Special Collections Research Center
spcoll@wm.eduFinding Aid Authors: Special Collections Staff.
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Collection is open to all researchers. Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, such as the Virginia Public Records Act (Code of Virginia. § 42.1-76-91); and the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (Code of Virginia § 2.2-3705.5). Confidential material may include, but is not limited to, educational, medical, and personnel records. If sensitive material is found in this collection, please contact a staff member immediately. The disclosure of personally identifiable information pertaining to a living individual may have legal consequences for which the College of William and Mary assumes no responsibility.
Alexander Brown Papers (II), Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, College of William and Mary.
1,434 items purchased from Alfred Mongin, Brooklyn, New York, 10/1962.
Born at Glenwood, Nelson County, Virginia, Alexander Brown was deafened while serving in the Confederate Army in the explosion of a powder-boat near Fort Fisher, N.C. He married Caroline Augusta Cabell and after her death, Sarah Randolph Cabell. He was the author of The Genesis of the United States, The First Republic in America, The Cabells and Their Kin and other works.
Papers of Alexander Brown relating to the writings of his books, including notes, transcripts, drafts and correspondence with publisher Houghton, Mifflin & Co. and with members of his family requesting genealogical information.
Collection includes letters of Benson J. Lossing concerning his "Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution"; and "Pictorial Field Book of the War of 1812"; and part of an agreement between the Mexican government and American capitalists drafted in the autumn of 1865 by Lew Wallace.
Alexander Brown made a "List of Early Settlers", that is often cited on the internet and in reports. It is filed in Box 5, Folder 99. The Alexander Brown list of early settlers appears to be a key that Alexander Brown made to some sources that he was using in the late 19th century. The current location of many of these sources is unknown. Some of the records were public, some may have been documents that he owned or to which he had access at that time.
The document has value because it may provide a researcher with a clue to use in genealogy research but will need to do their own investigation into extant records.
See also Alexander Brown Papers (I) and Cabell-Brown Letters, Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, College of William and Mary.
These letters are alphabetically arranged, and then chronologically within each group. There are some pieces concerning the Cabells and their kin, but most of these letters bear on Brown's most substantial work, "The Genesis of the United States." Correspondence with Houghton Mifflin (his publisher) is well-represented. A minority of pieces bear on Brown's personal business transactions, chiefly real estate. However, this section contains little of a personal nature; there are no letters from either of his wives and such letters that come to him from relatives seem to have been inspired by Brown's request for data of the family.
Items include a letter, 11 December 1890, from Charles Kendell Adams while he was President of Cornell University.
Includes 3 letters, dated 9 December 1890, 19 December 1890, and 6 July 1891, from James Phinney Baxter about their historical researches; letter 5 January 1891, from William Cabell Brown at the Theological Seminary, Fairfax Co., Va.; and letter 9 May 1893, from Philip A. Bruce, Corresponding Secretary, Virginia Historical Society.
Letters from members of the Cabell family, mostly replies to Brown's requests for information about the family.
Letters from the Rev. B.F. Cabell, President of the Potter College for Young Ladies, about Cabell family history.
Letters from William D. Cabell from the Norwood Institute, a Select Boarding School for Girls, Washington, D.C.
Letters from Asa D. Dickinson from Springfield, Prince George County, Virginia, about the Cabell family genealogy.
Letters from correspondents, including genealogical information regarding the Eldridge family.
These letters contain notes and records by Brown or one of his correspondents and letters supplying data for the Cabells and Their Kin. The folders are arranged alphabetically by the name of the family.
This section differs from the preceeding series in that it comes in the form of notes, transcripts, and drafts; there is no correspondence as such. For convenience, these groups were divided into Genesis, Documents, and Miscellany. Genesis contains copies of records of the London and Virginia Companies. Miscellany contains clippings, envelopes, miscellaneous letters and notes, and imprints.