RIAMCO

Rhode Island Archival and Manuscript Collections Online

For Participating Institutions

Annmary Brown Memorial Library records (OF-1X-14)

Brown University Library

Box A
Brown University
Providence, RI, 02912
Telephone: Manuscripts: 401-863-3723; University Archives: 401-863-2148
Email: Manuscripts: hay@brown.edu; University Archives: archives@brown.edu

Biographical/Historical Note

The Annmary Brown Memorial, at 21 Brown Street in Providence, RI, was built in 1907 by Rush C. Hawkins (1831-1920) as a memorial to his deceased wife Annmary Brown Hawkins (1837-1903). Annmary Brown was the daughter of Nicholas Brown (1792-1859; Brown University Class of 1811) and Caroline Mathilde Clements (1809-1871) and the granddaughter of Nicholas Brown (1769-1841; Brown University Class of 1786), whose name the University adopted in 1804. Her sister was Carrie Brown Bajnotti whose memorial is Carrie Tower. Norman Isham was the architect of the Annmary Brown Memorial, a one-story granite structure with a low hip roof and large bronze doors. The Memorial was designed as a tomb for the couple (both are interred there), and as a private library to house the Hawkins' collection of incunabula, paintings, manuscripts, books authored by or written about individuals with the surname of Hawkins, travel books, bibliographies, biographies, standard histories, books on printing wood engravings, and volumes on the early history of printing. Rush Hawkins pursued the goal of acquiring the first book of each of the presses which were printing by 1500. He collected 225 first and second books from 130 of the 238 fifteenth-century presses. Frank M. Cushman was the first caretaker of the Memorial from 1907-1916. Rush Hawkins then hired Margaret Bingham Stillwell (1887-1984) to be the Librarian/Curator, a position she held from 1917 until her retirement in 1953. Stillwell cataloged all the collections and managed all the activities at the Memorial. The Memorial was deeded to Brown University in 1948. Other curators of the Memorial included J. R. T. Ettlinger (circa 1967), John W. Charles (circa 1968), Sam Hough (circa 1970-1980), and Catherine Denning from 1980-1993. All the collections at the Memorial, with the exception of the paintings and swords, were removed to the John Hay Library in 1990.