeing in Naples and Pompei (March 9, 17); the celebration of the Italian king's birthday in Naples (March 14); sightseeing in Rome (March 24-April 28), Milan (April 29), Lucerne, Switzerland (April 30), and Paris (May 1-9); the return journey (May 10-18); and a tour of the Brooklyn, New York Naval Hospital (May 24). From May 28 through September 23 the entries are scattered and include details of stays with the Waite family in East Orange (N.J.) and at Lake Minnewaska (June). | |||||||||||
| Volume 2. Edwin H. Brown, 1900 May 18-November 6. | |||||||||||
| Details his employment as director and assistant engineer of the CNHMC in Nome, Alaska. Includes comments on the purchase of supplies in Seattle (May 24-June 6); his voyage to Nome aboard the S.S. Victoria (June 7-18), with comments on passengers, seabirds and animals sighted, formation of a vigilante company to protect the ship and its freight upon arrival in Nome (June 11), and a general vaccination prior to landing (June 18); Nome (June 19); the various types of mining machinery in use and the beginning of the CNHMC operations (July 17-27); the company's indebtedness (August 6) and the decision to sell all but the big plant (August 20); Brown's participation in a stampede to Bluestone on the Gold Rush Creek (August 25-30); working the No. 5 Anvil Creek mine site (September); the last day of mining for the 1900 season (September 26); voyage to Seattle on the Charles D. Lane, with details of continuous boiler problems (September 29-October 16); sightseeing in San Francisco (October 19); and the train journey east, with stops in Salt Lake City, Denver, and Chicago (October 28-November 16). The last page contains an undated list: "Company Expenses That I Know Of." | |||||||||||
| Edwin H. Brown: "Around the World": | |||||||||||
| The three volumes contain very long and detailed descriptions of Brown's journey around the world, beginning in San Francisco and ending in Worcester, Massachusetts. Volume 3 includes a contents page and preface describing his initial plans for the trip. Each of the volume's entries contain general descriptions of the various countries' peoples, customs, architecture, landscape, weather, and animal life. Brown also noted the latitude, longitude, and daily mileage whenever he was on board ship. Included are comments on his journey to Hawaii (October 30-November 5); time in Japan (November 17-December 9), with details of meeting Basake, a well-known Japanese artist (November 17), dining in a tea house (November 18) and at the Yokohama United Club (November 19), attendance at a kabuki theater (November 22), and sightseeing in Yokohama, Nikko, Tokyo, Kobe, and Osaka; the journey to Hong Kong with a stop in Shanghai, China (December 9-17); time in Macao (December 17), with a visit to its opium factories, in China (December 18-20), and Singapore (December 19-26); in India (December 31-January 24), with comments on stops in Calcutta, at the Taj Mahal in Agra, and the Maharajah's palace in Jaipur, and in Bombay and Egypt (February 2-16), with details of visits to Cairo, the pyramids and Sphinx, the Tomb of Kings at Luxor, the Aswan Dam, and the Citadel; a cruise on the Mediterranean Sea (February 19-March 6), with stops at Marseilles and Nice, France (February 19-24), Monaco (February 25), Gibraltar (March 1-4), Tangier, Morocco (March 5), and Algiers, Algeria (March 6); time in Spain (March 7-20), with comments on the Museo del Prado in Madrid, a bullfight, and sightseeing in Toledo; the train journey through France (March 21-28), with stops in Paris and the champagne country at Reims; time in Germany and Belgium (March 29-31), particularly a boat trip on the Rhine River, and in Great Britain (April 1-21), including sightseeing in London, Cambridge, Lincoln, Edinburgh, Oxford, Stratford-on-Avon, and Liverpool; and the return journey to Worcester (April 21-May 3). | |||||||||||
| Volume 3. Volume I, October 30, 1902-January 3, 1903. | |||||||||||
| Volume 4. Volume II, 1903 January 4-March 20. | |||||||||||
| Volume 5. Volume III, 1903 March 20-April 29. | |||||||||||
| Volume 6. Edwin H. Brown, 1905. | |||||||||||
| Contains entries for January 1-May 31, July 29, August 6, and September 18-December 10. They are mainly short entries written in Minneapolis (January-May 22) and with the Cedric Ditch Company in Seattle and Nome (May 27-December 5). Containing daily weather and cash accounts, the entries detail Brown's many social activities, including bowling, golf, bridge, and hockey; his membership in the Minneapolis Engineers' Club (January 24); symptoms of tuberculosis and his decision to change occupations (February 1, 4); a visit by his parents to Minneapolis (April 22-24); his father's split with the American Card Clothing Company (May 4); decision to join Major French in Nome as engineer for the Cedric Ditch Company (May 22) and the trip to Seattle (May 27-29); his birthday celebration on the Oregon Creek, Alaska (July 29); the return trip to Seattle (September 21-29) and a visit to the Treadwell mines near Juneau, Alaska (September 30-October 8); visit to the Lewis and Clark Exposition in Portland, Oregon (October 10-14); return trip, with Caspar, on the Canadian Pacific Railroad to Minneapolis (October 18-22); and employment with the Minneapolis Street and Machinery Company (October 24). | |||||||||||
| Volume 7. Edwin H. Brown: "Our Wedding Trip," June 1-July 13, 1912. | |||||||||||
| Contains daily entries detailing destination, mileage (daily and accumulative), time of departure and arrival, daily expenses, and road, car, and weather conditions. Married in Minneapolis on June 1, 1912, the Browns traveled in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Connecticut during their trip. Included are comments on Niagara Falls (June 10-12), the Harvard-Yale boat race (June 21), tennis, boating, and golf at Westport, Connecticut (June 28-30), ferry trips on Lake Erie and to Mackinac Island (July 7-12), and the breakdown of their car in Superior, Wisconsin with the Browns and the car both returning to Minneapolis by train (July 13). The volume's last page includes accounts of the quantities of gasoline and oil used and the miles driven daily. | |||||||||||
| Volume 8. Edwin H. Brown: "Illustrated Diary . . . Three Weeks at Camp Cody, New Mexico," April 18-29, 1918. | |||||||||||
| Brown's diary of a visit by Susan C. Brown to Camp Cody during Brown's service there with the American Red Cross. Including daily weather conditions and numerous photographs, the entries detail her arrival (April 8); the visit of Keith Spaulding, general inspector of the Red Cross's divisions (April 10-12), with comments on a tour of the camp's various volunteer social organizations; trips to Silver City (April 12) and Mimbres Hot Springs (April 14); the arrival of the Red Cross's touring car (April 16); visits to the ruins of Fort Cummings, a former U.S. Army post (April 18), Capitol Dome (April 21), and Fort Bayard and the Santa Rita mines (April 23); viewing of battle training exercises and touring the petroglyphs at Flourites (April 25); a Liberty Loan parade in Deming (April 26); a two-day trip to Elephant Butte Dam on the Rio Grande River (April 27-28); and Susan's departure (April 29). | |||||||||||
| Volume 9. Edwin H. Brown: "Illustrated Diary, Camp Cody to Washington, D.C.," July 5-August 1, 1918. | |||||||||||
| Details Brown's automobile journey from New Mexico to take his position as associate director of the Red Cross's Bureau of Field Services in Washington. Including daily weather reports, a summary of each day's drive, daily odometer reading and mileage, arrival and departure times, amounts of gas and oil purchased, and numerous photographs, the entries detail Brown's last day at Camp Cody (July 3); meeting Susan in Lamy, New Mexico (July 7); sightseeing in Santa Fe (July 8) and at the Frijoles Canyon cliff dwellings (July 9); a stay in Taos, with visits to San Geronimo de Taos, the Pueblo Indian community, the Penitente Church, and the artist's colony (July 10-11); sightseeing in Colorado Springs and at Pike's Peak (July 12-14); a meeting of the Red Cross division bureau heads in Denver (July 15-16); traveling across Kansas and Missouri (July 17-21); a stop at the Red Cross's southwestern division headquarters in St. Louis (July 22-23); traveling across Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania and into Washington (July 24-28); reporting to Red Cross national headquarters (July 29); a visit to Mount Vernon (July 30); and Susan's departure (August 1). Includes a map of the entire route. | |||||||||||
| Edwin H. Brown Photograph Albums: | |||||||||||
| Volume 10. Personal album, 1898. | |||||||||||
| Contains cyanotype photographs documenting Brown's years at Harvard (1895-1896), including pictures of the campus, his room and roommates, the campus mascot--"John, the Orange Man"--with his wagon and donkey, Cambridge's fiftieth anniversary parade (June 1896), and Brown's diploma and graduation day (June 1896); his attendance at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (1896-1898), with photographs of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house (April 1897), its banquet (January 1898), and his diploma (1898); and numerous photographs of Worcester, Massachusetts and his family, including exterior and interior shots of his parents' house (1892, 1896-1898), the family's Irish setter Wycliff (1890s), a Brown family portrait (September 1897), and vacationing and boating on Worcester's Lake Quinsigamond (1892) and on Quissett Harbor, with interior and exterior sailboat shots (July-August 1896; August 1897), and Marblehead (August 1897 ) Harbor. | |||||||||||
| Volume 11. Cape Nome Hydraulic Mining Company, Nome Alaska, 1900. | |||||||||||
| Contains photographs, mainly undated, documenting Brown's work in Alaska with the CNHMC. (See Brown's May 18-November 6, 1900 diary for related narrative description.) They detail Brown's stay in Seattle, voyage to Alaska on the S.S. Victoria, Nome, the CNHMC Camp Blanche mining camp and Goose Lake equipment, unloading coal, the Snake River dredge Wisconsin, the stampede to Bluestone on Gold Rush Creek, Teller City, Bering City, Laplanders, the CNHMC's Nome offices (interior and exterior), the No. 5 Anvil Creek mine site, Nome following the disastrous September 3 storm, San Francisco, and Salt Lake City. | |||||||||||
| Volumes 12-13. Cape Nome Hydraulic Mining Company, Nome, Alaska, 1901. 2 volumes. | |||||||||||
| Continues photographs (those in vol. 13 are labelled and arranged chronologically) documenting Brown's role with the CNHMC, including scenes of Spokane and Tacoma, Washington; the S.S. Nome City (April 25); seal hunting on ice floes surrounding the boat (May 15, 21); Nome (June 1); the No. 5 Anvil Creek mine site (June 3, 5; August 27); the CNHMC stables (June 15), offices (July 5), and yard (October 16) in Nome; prospecting on Ryan Creek (July 10); Teller City (July 13); natives salmon fishing on the Cripple River (July 20); the Siberian trip (September 1-22), with views of Plover Bay, Emma Harbor, native villages, Indian Point, a reindeer station at Mechigmen Bay, Sledge Island, and the Fish River; Council City (September 28); the No. 19 Ophir mine site (September 24); the CNHMC executive staff in Alaska (October 11); Brown's return voyage to Seattle on Board the Senator (October); and views of San Francisco (November 8), Capistrano (November 11), Pasadena (November 12), Coronado (November 13), Santa Monica (November 14), and the Grand Canyon (November 16). Volume 13 also contains several photographs of the Pioneer Mining Company's No. 6 Anvil Creek mine site, taken by a photographer named Dobbs. | |||||||||||
| Volume 14. Cedric Ditch Company, Nome, Alaska, 1904-1905. | |||||||||||
| Photographs documenting the Cedric Ditch Company's construction in Alaska (see Brown's 1905 diary for related narrative description). Taken mainly by a photographer named Dobbs, the pictures include views (July 22-October 7, 1905) of the company's home office, pick and shovel crews digging the ditch, rock blasting, Camps 1, 4, and 5, sluices, cutting sod for lining the ditch, waste gates, ice in the ditch, and the completed construction. Also included are several Dobbs photographs of the Solomon River Ditch Company operations (May-July 1904) and a number taken by Brown at the Lewis and Clark Exposition in Portland, Oregon and on the Canadian Pacific rail trip to Minneapolis (October 1905). | |||||||||||
| Volume 15. Edwin H. and Susan C. Brown guest book, 1927-1939, 1947, 1950, 1960. | |||||||||||
| Includes entries for a 1927 New Year's Eve party, a skating party (with photo invitation, January 1928), Thanksgiving Day (November 1928, 1929, 1947, and 1950), New Year's Day (1930), and an outdoor party (with photo invitation, February 1930). | |||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| 146.K.7.4F | 4 | Nome nuggets by L.H. French, 1901. 1 volume. | |||||||||
| Inscribed to Ned Brown, who provided data for the volume. | |||||||||||
| Photograph album, 1902-1906. 1 volume. | |||||||||||
| Includes views of Nome, Madrid, Minneapolis scenes and homes, the White Earth Reservation, Cuba, the Bahamas, Mexico, and England and Greece. | |||||||||||
| Second trip to Nassau photographic diary, January-March 1915. 1 volume. | |||||||||||
| Third trip to Nassau photographic diary, March 1915. 1 volume. | |||||||||||
| Folder | |||||||||||
| +288 | 1 | Oversize materials: | |||||||||
| The Nome Nugget, Nome, Alaska, January 1, 1900. | |||||||||||
| Includes articles on Nome's most famous creeks and gold claims. | |||||||||||
| The Nome Daily Chronicle, Nome, Alaska, September 13, 1900. | |||||||||||
| Details the storm-caused destruction of the Nome waterfront. | |||||||||||
| The Nome Daily Chronicle, Nome, Alaska, September 14, 1900. | |||||||||||
| Contains an article detailing a lawsuit involving the Pioneer Mining Company's legal ownership of the Anvil Creek mines. Brown held an interest in the company. | |||||||||||
| Prospectus of the Cape Nome Hydraulic Mining Company, circa 1901. | |||||||||||
| The World, January 6, 1901. | |||||||||||
| Contains articles describing Alaska's gold fields and mines by Elmer F. Botsford and Major Leigh H. French, the latter a business partner of Brown in the CNHMC. Illustrations include several photographs taken by Brown in Nome and at the CNHMC's No. 5 Anvil Creek claim. | |||||||||||
| The Nome Nugget, Nome, Alaska, July 21, 1901. | |||||||||||
| Details the arrival of the steamer Senator and the wreck of the steamer Charles D. Lane. | |||||||||||
| Map: Western Alaska, Cooks Inlet, and the Copper River Gold Diggings, circa 1902. | |||||||||||
| Printed by the Pacific Packing and Navigation Company, Seattle and San Francisco. | |||||||||||
| AIA Convention Daily, New York City, April 24, 1925. | |||||||||||
| American Institute of Architects (AIA) convention newsletter containing articles on the work of the Architects Small House Service Bureau (Brown was its originator and president) and Brown's election as AIA secretary and director, and a photograph of Brown. | |||||||||||
| Folder | |||||||||||
| +288 | 2 | Architectural drawings of "Lake House for Miss Susan Christian," 1909. Photocopies. 26 drawings on 14 sheets. | |||||||||
| Drawings prepared by Hewitt and Brown, Architects, for a home on Lake Minnetonka in the western suburbs of Minneapolis. The drawings include a variety of exterior elevations and details, interior details, and floor plans. | |||||||||||
| Reel | |||||||||||
| M600 | 1 | Papers Relating to Alaska, 1892-1902, 1904-1905. 1 reel positive microfilm. 35mm. | |||||||||
| Copies of selected originals from elsewhere in the collection, all of them having to do with Alaska. | |||||||||||
| Correspondence and related papers, 1892-1902, 1904. | |||||||||||
| Edwin H. Brown diaries, volumes 2 and 6, 1900, 1905. | |||||||||||
| Photograph albums, volumes 11-14, 1900-1901, 1904-1905. | |||||||||||
| Oversize materials, 1900-circa 1902. | |||||||||||
CATALOG HEADINGS
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.
- Topics:
- Adoption.
- Architect-designed houses -- Minnesota -- Lake Minnetonka -- Drawings.
- Automobile travel.
- Education.
- Gold mines and Mining -- Alaska.
- Hydraulic mining.
- Mining claims -- Alaska.
- Mining machinery.
- Peat machinery.
- Railroads and state -- Wisconsin.
- Sailing -- Massachusetts.
- Unemployment -- United States.
- Voyages around the world.
- Flour mills -- Minnesota -- Minneapolis.
- World War, 1914-1918 -- War work -- Red Cross.
- Washburn "A" Mill Explosion, Minneapolis, Minn., 1878.
- Persons:
- Brown, Caspar Mifflin, 1878-.
- Hall, C. A. (Caroline Arabella), 1838-
- Hall family.
- Harries, George Herbert, 1860-1934.
- Hewitt, Edwin Hawley, 1874-1939.
- Kelley, Oliver H. (Oliver Hudson), 1826-1913.
- Scofield, Edward, 1842-1925.
- Organizations:
- American Kiln and Construction Company.
- American National Red Cross.
- Architects' Small House Service Bureau.
- Cape Nome Hydraulic Mining Company (Nome, Alaska).
- Cedric Ditch Company (Nome, Alaska).
- China Relief Legion.
- Harvard University -- Pictorial images.
- Hewitt and Brown (Minneapolis, Minn.).
- Milton Academy (Milton, Mass.) -- Students.
- Minneapolis Street and Machinery Company (Minneapolis, Minn.).
- Patrons of Husbandry.
- Perfect Combustion Company of America.
- Pioneer Mining Company.
- Saint Mary's Hall (Faribault, Minn.).
- Solomon River Ditch Company (Alaska).
- St. Paul Female Seminary (Saint Paul, Minn.).
- United States. Army. Minnesota Infantry Regiment, 2nd (1861-1865)
- United States. Army. Minnesota Infantry Regiment, 11th (1864-1865)
- Winston, Harper, Fisher and Company (Minneapolis, Minn.).
- Places:
- Alaska -- Description and travel.
- California -- Description and travel.
- Camp Cody (Deming, N.M.).
- East Asia -- Description and travel.
- Europe -- Description and travel.
- Hawaii -- Description and travel.
- New Mexico -- Description and travel.
- Nome (Alaska) -- Description.
- Seattle (Wash.) -- Description.
- Middle East -- Description and travel.
- Siberia (Russia) -- Description and travel.
- Wisconsin -- Politics and government.
- Minnesota -- Politics and government -- 1858-1898.
- Dayton (Minn.) -- Social life and customs.
- Minneapolis (Minn.) -- Buildings.
- Oliver H. Kelley Farm (Elk River, Minn.).
- Document Types:
- Architectural drawings.
- Diaries.
- Photograph albums.
- Maps.
- Microforms.
- Occupations:
- Architects.
- Engineers.
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