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. The California landscape drawings include views of San Francisco, Mount Shasta, Marysville, Grass Valley, mining camps, the Sacramento River, and Nevada City. The scenes of Mexico and Central America include Acapulco, the Gulf of California, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador. The drawings are dated 1851 and 1852. There is one undated drawing of the Susquehanna River in Port Deposit, Maryland.;Catherine C. Abbot, Purchase, December 13, 2000.;Unpublished finding aid available in Library. An electronic version is available on the website of Online Archives of California (OAC). Click on the link in this record to view the table of contents. 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).
Brown, Henry B., b. 1816 Artists--California--19th century Drawing, American--19th century Indians of North America--California--Drawings Indians of North America--California--Portraits Maidu Indians--Drawings Mines and mineral resources--California--Drawings Mining camps--California--Drawings Nomlaki Indians--Drawings Patwin Indians--Drawings Shasta Indians--Drawings Wintun Indians--Drawings California--Drawings Central America--Drawings--19th century Grass Valley (Calif.)--Drawings Mexico--Drawings--19th century Mount Shasta (Calif.)--Drawings Nevada City (Calif.)--Drawings Ometepe Island (Nicaragua)--Drawings Port Deposit (Md.)--Drawings Sacramento River (Calif.)--Drawings Sacramento Valley (Calif.)--Drawings San Francisco (Calif.)--Drawings San Juan del Sur Bay (Nicaragua)--Drawings Susquehanna River--Drawings Tehama County (Calif.)--Drawings Drawings--California--19th century. (aat) Drawings--Central America--19th century. (aat) Drawings--Mexico--19th century. (aat) Sketches--California--19th century. (aat) Sketches--Central America--19th century. (aat) Sketches--Mexico--19th century. (aat)
Source
Drawings of Henry B. Brown, 1851-1852 Manuscripts, Huntington Digital Library
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