Herbert H. Brown,
c. 1890

Truly the epitome of a larger-than-life frontiersman and Victorian amateur scientist, Herbert H. Brown was the first curator of the Arizona State Museum (1893-1912) and a jack-of-all-trades. Prospector, lumberman and taxidermist, Brown came to own and edit the Arizona Daily Citizen, and served as Warden of the Yuma Territorial Prison, Clerk of the Superior Court of Pima County, President of the Tucson Audubon society, and first Vice President of the Arizona Humane Society. He was an active Mason, a member of the American Ornithological Union, and a widely-published naturalist and archaeologist.

Born in Winchester, Virginia in 1848, Brown was 17 when the Civil War ended. Like so many of his generation, he made his way west, arriving in Tucson in 1873. The Southern Pacific railroad tracks reached Tucson in 1880, and one year later Tucson, Yuma and Tombstone were connected by telegraph.

Brown was politically active in Arizona. Offered the governorship by President Harrison, he declined, instead accepting the position of Receiver of the Land Office. He lobbied to have the University located in Tucson, and briefly served as a member of its Board of Regents.

Brown examining an Elf owl nest, 1910.

As curator, due to his interest in natural history and specifically ornithology, Brown gathered and documented a large collection of birds, eggs and nest specimens. His interest in ethnographic collecting was piqued while serving as Warden of the Yuma Prison and minimally continued as curator. As evidenced by Brown’s surviving papers, he was sought after by leading scientists nation-wide for his willingness to supply specimens of the flora and fauna of Arizona, and for his first-hand knowledge of Southwest animal habitats and behaviors. He was a go-to sort of fellow.

The turn of the last century was an era of museum-building in the United States. This was not a phenomenon tied only to the east coast, as demonstrated by the founding of the Arizona Territorial Museum in 1893.

Arizona State Museum located in the Old Main building, 1904-1905.

The museum was first located in the University of Arizona’s Old Main building, where Brown’s ornithology-focused collections filled the south room. A mineral collection created for the World’s Fair of 1893 was soon donated and added to Brown’s birds. In 1899 Brown and his frequent collaborator, William Phipps Blake (head of the School of Mines and first territorial geologist), laid the groundwork for the future acquisition of the important Dr. Joshua A. Miller Collection of Hopi pottery and Hohokam antiquities. William P. Blake likely installed the exhibits when the University opened its new library and museum building in 1904. It wasn’t until ASM Director Byron S. Cummings arrived in 1915 that ASM’s main collecting emphasis shifted to archaeology.

This blog was taken from the main labels in a new case exhibit displayed in honor of Arizona State Museum’s 120th anniversary. You can see it in front of ASM’s Library on the second floor. The exhibit team included Jeff Bursey, Beth DeWitt, Mary Graham, Davison Koenig, Amy Rule, Jannelle Weakly and ASM’s Preservation Division.