6 10 118 https://cds.library.brown.edu/NBHouse/files/original/91b96b8d951eac63c73761b8492c8dd3.jpg 3ae90bea8aa1707b7f1daef8e838417e Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Photograph of Alan Breed and the Reproduction Secretary Desk (2012) Description An account of the resource Cabinetmaker Alan Breed shows off the reproduction desk it took him over 4 months to produce. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Potvin, Ron Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Digital copy created by the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jennifer Shook Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Rights Status Not Evaluated Moving Image A series of visual representations imparting an impression of motion when shown in succession. Examples include animations, movies, television programs, videos, zoetropes, or visual output from a simulation. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Video about Secretary Desk Made by Christie’s Auction House (1989) Description An account of the resource This video was made by Christie’s Auction House to advertise “The Magnificent Nicholas Brown Desk and Bookcase” ahead of its 1989 sale. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Christie’s Auction House Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Digital copy created by the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1989 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jennifer Shook Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Rights Status Not Evaluated https://cds.library.brown.edu/NBHouse/files/original/0b0176e7c207fb7b702de5e66504c743.jpg 785e98b969fb8d6e67d538bf60ff8374 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Handwritten Egg Nog Recipe Description An account of the resource The Browns enjoyed at least one cocktail recipe that we’re all familiar with today: egg nog! Text: 75 whites of eggs 100 yolks of “ add 6 ¼ lbs of sugar and beat stiff with yolks Stir in 16 qts of cream 2 ½ qts milk 12 ½ tumblers rum “ brandy “ sherry add whites Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Digital copy of item held at the John Hay Library, Brown University Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Date Unknown Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jennifer Shook Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Rights Status Not Evaluated https://cds.library.brown.edu/NBHouse/files/original/362679aa3c6df3769c23b5ce2990a136.jpg 6a276f27545fe6693b710f6cae4dbb66 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Photograph of Victorian Parlor (March 22nd, 2008) Description An account of the resource With its straight-backed wooden chairs, round center table and lamp, and ornate furnishings, the pictured room exemplified the kind of formal Victorian parlor decoration that the parlor would have been decorated in during the 19th century. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Balet, Andrew Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Photograph_of_a_Greek_Revival_Parlor_in_the_Metropolitan.jpg#metadata) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2008-22-03 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jennifer Shook Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Rights Status Not Evaluated https://cds.library.brown.edu/NBHouse/files/original/4a6f06b7607a07db773c4ba6689c89b7.jpg 11c1bd909e9acfdfb9254c99d7e7a64b https://cds.library.brown.edu/NBHouse/files/original/d12b8640d2f72a0f65eaa147238b8e28.jpg bf8cba8242b8728b89d24422a471bb25 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Photograph of Kneehole Desk (July 2016) Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Banks III, Jesse Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Digital copy created by the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2016-07-28 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jennifer Shook Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Rights Status Not Evaluated Description An account of the resource For a short period before the Revolutionary War, Newport, Rhode Island, became a booming center for decorative arts. Furniture produced during this period, c. 1760-1775, is highly valued today, especially when associated with the Goddards and Townsends, two families of skilled craftsmen joined by marriage, religion, and proximity within a small section of Newport. Furniture made in Newport during this period is often referred to as “Goddard-Townsend.” Like the tall secretary desk, this kneehole desk is a fine example of expert Newport block-front cabinetmaking, a style adopted from furniture makers in Massachusetts. The traditional block-front (fashionable in the colonies between 1740-1790) consisted of a three panel design—two raised block panels surrounding a center recessed panel. Because block-front furniture required more wood and labor than other forms, and was therefore more expensive, it became a kind of colonial status symbol. Newport furniture is differentiated from other colonial block-fronts by the expertly carved ornate shells that skilled furniture-makers incorporated into the design. With their block and shell fronts, slight overhang with a molded edge around the top, and ogee feet at the bottom, Goddard-Townsend kneehole desks present little variation, although this desk is one of few to feature a writing compartment. The recessed “kneehole” that gives the desk its name is noticeably small, lending to varied scholarship that suggests people either used these desks more often for storage than as a traditional writing surface, or that they were made specifically for women’s smaller knees. The Browns themselves appear to have used the kneehole desk more as a storage unit than as a writing surface. In their records, they refer to it variously as a “bureau,” “dressing table,” or “chest of drawers” rather than as a “desk.” Personally, I’m partial to the belief that kneeholes like this one were crafted for a storage function rather than to serve as a traditional desk. I think you would be hard-pressed to find anyone, except maybe a child, whose knees would fit comfortably in the recessed kneehole compartment. https://cds.library.brown.edu/NBHouse/files/original/47583e727e4e2e2e12617512d8ad8a1d.jpg ff121257d6dd47d29e9f8c47b0bfd7e5 https://cds.library.brown.edu/NBHouse/files/original/636f7bfaca6f4f3c3f41a8c65b105e16.jpg 6df7b71d7da23b575b4095565bf9db5c Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Photograph of Secretary Desk (July 2016) Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Banks III, Jesse Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Digital copy created by the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2016-07-28 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jennifer Shook Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Rights Status Not Evaluated Description An account of the resource With its distinctive carving, master craftsmanship, and incredible rarity as the last extant Newport secretary desks still in private ownership, the Nicholas Brown secretary desk made headlines when it was auctioned in 1989 for $12.1 million—the highest price a piece of American furniture had ever fetched at auction. The desk is one of eleven known secretary desks constructed by Rhode Island cabinetmakers, most of them by the famed Goddard-Townsend families of Newport. Only ten of these incredibly valuable desks survive to this day. The four Brown brothers of colonial Providence, John, Joseph, Moses, and Nicholas Brown, prominent merchants, each owned their own secretary desk. After Nicholas’s death, his desk passed to his son, Nicholas Brown II, the namesake of Brown University. In 1814, Nicholas Brown II purchased 357 Benefit from the Nightingales. From then until its sale in 1989, Nicholas Brown’s secretary desk passed from father to son along with the house itself. As one of the most beautiful and elaborate pieces of furniture in the house, the desk would have been the perfect formal parlor piece. A secretary desk is a sophisticated design form in which a lower set of drawers topped by a flat writing surface is crowned by an upper bookcase. It was then—and still is now—an incredibly impressive achievement of craftsmanship. This solid mahogany secretary features an upper bookcase that the maker thoughtfully crafted into three distinct doors to form a clean-cut continuous line with the lower three drawers, hinging together the two upper right into one unit for ease of use. With its block front capped by six carved seashells and “C” scroll ogee bracket feet, the secretary is distinctly Newport in design. Rare, incredibly intricate, and in remarkable condition, the secretary desk was the subject of many collectors’ desires when it was brought to auction at Christie’s Auction House. Proceeds from the $12.1 million sale went into saving and restoring the home where Nicholas Brown’s secretary desk stood for so long. The Nightingale-Brown House, then suffering from water and termite damage to its wood-frame, was saved and restored to its mid-1900s appearance with funds from the sale, and the remaining proceeds endowed Brown University’s John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage, which occupies the house today. In the place of this historic desk now stands an exact replica: a reproduction of the secretary desk crafted by cabinetmaker Alan Breed. It took Breed over four months to replicate the fine craftsmanship of the original secretary. Breed’s reproduction now stands in the very same spot that Nicholas Brown’s secretary occupied for most of one hundred and fifty years. https://cds.library.brown.edu/NBHouse/files/original/a03273e19dec25406d19865c05ced030.jpg e92d3a7b494c7f22bc22cae24ce4f13c Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Photograph of Decanter Set (July 2016) Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Banks III, Jesse Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Digital copy created by the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2016-07-28 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jennifer Shook Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Rights Status Not Evaluated Description An account of the resource John Nicholas Brown II and Anne Kinsolving Brown were young adults during the height of Prohibition, which lasted from 1920-1933. Prohibition in the United States did not, as hoped, make alcohol difficult to come by, but it did encourage a bit of creativity, and a change in how and where Americans drank. Before Prohibition, drinking as a social activity belonged to men. Wealthy men drank together in social clubs or tucked away in back parlors, separate from women. Prohibition era restrictions moved drinking into private spaces with men and women together sipping from “cocktails,” or mixed drinks. Cocktails became fashionable during Prohibition out of necessity. Liquor distilled at home needed to be mixed with something sweet to be as drinkable as manufactured brands. The popularity of cocktails and cocktail parties outlived Prohibition itself: John and Anne Brown enjoyed cocktails in their study after dinner. A decanter set like this one would be used for holding whiskey or brandy, both popular cocktail liquors. https://cds.library.brown.edu/NBHouse/files/original/3480d0283328530074718b286681da7c.jpg 7d5a1e7e3b825fd02c1cd1e2cbe12003 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Photograph of Fire Screen by Natalie Bayard Brown (July 2016) Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Banks III, Jesse Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Digital copy created by the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2016-07-28 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jennifer Shook Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Rights Status Not Evaluated Description An account of the resource Firescreens such as this one can be adjusted to be level with a user’s head, shielding their face from the direct and uncomfortable heat of the flames. However, adjustable firescreens also could be rather elaborate examples of decorative art, featuring stylish embroidered panels. This one tells a story important to the Brown family. The embroidery in this firescreen is a front view of Harbour Court, boyhood home of John Nicholas Brown II, stitched by his mother, Natalie Bayard Brown. Natalie Bayard Brown commissioned the Boston-based architect Ralph Adams Cram to build Harbour Court on an eight-acre plot of land in Newport a few years after the death of her husband. She and six-year old John moved from Providence into the thirty room French-style chateau in 1906. From playing with toy boats on the estate’s private pond to receiving his first real sailing boat, a 15-foot sloop, at age 12, Harbour Court became central to John Nicholas Brown’s lifelong love of sailing and yachting. He later entered in yachting competitions boats that he, in a moment of lightheartedness, decided to name after Spanish dances—the Bolero and Volta among them. From 1951-1954, he served as the New York Yacht Club’s first non-New Yorker commodore. The Brown's Harbour Court home came in handy as the enthusiastic “commodore” hosted a series of New England-style clam bakes at the seaside estate. After his marriage in 1930, John entrusted Harbour Court to his mother while he and Anne settled in at 357 Benefit in Providence. In 1987, eight years after John Nicholas Brown’s death, his children sold Harbour Court to John’s beloved New York Yacht Club. It seemed appropriate that a place so central to John’s favorite hobby in life would go on to foster others’ love of sailing and the sea after his death. https://cds.library.brown.edu/NBHouse/files/original/000c17e6acc417e51d1b6c1f23fc0881.jpg a5aab5f6386d39d556d5fec5fb46afad Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Photograph of John and Anne’s chairs (July 2016) Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Banks III, Jesse Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Digital copy created by the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2016-07-28 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Jennifer Shook Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Rights Status Not Evaluated Description An account of the resource Instead of cozy armchairs, a traditional parlor would have been filled with the kinds of uncomfortable looking wooden chairs that encircle this room. These straight-back chairs offered little in the way of comfort or padding. They communicate much about the kinds of refined, ritualized behaviors expected in the formal setting of the Victorian-era parlor. With the invention of spring-seated furniture in the 1830s and the decline in popularity of formal parlors, rooms like this that once acted as public spaces for formal visiting would have become more comfortable, family-oriented places. The Brown’s “den” or “study” became a space for John and Anne to have a moment of peace together after dinner. The two would have cozied up in front of the fire in the two armchairs—John in the red velvet upholstered lounge and Anne in the pink-and-white seat—with a book and a cocktail, the room filled with smoke from Anne’s cigarettes. https://cds.library.brown.edu/NBHouse/files/original/5c1b1d12f3d1bd880947f7f97d2c1a32.jpg 271fafc4305fe0bdaa09d27116018655 Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Portrait of John Nicholas Brown II by Lydia Field Emmett (1905) Description An account of the resource Natalie Bayard Brown commissioned this portrait from of her five-year old son, John Nicholas Brown II, from Lydia Field Emmett in 1905. It captures the so-called 10-million-dollar baby in a white sailor suit. His healthy luminous face stands out against a dark background. Lydia Field Emmet is best known for her portraits of children. She was adept at capturing the facial expressions of childhood along with the individual personality of her sitters. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Emmett, Lydia Field Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Digital copy created by the John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1905 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Chameli Jia Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Rights Status Not Evaluated 20th Century John Nicholas Brown II Library paintings