Grafton Tyler Brown

Grafton Tyler Brown (February 22, 1841 – March 2, 1918) was an American painter, lithographer and cartographer. Brown was the first African-American artist to create works depicting the Pacific Northwest and California.^[1]

Grafton Tyler Brown
Born	(1841-02-22)February 22, 1841 Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Died	March 2, 1918(1918-03-02) (aged 77) St. Peter, Minnesota
Nationality	American
Known for	Painter, lithographer, and cartographer

Early life and education

He was born on February 22, 1841,^[2] in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.^[1] His parents were Wilhelmina and Thomas Brown, who were born free in Maryland and moved to Pennsylvania in 1837.^[3] His father was a freedman and was involved in the abolitionist movement. Brown worked for a printer in Philadelphia when he was fourteen. It was there where he learned the skill of lithography.^[4]

Career

Grafton Tyler Brown, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, 1886, 1886. Brooklyn Museum, 2012.92

Brown moved to San Francisco in 1858 and worked as a hotel steward and porter.^[2] He worked as a lithographer before becoming known as a painter in the 1880s. In San Francisco, he worked at Kuchel & Dressel from 1861–1867. In 1867 he opened his own firm. Economic activity in California that was supported by mining activity led to Brown creating advertisements, maps, and scrip for a range of clients throughout the 1870s.^[5] In 1878 he created The Illustrated History of San Francisco, which consisted of 72 topographical images of the city.^[1] Brown's work in the Bay Area and in the Nevada Territory included documentation of settlements, property sales, claims and city boundaries.^[4]

Grafton Tyler Brown, Old Faithful Geyser, Yellowstone National Park, 1887

The following year he sold his company. He left the Bay Area in 1882 and moved to Victoria, British Columbia. While there, he participated in the Amos Bowman Geological Survey. While participating in the survey, he served as draftsman and documented the Cascade Mountains. In 1884 he moved back to the United States and traveled throughout the northwest and west, painting such sites as Mount Rainier. He lived in Portland, Oregon, painting landscapes and also traveling to Yosemite and Yellowstone National Park to paint.^[1] Grafton Tyler Brown was a painter whose identity changed from Black to white as he moved across the Pacific Northwest.^[6]

Grafton Tyler Brown, Mount Tacoma, by 1918

In 1893, Brown moved to Saint Paul, Minnesota. In St. Paul he worked again as a draftsman, this time for the United States Army Corps of Engineers and for the city of St. Paul's engineering department. He died in St. Peter, Minnesota,^[7] on March 2, 1918.^[1][2]

Brown's works are held in the collections of the Royal British Columbia Museum,^[8] Oakland Museum of California,^[9] Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, California Smithsonian American Art Museum,^[10] and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.^[11]

Notable exhibitions

• Blacks in the Westward Movement, 1975, Anacostia Community Museum^[12]
• Grafton Tyler Brown: Visualizing California and the Pacific Northwest, California African American Museum^[13] and Walters Art Museum^[14]

References

1. Joan Marter (January 20, 2011). The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art. Oxford University Press. pp. 343–344. ISBN 978-0-19-533579-8. Retrieved April 21, 2012.
2. "Grafton Tyler Brown | American artist". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2020-02-28.
3. "Grafton Taylor Brown: A brief biography by Dr. John Lutz". web.uvic.ca. Retrieved February 28, 2020.
4. Dreck Spurlock Wilson (January 12, 2004). African-American Architects: A Biographical Dictionary, 1865-1945. Taylor & Francis. pp. 105–109. ISBN 978-0-415-92959-2. Retrieved April 21, 2012.
5. Chandler, Robert (2014). San Francisco lithographer: African American artist Grafton Tyler Brown. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 113–150. ISBN 978-0-8061-4410-8.
6. Morgan-Feir, Caoimhe (6 November 2017). "Passing Through". canadianart. Retrieved 20 March 2023.
7. Amy Scott; Museum of the American West (October 1, 2006). Yosemite: Art of an American Icon. University of California Press. pp. 195–. ISBN 978-0-520-24922-6. Retrieved April 21, 2012.
8. "Brown, Grafton Tyler, 1841-1918". BC Archives Collections Search. Royal British Columbia Museum. Retrieved February 12, 2020.
9. "Grafton Tyler Brown". OMCA Collections. Oakland Museum of California. Retrieved April 21, 2012.
10. "The Iron-Clad Mine". Collections. Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved April 21, 2012.
11. "View of Mt. Rainier, 1886". Collections. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Archived from the original on October 24, 2011. Retrieved April 21, 2012.
12. ""Blacks in the Westward Movement," Anacostia Neighborhood Museum". 92-1782. Smithsonian Institution Archives. Retrieved April 21, 2012.
13. "Grafton Tyler Brown: Visualizing California and the Pacific Northwest". Exhibitions. CAAM. Archived from the original on March 14, 2012. Retrieved April 21, 2012.
14. de Pastino, Blake (April 7, 2004). "Grafton Tyler Brown: Visualizing California and the Pacific Northwest". Arts. City Paper. Retrieved April 21, 2012.

External links

Media related to Grafton Tyler Brown at Wikimedia Commons

• Selections of Nineteenth-Century Afro-American Art, a Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition catalog
• Grafton Tyler Brown, Smithsonian American Art Museum