Drowne family papers (Ms.Drowne)

The Drowne family papers consist of correspondence and documents dating from 1636 to 1936. The materials contains important information on members of the Arnold, Bowen, Brown, DeWolf, Greene, Rhodes, Russell, Stafford, and Tillinghast families of Rhode Island; and the Foster, Hall, and Ward families of Connecticut.

The collection includes much material pertaining to the history of Brown University. Dr. Solomon Drowne, a member of the Brown Class of 1773, taught at Brown from 1811 until his death in 1834. Many other members of the family also attended Brown. The collection thus contains correspondence reflecting on the early history of the University (1770-1820) - including letters signed by Brown's first Presidents: James Manning, Jonathan Maxcy, Asa Messer, and Asher Robbins, as well as later materials.

Other correspondents represented in the collection include Henry Bowen Anthony, John Jay, Lucy Audubon, Barnabas Binney, William Cullen Bryant, Lydia Maria Child, Henry Clay, Schuyler Colfax, George William Curtis, Theodore Dwight, Manton Eastburn, Edward Everett, Millard Fillmore, Hamilton Fish, Theodore Foster, Albert Gallatin, Ulysses S. Grant, John Hancock, Julia Ward Howe, Robert Livingston, James Monroe, Robert Morris, Rembrandt Peale, Earl Sproat, Thomas Ustick, George Washington, Daniel Webster, and Benjamin West.

The manuscripts that comprise the collection encompass a variety of forms: accounts, invoices, receipts; originals and copies of prose and poetry; notes, sketches, and valentines of Dr. Solomon Drowne; political, legal, and military documents; and ships' papers. Some broadsides in the collection (1809-1829) were annotated by Dr. Solomon Drowne or contain extensive notes in his hand. Among these are: "Exercises of Commencement, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, 1809 September 6"; with notes on botany (recto and verso), dated 1812 April 23.

Among the later materials are photographs, particularly of family members and Mount Hygeia (the Drowne family estate in Foster), correspondence and genealogical materials largely compiled by Henry Thayer Drowne.