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Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection


The Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection is the foremost American collection of material devoted to the history and iconography of soldiers and soldiering, and is one of the world's largest collections devoted to the study of military and naval uniforms. It was formed over a period of forty years by the late Mrs. John Nicholas Brown (1906-1985) of Providence and is still growing. It contains approximately 12,000 printed books, 18,000 albums, sketchbooks, scrapbooks and portfolios, (containing thousands of prints and drawings), and over 13,000 individual prints, drawings and water-colors as well as a collection of 5,000 miniature lead soldiers.

Formerly in the Brown family residence (the Nightingale-Brown House, 1791), the entire collection (which was probably the largest private military collection in the world), was presented to Brown University and transferred to Special Collections located in the John Hay Library in 1982.

Format(s): Books, Museum Objects, Graphics, Scrapbooks
Library: John Hay

Access to the collection:

Online Catalog (BruKnow):
Individual records for most printed materials available on BruKnow
The British prints, drawings, and watercolours

Other Online Access:
Digital Collection: Prints, Drawings & Watercolors from the ASKB Collection
Collection Web Site: Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection

Related Collections:
Mazansky Swords Collection
Bullard Napoleon Collection
Napoleon Collection
Thatcher (Henry Knox) Papers
Brown (Anne Seddon Kinsolving) Papers