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Brown family papers
This collection, housed in two boxes, consists of letters, photographs, and personal writings of the Brown family, as well as collected ephemera and printed matter. The materials range in date from 1902 to 1942. The collection provides an overview of the Brown family's daily life and activities...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Corporate Author: | |
| Collection: | Brown Family Papers |
| Collection Number: | 4201 |
| Format: | Manuscript |
| Language: | English |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Link to finding aid |
| Physical Description: |
0.6 Linear feet ; 2 boxes |
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| Access: |
None. The collection is open for research. |
| Summary: |
This collection, housed in two boxes, consists of letters, photographs, and personal writings of the Brown family, as well as collected ephemera and printed matter. The materials range in date from 1902 to 1942. The collection provides an overview of the Brown family's daily life and activities including school endeavors, courtship, and family matters. A few of the letters in the collection document encounters with the law.
A large portion of the collection consists of letters primarily between family members, but also includes correspondence from other individuals and organizations such as lawyers and schools. A majority of the letters were written between the 1920s and 1940s to siblings Mabel Brown and Earl Brown from various family members and acquaintances. There are some letters addressed to Ella Brown discussing her brother's incarceration in 1904, as well as a letter to Mabel Brown in 1940 regarding her cousin's arrest. Other letters to Mabel discuss family matters and daily life; some are from suitors. At least some of the letters to Earl Brown in the 1940s relate to his activities while in school at Lincoln University and his romantic entanglements.
Photographs in the collection primarily depict family members and school classes. There are a couple of images of a sailor training on a ship in 1937 that are located with letters from 1937. There are also a handful of negatives and tin types. Most images are undated, but likely date from the 1910s to 1940.
Ephemera and printed matter in the collection range in date from the 1920s to 1942 and include greeting cards, business cards, receipts and bills, ticket stubs, invitations, postcards, telegrams, school materials, drivers' licenses, calling cards, and other items. School materials include graded exams, class schedules, a blank application for admission to Howard University, forms to sell back textbooks, a commencement program, report cards, and a course catalog. The school materials mostly relate to Lincoln University but other schools are represented including West Chester State Normal School, several elementary schools, and Kennett Square High School. There is one folder that contains both personal writings and additional printed matter from 1930s and early 1940s.
This collection consists of letters, photographs, and personal writings of the Brown family of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, as well as collected ephemera and printed matter. The materials range in date from 1902 to 1942. The collection provides an overview of the daily life and activities, including school endeavors, courtship, and family matters, of an African American family living in Chester County, Pennsylvania, in the early to mid-20th century. |