Brown, George (1835 - 1917)

Summary

George Brown, a Methodist missionary, did much zoological collecting in the South Pacific, in particular Fiji, New Britain and Tonga 1860 to c.1900. The Australian Museum holds over 900 of Brown.s glass plate negatives. What was known as the George Brown Collection, containing over 800 ethnographic items, eventually found a home in the National Museum of Ethnography, Osaka, Japan.

Details

Born Durham, England, 7 December 1835. Died Sydney, 7 April 1917. Migrated to New Zealand 1855. Local preacher, missionary to Samoa 1860-74; extensive travel in Australia and New Zealand 1874-75, canvassing support for a mission in New Britain; missionary, New Britain 1877-81; linguistic work for the mission, Sydney from 1881; superintendent, Bourke Street circuit 1884-85; general secretary of missions 1887-1908. Undertook zoological collecting in the South Pacific 1860 to ca 1900. Regular contributor to the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science.

Chronology

1902

Career position - President, Section E (Geography), Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science

Related entries

Archival resources

Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales

• George Brown - Records, 1889 - 1891, A4096-7; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• George Brown - Records, 1832 - 1974, ML MSS 2663; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• George Brown - Records, 1883, A1686/23; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• George Brown - Records, 1860 - ?, ML MSS 1119; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• George Brown - Records, 1879 - 1917, ML MSS 952; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• George Brown - Records, 1879, ML DOC 3261; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• George Brown - Records, 1885 - 1912, ML DOC 3270; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• George Brown - Records, 1869 - 1916, ML MSS 263; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

Published resources

Books

• Brown, George, George Brown, D. D., pioneer-missionary and explorer : an autobiography : a narrative of forty-eight years' residence and travel in Samoa, New Britain, New Ireland, New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1908), 536 pp. Details
• Gardner, Helen Bethea, Gathering for God: George Brown in Oceania (Dunedin, N.Z.: Otago University Press, 2006), 204 pp. Details
• Reeson, Margaret, Pacific missionary, George Brown 1835 - 1917, Wesleyan Methodist Church (Canberra: ANU Press, ). http://doi.org/10.22459/PMGB.04.2013. Details

Book Sections

• Gunson, Niel, 'Brown, George (1835-1917)'' in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Douglas Pike, ed., vol. 3 (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1969), pp. 256-257. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A030237b.htm. Details
• Richards, Rhys; and Matthews, Peter J., 'Barkcloth from the Solomon Islands in the collection of George Brown' in From field to museum: studies from Melanesia in honour of Robin Torrence, Specht, Jim; Attenbrow, Val; and Allen, Jim, eds (Sydney: Australian Museum, 2021), pp. 245-58. https://doi.org/10.3853/j.1835-4211.34.2021.1755. Details

Journal Articles

• Brown, G., 'Lorimer Fison', Asian Methodist Missionary Review (1908). Details

Resources

• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q5537321. Details
• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/123342. Details
• The George Brown Collection at Minpaku: an introduction to the life and work of George Brown, and his collection of ethnological artefacts, National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, [2023], https://www.r.minpaku.ac.jp/GBC/gbc-database.html. Details
• Reverend George Brown Pacific islands phhotographs, Australian Museum, Sydney, 2018. https://australian.museum/learn/cultures/pacific-collection/photographic/reverend-george-brown-pacific-islands-photographs/. Details
• 'Brown, George (1835-1917)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-910169. Details