William Hand Browne papers
Scope and Contents
The papers of William Hand Browne contain newsclippings and other articles and personal ephemera, correspondence, poetry, sketches, photographs, etc. produced or collected by Browne in the course of his life and career. Most of the material dates from the 1850s through Browne's death in 1912.
There are biographical articles from Johns Hopkins University following Browne's death and newsclippings about Browne, including articles from a New Orleans newspaper discussing racist views about Black people and education held by an unnamed professor at a major university, presumably Browne.
The correspondence mostly includes letters to and from Browne's friends and colleagues. There are letters from former Confederate generals Jubal A. Early and P.G.T. Beauregard dating from Browne's years as editor of the Southern Magazine. Also included is a letter from former Confederate Vice-President Alexander H. Stephens, which appears to be edits to Browne and Johnston's biography of him. There is also correspondence between Browne and his Johns Hopkins University colleague and friend Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve, as well as with John Henry Ingram, an English biographer and editor of Edgar Allan Poe. There are also letters from Alberto Elmore, who briefly served as Prime Minister of Peru in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and Juan Federico Elmore, his brother.
Several handrwritten books of William Hand Browne's poems are included in the collection, as well as sketches and notes by Browne. The collection also includes correspondence, poems, and a sketch by John Bannister Tabb, a former Confederate soldier and Catholic priest who was a close friend of Browne.
There is also some material from Browne's descendants, including correspondence between Lucy Hand Browne (William Hand Browne's daughter) and Johns Hopkins University librarian John C. French from the 1940s, as well as correspondence and anti-communist and far-right propaganda from the 1970s collected and produced by Owens Hand Browne, William Hand Browne's grandson.
Dates
- Creation: 1825-1999
- Creation: Majority of material found in 1850s-1912
Creator
- Browne, William Hand, 1828-1912 (Person)
Conditions Governing Use
Single copies may be made for research purposes. Researchers are responsible for determining any copyright questions. It is not necessary to seek our permission as the owner of the physical work to publish or otherwise use public domain materials that we have made available for use, unless Johns Hopkins University holds the copyright.
Biographical / Historical
William Hand Browne was an early Johns Hopkins University librarian and English Professor, a life-long resident of the Baltimore area, and a Confederate sympathizer who helped promote the racism of the "Lost Cause" mythology in the years following the American Civil War.
Browne was born in 1828 in Baltimore. He attended the University of Maryland and received an M.D. in 1850. Browne did not practice medicine professionally, and from 1851-1861 he and his cousin, T.J. Hand, ran a comission merchant firm called T.J. Hand and Co. (Bright, 5). The firm mainly involved exports to Peru (Bright, 5, footnote 3).
During the American Civil War, Browne supported the Confederacy. In the Johns Hopkins Alumni Magazine, Edward Lucas White says that Browne did not talk about his activities during the war, but he says "It is certain that, early in the war, he went on a sailing vessel from New York to Savannah and thence, by steam, to St. Augustine" (213).
Browne married Mary Catherine Owings in 1863, and together they had six children, Lucy Hand Browne, Violet Hand Browne Hoff, Katharine Hand Browne Howard, Arthur Lee Browne, William Hand Browne, Jr., and Sidney Hand Browne ("William Hand Browne," familysearch.org)
In the late 1860s and early 1870s, among his contributions to other publications, Browne edited the Southern Magazine, which ran "accounts of battles and editorials related to the Confederate experience" for the Southern Historical Society (Starnes, 178). Historian Richard D. Starnes notes that "the Society was uninterested in academic history, with its emphasis on objective evaluation of facts, sources, and interpretations. Rather, the organization dedicated itself to the creation of a Confederate historical memory" (177-178). Browne also co-wrote (with Richard M. Johnston) a biography of Alexander H. Stephens, the Vice-President of the Confederacy known for his 1861 speech proclaiming that the foundational principle of the Confederacy was inequality and slavery for Black people (Stephens, 61). Browne was friends with several former Confederate soldiers, including John Bannister Tabb, Basil Gildersleeve and Sidney Lanier. Gildersleeve, Lanier, and Browne all taught at Johns Hopkins University in its early years.
Browne joined Johns Hopkins University in 1879 - according to his Baltimore Sun obituary, he served as the university's second librarian and "had charge of the valuable books and records practically from the foundation of the university until 1891" ("Dr. Browne Dead"). Browne began serving as an associate in English at Hopkins in 1880, and from 1891 until his retirement in 1910 he served as associate professor and then professor of English literature (White, 214). During his time at Hopkins, Browne edited colonial era documents for the Maryland Historical Society that were published in 33 volumes as the "Archives of Maryland" (Bright, 11). Browne died in 1912.
Sources
Bright, James Wilson. "Biographical Sketch" from "In Memoriam: William Hand Browne, 1828-1912." The Johns Hopkins University Circular, No. 2, February 1913. "In Memoriam: William Hand Browne, 1828-1912" publication (with Sidney Lanier memorial pamphlet insert), 1913, Box 1, Folder 1, William Hand Browne papers, MS.0011, Special Collections, The Johns Hopkins University.
"Dr. Browne Dead," Baltimore Sun, December 13, 1912. https://www.baltimorecityhistoricalsociety.org/1875-william-hand-browne-letter, accessed July 21, 2023.
Starnes, Richard J. "Forever Faithful: The Southern Historical Society and Confederate Historical Memory." Southern Cultures 2, no.2 (Winter 1996), 177-194. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/424267/pdf.
Stephens, Alexander, "Cornerstone Speech," March 21, 1861. In "The Civil War and Reconstruction: A Documentary Reader," ed. Stanley Harrold, 59-64. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2008. http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/ows/seminars/civilwarrecon/cwcause/Stephens%20Cornerstone%20Speech.pdf, accessed July 21, 2023.
White, Edward Lucas. "William Hand Browne 1828-1912: A Memoir," in The Johns Hopkins Alumni Magazine, Vol 1, 1913. Printed articles and newsclippings about William Hand Browne (including racist views about Black people and education), geneological material related to William Hand Browne, 1889-1999, Box 1, Folder 3, William Hand Browne papers, MS.0011, Special Collections, The Johns Hopkins University.
"William Hand Browne," FamilySearch, https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LHPM-81X, accessed July 21, 2023.
Extent
1.88 Cubic Feet (4 legal size document boxes)
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Correspondence, publications, writings, photographs, and other personal papers of William Hand Browne, an early Johns Hopkins University librarian and English Professor, a life-long resident of the Baltimore area, and a Confederate sympathizer who helped promote the racism of the "Lost Cause" mythology in the years following the American Civil War.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The collection was a gift to the University from Browne family members. It was received at different times between the years 1942 to 1991. The earliest items included poems, clippings, correspondence, and notebooks and were given in 1942 by Lucy Hand Browne, William Hand Browne's daughter. Around the same time, Violet Hand Browne Hoff, another daughter, gave the letters of the Rev. John Banister Tabb. Owens Hand Browne, a grandson of William Hand Browne, donated additional items in 1971 and 1972. These included photocopies of poems grouped under the title, "The Bongo Tree and Other Poems," a list of questions answered by William Hand Browne in childhood, and poems from the years 1857 to 1860. Other material including poems, letters, and the memorial volume were received in 1991 from Marian Gilmor Howard Hall, William Hand Browne's granddaughter.
Accruals
The accession number for the items from Marian Gilmor Howard Hall is 90-91.33.
Bibliography
- Bright, James Wilson. "Biographical Sketch" from "In Memoriam: William Hand Browne, 1828-1912." The Johns Hopkins University Circular, No. 2, February 1913. "In Memoriam: William Hand Browne, 1828-1912" publication (with Sidney Lanier memorial pamphlet insert), 1913, Box 1, Folder 1, William Hand Browne papers, MS.0011, Special Collections, The Johns Hopkins University.
- "Dr. Browne Dead," Baltimore Sun, December 13, 1912. https://www.baltimorecityhistoricalsociety.org/1875-william-hand-browne-letter, accessed July 21, 2023.
- Starnes, Richard J. "Forever Faithful: The Southern Historical Society and Confederate Historical Memory." Southern Cultures 2, no.2 (Winter 1996), 177-194. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/424267/pdf.
- Stephens, Alexander, "Cornerstone Speech," March 21, 1861. In "The Civil War and Reconstruction: A Documentary Reader," ed. Stanley Harrold, 59-64. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2008. http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/ows/seminars/civilwarrecon/cwcause/Stephens%20Cornerstone%20Speech.pdf, accessed July 21, 2023.
- White, Edward Lucas. "William Hand Browne 1828-1912: A Memoir," in The Johns Hopkins Alumni Magazine, Vol 1, 1913. Printed articles and newsclippings about William Hand Browne (including racist views about Black people and education), geneological material related to William Hand Browne, 1889-1999, Box 1, Folder 3, William Hand Browne papers, MS.0011, Special Collections, The Johns Hopkins University.
- "William Hand Browne," FamilySearch, https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LHPM-81X, accessed July 21, 2023.
Processing Information
Finding aid prepared by Joan Grattan in 1991. Liz Beckman reprocessed the collection in July 2023. The collection was originally artificially arranged into 7 series, but Beckman got rid of them to make the collection's inventory easier to navigate. She created a new inventory, rewrote the Biographical and Scope and Content notes, created the Bibliography, and revised other notes to reflect these changes.
Subject
- Johns Hopkins University. Department of English (Organization)
- Spencer, Edward, 1834-1883 (Person)
- Beauregard, G. T. (Gustave Toutant), 1818-1893 (Person)
- Gildersleeve, Basil L. (Basil Lanneau), 1831-1924 (Person)
- Browne, William Hand, 1828-1912 (Person)
- White, Edward Lucas, 1866-1934 (Person)
- Browne, Lucy Hand (Person)
- Browne, Owens Hand (Person)
- Freeman, Edward A. (Edward Augustus), 1823-1892 (Person)
- Galton, Francis, 1822-1911 (Person)
- Gayarré, Charles, 1805-1895 (Person)
- Ingram, John Henry, 1842-1916 (Person)
- Jacob, Cary Franklin, 1885- (Person)
- Matthews, Albert, 1860-1946 (Person)
- McBryde, John McLaren, 1870-1956 (Person)
- Parker, George F. (George Frederick), 1847-1928 (Person)
- Reese, Lizette Woodworth, 1856-1935 (Person)
- Saintsbury, George, 1845-1933 (Person)
- Tabb, John B. (John Banister), 1845-1909 (Person)
- Title
- William Hand Browne collection
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Special Collections Repository
The Sheridan Libraries
Special Collections
3400 N Charles St
Baltimore MD 21218 USA
specialcollections@lists.jhu.edu