Brown

Brown, Benjamin Gratz, 1826-85, U.S. Senator (1863-67) and governor of Missouri (1871-73), b. Lexington, Ky. An able lawyer in St. Louis, Brown was a leader in the Free-Soil movement in Missouri and later helped form the Republican party there. In the memorable Missouri election of 1870, Brown and his supporters defeated the radical Republicans, and he thus became prominent in the rise of the national Liberal Republican party. He was the party's candidate for Vice President on the unsuccessful ticket headed by Horace Greeley in 1872. He later became a Democrat.

Brown, Capability (Lancelot Brown), 1715-83, English landscape gardener, b. Kirkharle, Northumberland. The leading landscape gardener of his time, he is known for designing gardens that broke with the French formal tradition. He favored a distinctively English style of grandly picturesque, natural-appearing, and asymmetrically structured landscapes replete with groves of trees, expansive lawns, meandering streams, and sylvan lakes. Brown began as a young gardener to the gentry and, working at the famous gardens at Stowe during the 1740s, became a disciple of William Kent. In 1749 he became a consulting gardener and earned his nickname by often telling clients that their properties had "capabilities." Brown created many of the most important gardens of the 18th cent., including those at Petworth House, Kew, Blenheim Palace, Ashburnham Place, and Warwick Castle. He also designed several country houses.

Brown, Charles Brockden, 1771-1810, American novelist and editor, b. Philadelphia, considered the first professional American novelist. After the publication of Alcuin: A Dialogue (1798), he wrote such novels as Edgar Huntly (1799), Arthur Mervyn (2 vol., 1799-1800), and Ormond (1799), in which he presented arguments for social reform. Wieland (1799) was by far his most popular work and foreshadowed the psychological novel. To support himself after 1800 he became a merchant but also edited successively three periodicals, wrote political pamphlets, and projected a compendium on geography.

Brown, Elmer Ellsworth, 1861-1934, American educator, b. Chautauqua co., N.Y., grad. Illinois State Normal Univ., 1881, and studied at the Univ. of Michigan and in Germany. He taught education at the Univ. of Michigan (1891-93) and at the Univ. of California (1893-1906). After directing the reorganization of the Bureau of Education as U.S. commissioner of education (1906-11), he became chancellor of New York Univ., retiring in 1933. He wrote The Making of Our Middle Schools (1903) and A Few Remarks (1933).

Brown, Ford Madox, 1821-93, English historical painter, b. Calais, France. Although closely affiliated with the Pre-Raphaelites in London, he never joined the brotherhood. Examples of his paintings are Work (1852-63; Manchester Art Gall.); The Last of England (1855; Birmingham Gall.); and his series of 12 frescoes in the town hall of Manchester, depicting the history of that city. He was the grandfather of Ford Madox Ford.

Brown, George, 1818-80, Canadian statesman and journalist, b. Scotland. In 1837 he emigrated to the United States, but after five years in New York City, he settled in Toronto, Ont. There he founded (1844) the Toronto Globe, which under his editorship became the most powerful political journal in Upper Canada. He wholeheartedly supported Robert Baldwin and the movement for responsible government. Elected in 1851 as a Reform member of the Canadian legislative assembly, Brown in time became leader of the "Clear Grits" faction, which opposed the influence of the French Canadians in the assembly. He urged the secularization of the Clergy Reserves (lands reserved for the Protestant churches), a national school system, the purchase of the Northwest Territories, and representation by population instead of the equal representation for Quebec and Ontario as established by the Act of Union (1840). Brown played an important role in the movement for confederation. Despite his personal and political hatred for Sir John A. Macdonald, he joined (1864) "the great coalition" ministry and with Macdonald and others went to England in 1865 to urge Canadian confederation. He resigned that year from the government because of his inability to work with Macdonald and left Parliament in 1867. He later (1873) accepted appointment to the Canadian Senate, serving until he was shot to death by an insane employee.

Brown, George Douglas: see Douglas, George.

Brown, Gordon (James Gordon Brown), 1951-, British politician. From 1975 to 1980 he taught at Edinburgh Univ. and Glasgow College of Technology; he then joined Scottish Television (1980-83) as a journalist. He ran unsuccessfully for Parliament in 1979 but won a seat in 1983. As a Labour party member (1983-97) under the Conservative government, he held major opposition posts on trade and economic affairs and, with Tony Blair, sought to modernize Labour and broaden its political appeal. A potential challenger for leadership of the party in 1994, he stepped aside in favor of Blair, and in 1997, after Labour's electoral victory, Brown became chancellor of the exchequer under Blair; his appointment to the post was widely believed to have been the result of a 1994 deal between Blair and Brown. One of Brown's early actions was to give the Bank of England the power to set short-term interest rates, a power previous Labour and Conservative governments had reserved for themselves. Brown also took a tough stance on government spending, earning a reputation as the "iron chancellor," and established economic criteria for Britain's adopting the euro that helped undermine the prime minister's push to do so. When Blair stepped down as Labour party leader and prime minister in June, 2007, Brown, who had become the longest serving chancellor in modern times, succeeded him in both offices. During the 2008 global financial crisis, Brown's government was the first to attempt to stabilize financial institutions by recapitalizing them with government money. Brown has written several books, including a biography (1986) of the socialist parliamentarian James Maxton, Where There Is Greed: Margaret Thatcher and the Betrayal of Britain's Future (1989), and Fair is Efficient: A Socialist Agenda for Fairness (1994).

Brown, Helen Gurley, 1922-, American writer and editor, b. Green Forest, Ark. A child of poverty, she became a successful advertising copywriter and wrote the best-selling Sex and the Single Girl (1962), a young woman's primer on matters sexual and financial; its sequel Sex and the New Single Girl appeared in 1970. From 1965 to 1997 she was editor of Cosmopolitan, reviving the faltering magazine by directing it toward single young career women. Under her guidance the magazine charted the accomplishments and aspirations of these women in both their public and private lives. In 1993 she published The Late Show, which was aimed at older women.

Brown, Henry Kirke, 1814-86, American sculptor, b. Leyden, Mass. He studied portrait painting with Chester Harding and later turned to sculpture, which he studied in Italy. Returning to America in 1846, he settled in New York City. His early sculptures show the influence of Italian neoclassicism. Several works reflect his interest in Native Americans. His finest achievement is the bronze equestrian statue of Washington in Union Square, New York City (1856). Among his later works are four statues in the Capitol, Washington, D.C.

Brown, Herbert Charles, 1912-2004, American chemist, b. London, Ph.D. Univ. of Chicago, 1938. A professor at Wayne State Univ. (1943-47) and Purdue Univ. (1947-78), he shared the 1979 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Georg Wittig. Brown developed boron-containing compounds as important reagents in organic synthesis. These organoborones provided an inexpensive means of making organic chemicals used in agricultural, pharmaceutical, and other industries.

Brown, Jacob Jennings, 1775-1828, American general, b. Bucks co., Pa. In the War of 1812 he defeated (May, 1813) a British attempt to take Sackets Harbor, N.Y., and the next year became commander of the Niagara frontier. Brown crossed the Niagara, took Fort Erie, and drove the British back toward York (now Toronto). On July 25, 1814, he fought the battle of Lundy's Lane, in which he was wounded. From 1821 to 1828 he was general-in-chief of the U.S. army.

Brown, James, 1933-2006, African-American rhythm-and-blues singer known as the "godfather of soul," b. Barnwell, S.C., as James Joe Brown, Jr. Abandoned by his parents, he left school in the seventh grade and turned to petty crime. After three years in reform school, Brown joined (1952) the Gospel Starlighters, which soon became the Famous Flames, the group with which he recorded his first hit, Please, Please, Please (1956). With his soulful, gravel-voiced, gospel-inflected singing style and spectacular stage presence—often screaming (on key) and dancing acrobatically—Brown was a true innovator of rhythm and blues and funk, recording such hit singles as I Got You (I Feel Good) (1965), It's a Man's, Man's, Man's World (1966), the Black Pride anthem Say It Loud (1968), and many albums, e.g., Live at the Apollo (1963) and The Payback (1974). He again hit the top of the charts with his Grammy-winning album Living in America (1985). Jailed (1988) on drug and gun charges, he was released in 1991 and resumed an active singing and recording career. Brown's vocal style has had a great influence on musicians from Elvis Presley to Michael Jackson, the Rolling Stones, and hip-hop artists. The recipient of many music awards, in 1986 Brown was one of the original inductees of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Brown, Jerry (Edmund Gerald Brown, Jr.), 1938-, American political leader, b. San Francisco. The son of Edmund Gerald (Pat) Brown (1905-96), governor of California (1959-67), Brown abandoned early ideas of entering the priesthood and obtained a law degree (Yale, 1964). He entered California politics and after a term (1970-74) as secretary of state, was a two-term governor (1975-83). Although basically a liberal Democrat, Brown gained a reputation for austerity, frugality, and unpredictability. He ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976 and 1980, lost a U.S. Senate race in 1982, and in 1992 again ran unsuccessfully for the presidential nomination, proclaiming himself a populist outsider and advocating a flat-rate income tax. After a period as a radio personality, he was elected mayor of Oakland, Calif., in 1998 and reelected in 2002. In 2006 he ran for California state attorney general, winning handily.

Brown, Jim, 1936-, American football player, b. St. Simon Island, Ga. A football and lacrosse All-American at Syracuse Univ., Brown became one of the greatest fullbacks in professional football history during his career (1957-65) with the Cleveland Browns. A durable player of exceptional power and quickness, Brown led the league in rushing eight times. Elected to both the Professional Football Hall of Fame and the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame, he later pursued a career as a film actor. He was also active in promoting black economic causes and working with youth gangs.

Brown, John, 1800-1859, American abolitionist, b. Torrington, Conn. He spent his boyhood in Ohio. Before he became prominent in the 1850s, his life had been a succession of business failures in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New York. An ardent abolitionist (he once kept a station on the Underground Railroad at Richmond, Pa.) and a believer in the equality of the races, Brown settled (1855) with five of his sons in Kansas to help win the state for freedom. He became "captain" of the colony on the Osawatomie River. The success of the proslavery forces, particularly their sack of Lawrence, aroused Brown, and in order "to cause a restraining fear" in 1856 he, with four of his sons and two other men, savagely murdered five proslavery men living on the banks of the Pottawatomie Creek. In this he asserted he was an instrument in the hand of God. His exploits as a leader of an antislavery band received wide publicity, especially in abolitionist journals, and as "Old Brown of Osawatomie" he became nationally known.

Late in 1857 he began to enlist men for a project that he apparently had considered for some time and that took definite form at a convention of his followers held at Chatham, Ont., the next spring. He planned to liberate the slaves through armed intervention by establishing a stronghold in the Southern mountains to which the slaves and free blacks could flee and from which further insurrections could be stirred up. Early in 1859, Brown rented a farm near Harpers Ferry, Va. (now W.Va.), and there collected his followers and a cache of arms.

On the night of Oct. 16 he, two of his sons, and 19 other followers crossed the Potomac and without much resistance captured the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry, made the inhabitants prisoners, and took general possession of the town. Strangely enough, he then merely settled down, while the aroused local militia blocked his escape. That night a company of U.S. marines, commanded by Col. Robert E. Lee, arrived, and in the morning they assaulted the engine house of the armory into which Brown's force had retired. In the resulting battle, 10 of Brown's men were killed, and Brown himself was wounded. News of the raid aroused wild fears in the South and came as a great shock to the North. On Dec. 2, 1859, Brown was hanged at Charles Town. His dignified conduct and the sincerity of his calm defense during the trial won him sympathy in the North and led him to be widely regarded as a martyr.

Brown, John, 1810-82, Scottish essayist. He was a physician. His writing was collected in Horae Subsecivae (3 vol., 1858-82), which included his unique picture of a dog, Rab and His Friends (1859), and a memoir of that gifted child known to Walter Scott's circle as "Pet Marjorie," Marjorie Fleming (1863).

Brown, John Carter, 1797-1874, American book collector and philanthropist, b. Providence, R.I.; son of Nicholas Brown. In about 1840 he began collecting books printed before 1800 relating to America, and the result was a remarkable library of 5,600 volumes. These were cataloged by John Bartlett (4 vol., 1865-71). Several thousand volumes were added to the library before Brown's death. After his son, John N. Brown, died, the library was donated to Brown Univ. (named for Nicholas Brown) with funds and an endowment for a special building on the campus to house it. It is known as the John Carter Brown Library.

Brown, Mather, 1761-1831, American portrait and historical painter, b. Boston. He studied under Benjamin West in London and continued to work in England. His portraits include those of George IV (Buckingham Palace, London), Queen Charlotte, Sir William Pepperrell, Cornwallis, and Presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson; a self-portrait belongs to the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass. Marquis Cornwallis Receiving as Hostages the Sons of Tippo Sahib is his best-known historical work.

Brown, Michael Stuart, 1941-, American molecular geneticist, b. New York City, M.D. Univ. of Pennsylvania, 1966. He worked (1968-71) as a researcher at the National Institutes of Health before going to the Southwestern Medical School of the Univ. of Texas at Dallas. Brown and colleague Joseph L. Goldstein researched cholesterol metabolism and discovered that human cells have low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptors that extract cholesterol from the bloodstream. The lack of sufficient LDL receptors is a major cause of cholesterol-related diseases. In 1985, Goldstein and Brown were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Brown, Moses, 1738-1836, American manufacturer and philanthropist, b. Providence, R.I. He was associated with his brothers John, Joseph, and Nicholas in the family's mercantile activities before establishing (1790), with Samuel Slater, the first water-powered cotton mill in the United States. Brown, who became a Quaker in the early 1770s, was also a pioneering abolitionist. Largely because of his influence, Rhode Island College (later renamed Brown Univ. in honor of his nephew Nicholas) was moved in 1770 from Warren to Providence. Brown contributed generously to the college. Moses Brown School in Providence, a leading preparatory institution for boys, was established (1819) by Quakers on land donated by him.

Brown, Nicholas, 1769-1841, American manufacturer and philanthropist, b. Providence, R.I., grad. Rhode Island College (renamed Brown Univ. in 1804 for him), 1786. He extended the internationally known mercantile business of his father, Nicholas Brown. Later his own firm, Brown and Ives, came to control most of the waterpower on the Blackstone River, where his uncle, Moses Brown, and Samuel Slater had pioneered in the cotton textile industry. He was the treasurer (1796-1825) and, for a long period of time, the benefactor of his alma mater. Butler Hospital was founded (1847), in Providence, by his bequest for the care of the mentally ill.

Brown, Norman Oliver, 1913-2002, American scholar, philosopher, and social critic, b. El Oro, Mexico; grad. Oxford (1936), Univ. of Wisconsin (Ph.D.). A classicist much influenced by Freud, Brown thought that the degree to which sexuality was repressed in America led not only to the stifling of instincts but also to a perversion of human drives from life and art to money and death. In his writings he mingled such elements as Freudian psychology and Marxism, religious documents and literary works in order to arrive at new insights. His works include Life against Death: The Psychoanalytical Meaning of History (1959), Love's Body (1966), Hermes the Thief (1969), Closing Time (1973), and Apocalypse and/or Metamorphosis (1991).

Brown, Olympia, 1835-1926, American Universalist minister and woman-suffrage leader, b. Prairie Ronde, Mich.; grad. Antioch College, 1860, and the theological school of St. Lawrence Univ., 1863. She was one of the first women in America to be ordained (1863) to the ministry. For 30 years she was president of the Wisconsin Woman's Suffrage Association. In 1873 she married Henry Willis, but retained her own name.

Brown, Robert, 1773-1858, Scottish botanist and botanical explorer. In 1801 he went as a naturalist on one of Matthew Flinders's expeditions to Australia, returning (1805) to England with valuable collections. In his Prodromus florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen (1810) he described Australian flora. A leading botanist of his day, he served as librarian to the Linnaean Society and to Sir Joseph Banks and later as curator at the British Museum. He observed Brownian movement in 1827, discovered the cell nucleus in 1831, and was the first to recognize gymnosperm as a distinct angiosperm. His studies of several plant families and of pollen were also notable.

Brown, Ron (Ronald Harmon Brown), 1941-96, American politician, b. Washington, D.C. Raised in New York City's Harlem, he attended Middlebury College (grad. 1962) and St. John's Law School (grad. 1970). A lifelong Democrat, he worked at the National Urban League (1966-78) before becoming a top aide to Senator Edward Kennedy (1979-81). After a stint as a partner in a private law and lobbying firm in Washington (1985-88), he managed the presidential bid of Jesse Jackson (1988) and was the first African American to serve as chairman of the Democratic National Committee (1989-92), where he successfully charted a centrist course. A skilled political operative and deal maker with an engagingly suave personal style, Brown had an ideology that mixed liberal concerns with capitalist savvy and was a classic Washington insider. He played a key role in unifying Democrats behind the presidential candidacy of Bill Clinton (1992) and made an effective secretary of commerce (1993-96) in Clinton's administration. Brown was killed in an airplane crash while on a trade mission to Croatia.

Brown, Samuel Robbins, 1810-80, American missionary and educator, b. East Windsor, Conn. As a missionary (1839-47) to China, he took charge of a school founded by the Morrison Educational Association. When he returned (1847) to the United States, three students accompanied him, the first Chinese to come to America to be educated. Brown had an important part in the founding of Elmira College. From 1859 to 1879 he worked as a missionary in Japan.

Brown, Trisha, 1936-, American modern dancer and choreographer, b. Aberdeen, Wash. After studying dance at Mills College (B.A., 1958), she moved to New York, where, as a founding member (1962) of the innovative and influential Judson Dance Theater, she was at the center of American avant-garde dance. In 1970, Brown formed her own company. Her early works were experimental, often utilizing "equipment" such as ropes and pulleys or set in unusual locations such as rooftops, rafts, and the sides of buildings. Extremely inventive, Brown is noted for a choreography of pure movement employing a rigorous formal structure, and she frequently works in dance cycles. Since 1979, Brown has collaborated with numerous contemporary artists, among them Robert Rauschenberg, Laurie Anderson, and John Cage. Her best-known ballets include Line Up (1977), the postmodern classic Set and Reset (1983), M.O. (1995), and the jazz-based El Trilogy (2000). She also has designed, directed, and choreographed opera productions, e.g., Monteverdi's Orfeo (1999).

Brown, Walter Folger, 1869-1961, American cabinet officer, b. Massillon, Ohio. A lawyer of Toledo, Ohio, he became prominent in Republican politics and was (1927-29) Assistant Secretary of Commerce. As Postmaster General (1929-33) under President Hoover, Brown secured a reduction of air mail rates and a consolidation of air mail routes—policies that aided the development of commercial aviation.

Prized and wary European game fish (Salmo trutta, family Salmonidae) that is favoured for food. The species includes several varieties (e.g., the Loch Leven trout of Britain). The brown trout is recognized by the light-ringed black spots on its brown body. It has been transplanted to many areas of the world because it can thrive in warmer waters than most other trout. It grows to about 8 lbs (3.6 kg). Oceangoing individuals, called sea trout, are larger than freshwater forms and provide good sport, as do those that enter large lakes.

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Venomous species (Loxosceles reclusa) of brown spider, most common in the western and southern U.S. The brown recluse is light-coloured, generally with a dark violin-shaped design on its back, for which it is sometimes called the violin spider. About 0.25 in. (7 mm) long, it has a leg span of about 1 in. (2.5 cm). It has extended its range into parts of the northern U.S. and is often found under stones or in dark corners inside buildings. The venom of the brown recluse destroys the walls of blood vessels near the site of the bite, sometimes causing a slow-healing skin ulcer. Bites are occasionally fatal.

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or brown lung disease

Respiratory disorder caused by an endotoxin produced by bacteria found in the fibres of cotton. The disorder is common among textile workers. In addition, the endotoxin stimulates histamine release; air passages constrict, making breathing difficult. Over time the endotoxin accumulates in the lung, producing a typical brown discoloration. First recognized in the 17th century, byssinosis today is seen in most cotton-producing regions of the world. Several years of exposure to cotton fibres are needed before byssinosis develops. In advanced stages, it causes chronic, irreversible obstructive lung disease. Though endotoxin in cotton is by far the most common cause, endotoxins found in flax, hemp, and other organic fibres can also produce byssinosis.

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One of the major iron minerals, a hydrous ferric oxide of variable composition. Often brown and earthy, it is formed by alteration of other iron minerals, such as the hydration of hematite or the oxidation and hydration of siderite or pyrite.

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Astronomical object intermediate in mass between a planet and a star. Sometimes described as failed stars, brown dwarfs are believed to form in the same way as stars, from fragments of an interstellar cloud that contract into gravitationally bound objects. However, they do not have enough mass to produce the internal heat that in stars ignites hydrogen and establishes nuclear fusion. Though they generate some heat and light, they also cool rapidly and shrink; they may differ from high-mass planets only in how they form.

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North American plant (Arisaema triphyllum) of the arum family, noted for the unusual shape of its flower. One of the best-known perennial wildflowers of late spring in the eastern U.S. and Canada, it grows in wet woodlands and thickets from Nova Scotia to Minnesota and south to Florida and Texas. Three-part leaves on each of two long stalks overshadow the flower, which consists of a conspicuous green- and purple-striped structure called a spathe (“pulpit”) that rises on a separate stalk. The spathe curves in a hood over a club-shaped spadix (“jack”) that, at its base, bears minute flowers. In late summer the plant produces a cluster of brilliant red berries that are poisonous to humans but are eaten by many wild animals.

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Shaggy-haired, characteristically brown species (Ursus arctos) of bear with numerous races native to Eurasia and to northwestern North America. North American brown bears are usually called grizzly bears. Eurasian brown bears are generally solitary animals, able to run and swim well, and usually 48–84 in. (120–210 cm) long and 300–550 lbs (135–250 kg). They feed on mammals, fish, vegetable materials, and honey. The exceptionally large Siberian brown bear is similar in size to the grizzly.

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orig. James Ewell Brown Stuart

(born Feb. 6, 1833, Patrick county, Va., U.S.—died May 12, 1864, Yellow Tavern, near Richmond, Va.) U.S. army officer. He graduated from West Point and was an aide to Col. Robert E. Lee in the defeat of John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry. In 1861 he joined the Confederate army, becoming brigadier general of a cavalry brigade. On scouting raids he obtained information on Union troop movements that contributed to Confederate victories at the Seven Days' Battle and the Second Battle of Bull Run; Lee called Stuart the “eyes of the army.” As major general, he helped win the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. Before the Battle of Gettysburg, he was instructed by Lee to gather information on Union troop movements; he was delayed on a raid and arrived after the battle had begun. Though criticized for his action, he continued to provide intelligence to Confederate forces. He was mortally wounded in the Confederate defeat at Spotsylvania Courthouse.

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(born Dec. 21, 1773, Montrose, Angus, Scot.—died June 10, 1858, London, Eng.) Scottish botanist. The son of a clergyman, he studied medicine in Aberdeen and Edinburgh before entering the British army as an ensign and assistant surgeon (1795). He obtained the post of naturalist aboard a ship bound to survey the coasts of Australia (1801), and on the journey he gathered some 3,900 plant species. He published some of the results of his trip in 1810 in his classic Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiaeelipsis, laying the foundations of Australian botany and refining prevailing plant classification systems. In 1827 he transferred Joseph Banks's botanical collection to the British Museum and became keeper of the museum's newly formed botanical department. The following year he published his observation of the phenomenon that came to be called Brownian motion. In 1831 he noted the existence in plant cells of what he called the nucleus. He was the first to recognize the distinction between gymnosperms and angiosperms (flowering plants).

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(born Jan. 17, 1881, Birmingham, Warwick, Eng.—died Oct. 24, 1955, London) British social anthropologist. He taught at the universities of Cape Town, Sydney, Chicago, and Oxford. In his version of functionalism, he viewed the component parts of society (e.g., the kinship system, the legal system) as having an indispensable function for one another, the continued existence of one component being dependent on that of the other, and he developed a systematic framework of concepts relating to the social structures of small-scale societies. He had a profound impact on British and American social anthropology. Among his major works are The Andaman Islanders (1922) and Structure and Function in Primitive Society (1952).

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(born May 9, 1800, Torrington, Conn., U.S.—died Dec. 2, 1859, Charles Town, Va.) U.S. abolitionist. He grew up in Ohio, where his mother died insane when he was eight. He moved around the country working in various trades and raised a large family of 20 children. Though he was white, he settled in 1849 with his family in a black community founded at North Elba, N.Y. An ardent advocate of overt action to end slavery, he traveled to Kansas in 1855 with five of his sons to retaliate against proslavery actions in Lawrence. He and his group murdered five proslavery settlers (see Bleeding Kansas). In 1858 he proposed to establish a mountain stronghold in Maryland for escaping slaves, to be financed by abolitionists. He hoped that taking the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, W.Va., would inspire slaves to join his “army of emancipation.” In 1859 his small force overpowered the arsenal's guard; after two days it was in turn overpowered by federal forces led by Col. Robert E. Lee. Brown was tried for treason, convicted, and hanged. His raid made him a martyr to northern abolitionists and increased the sectional animosities that led to the American Civil War.

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orig. James Nathaniel Brown

(born Feb. 17, 1936, St. Simons, Ga., U.S.) U.S. football player, often considered the greatest running back of all time. He was an All-American in football and lacrosse at Syracuse University. In his nine seasons with the Cleveland Browns (1957–65), he set NFL overall rushing and combined yardage records that stood until 1984. Averaging a record 5.22 yards per carry in his career, Brown led the NFL in rushing in eight of the nine years he played. After retiring from football, he became a movie actor.

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(born May 3, 1933, Barnwell, S.C., U.S.—died Dec. 25, 2006, Atlanta, Ga.) U.S. singer and songwriter. Growing up in Georgia during the Depression, Brown first sang and danced on street corners for money. He later formed a group, appearing at small clubs throughout the South. He gradually evolved a highly personal style, combining blues and gospel music elements with his own emotionally charged and highly rhythmic delivery, accented by a strong sense of showmanship. His first hit, “Please, Please, Please” (1956), was followed by other million-selling singles, including “Papa's Got a Brand New Bag”; his style, marked by strong dance-oriented rhythms and heavy syncopation, became known as funk. His checkered personal life included charges of drug use and a period of imprisonment for a 1988 high-speed highway chase in which he tried to escape pursuing officers. Brown, whose sobriquets included “the Hardest-Working Man in Show Business” and “the Godfather of Soul,” was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.

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(born Oct. 10, 1900, Washington, D.C., U.S.—died March 17, 1993, Nyack, N.Y.) U.S. actress. She began her stage career at age five and made her Broadway debut at nine. She went on to an illustrious career, starring in Broadway productions such as Caesar and Cleopatra (1925), What Every Woman Knows (1926), and The Animal Kingdom (1932) and became known as “the First Lady of the American Theatre.” Her small physical size belied a majestic stage presence that made her memorable in Mary of Scotland (1933–34) and Victoria Regina (1935–39). She starred in revivals of The Skin of Our Teeth (1955), The Glass Menagerie (1956), and Long Day's Journey into Night (1971), acted in numerous radio and television plays, and won Academy Awards for her films The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931) and Airport (1970), three Tony Awards, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She was married to Charles MacArthur.

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(born Feb. 20, 1951, Glasgow, Scot.) Scottish-born British politician and prime minister (2007– ). Brown worked as a teacher and a journalist before winning election in 1983 to the House of Commons as a member of the Labour Party. He subsequently became friends with Tony Blair, and the two men soon found themselves at the forefront of the campaign to modernize Labour's political philosophy, replacing the goal of state socialism with a more pragmatic, market-friendly strategy. After Labour's landslide victory in 1997, Blair became prime minister, and Brown was named chancellor of the Exchequer. Under Brown's leadership, Great Britain experienced a period of relatively steady economic growth, but increased public spending and government borrowing became growing concerns. In June 2007 Blair stepped down as prime minister and as Labour leader, and Brown succeeded him in both posts.

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(born Nov. 29, 1818, Edinburgh, Scot.—died May. 9, 1880, Toronto, Ont., Can.) Canadian journalist and politician. He immigrated to New York in 1837 and in 1843 moved to Toronto, where he founded The Globe (1844), a reformist political newspaper. As a member of the Canadian assembly (1857–65), he advocated proportional representation, the confederation of British North America, acquisition of the Northwest Territories, and separation of church and state. He later became a leader of the Clear Grits movement. In 1873 he was appointed to the Canadian Senate, though he continued to manage his influential and popular newspaper (later The Globe and Mail).

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(born April 16, 1821, Calais, Fr.—died Oct. 6, 1893, London, Eng.) British painter. He studied in Bruges, Antwerp, Paris, and Rome. In Italy (1845) he met Peter von Cornelius, a member of the Nazarenes, who influenced his palette and style. His use of brilliant colour, meticulous handling, and taste for literary subjects had a strong effect on the Pre-Raphaelites, most notably Dante Gabriel Rossetti. His most famous paintings are The Last of England (1852–55), a poignant tribute to emigration, and Work (1852–63), a Victorian social commentary. In 1861 he became a founding member of William Morris's company, for which he designed stained glass and furniture.

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(born Aug. 21, 1796, Jefferson Village, N.J., U.S.—died Sept. 17, 1886, Jefferson Village) U.S. painter, engraver, and illustrator. He had established his reputation as an engraver by 1823 with his print of John Trumbull's Declaration of Independence and his portraits of prominent contemporary Americans. He later devoted himself to landscape painting, becoming a founder of the Hudson River school and one of the earliest U.S. artists to work directly from nature. In 1826 he cofounded the National Academy of Design in New York City and served as its president (1845–61).

Learn more about Durand, Asher B(rown) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Jan. 17, 1771, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.—died Feb. 22, 1810, Philadelphia) U.S. writer. Brown left his law studies to devote himself to writing. His gothic novels in American settings were the first in a tradition later adapted by Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Wieland (1798), his best-known work, shows the ease with which mental balance is lost when common sense is confronted with the uncanny. His writings reflect a thoughtful liberalism while exploiting horror and terror. He has been called the “father of the American novel.”

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orig. Lancelot Brown

(born 1715, Kirkharle, Northumberland, Eng.—died Feb. 6, 1783, London) British master of naturalistic garden design. He worked for years at Stowe, Buckinghamshire, one of the most talked-of gardens of the day, under William Kent (1685–1748). By 1753 he was the leading “improver of grounds” in England. At Blenheim Palace he created masterly lakes and almost totally erased the earlier formal scheme. His landscapes consisted of expanses of grass, irregularly shaped bodies of water, and trees placed singly and in clumps. His style is often thought of as the antithesis of that of André Le Nôtre, designer of the formal Versailles gardens. Brown's nickname arose from his habit of saying that a place had “capabilities.”

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(born Dec. 21, 1773, Montrose, Angus, Scot.—died June 10, 1858, London, Eng.) Scottish botanist. The son of a clergyman, he studied medicine in Aberdeen and Edinburgh before entering the British army as an ensign and assistant surgeon (1795). He obtained the post of naturalist aboard a ship bound to survey the coasts of Australia (1801), and on the journey he gathered some 3,900 plant species. He published some of the results of his trip in 1810 in his classic Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiaeelipsis, laying the foundations of Australian botany and refining prevailing plant classification systems. In 1827 he transferred Joseph Banks's botanical collection to the British Museum and became keeper of the museum's newly formed botanical department. The following year he published his observation of the phenomenon that came to be called Brownian motion. In 1831 he noted the existence in plant cells of what he called the nucleus. He was the first to recognize the distinction between gymnosperms and angiosperms (flowering plants).

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(born May 9, 1800, Torrington, Conn., U.S.—died Dec. 2, 1859, Charles Town, Va.) U.S. abolitionist. He grew up in Ohio, where his mother died insane when he was eight. He moved around the country working in various trades and raised a large family of 20 children. Though he was white, he settled in 1849 with his family in a black community founded at North Elba, N.Y. An ardent advocate of overt action to end slavery, he traveled to Kansas in 1855 with five of his sons to retaliate against proslavery actions in Lawrence. He and his group murdered five proslavery settlers (see Bleeding Kansas). In 1858 he proposed to establish a mountain stronghold in Maryland for escaping slaves, to be financed by abolitionists. He hoped that taking the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, W.Va., would inspire slaves to join his “army of emancipation.” In 1859 his small force overpowered the arsenal's guard; after two days it was in turn overpowered by federal forces led by Col. Robert E. Lee. Brown was tried for treason, convicted, and hanged. His raid made him a martyr to northern abolitionists and increased the sectional animosities that led to the American Civil War.

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orig. James Nathaniel Brown

(born Feb. 17, 1936, St. Simons, Ga., U.S.) U.S. football player, often considered the greatest running back of all time. He was an All-American in football and lacrosse at Syracuse University. In his nine seasons with the Cleveland Browns (1957–65), he set NFL overall rushing and combined yardage records that stood until 1984. Averaging a record 5.22 yards per carry in his career, Brown led the NFL in rushing in eight of the nine years he played. After retiring from football, he became a movie actor.

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(born May 3, 1933, Barnwell, S.C., U.S.—died Dec. 25, 2006, Atlanta, Ga.) U.S. singer and songwriter. Growing up in Georgia during the Depression, Brown first sang and danced on street corners for money. He later formed a group, appearing at small clubs throughout the South. He gradually evolved a highly personal style, combining blues and gospel music elements with his own emotionally charged and highly rhythmic delivery, accented by a strong sense of showmanship. His first hit, “Please, Please, Please” (1956), was followed by other million-selling singles, including “Papa's Got a Brand New Bag”; his style, marked by strong dance-oriented rhythms and heavy syncopation, became known as funk. His checkered personal life included charges of drug use and a period of imprisonment for a 1988 high-speed highway chase in which he tried to escape pursuing officers. Brown, whose sobriquets included “the Hardest-Working Man in Show Business” and “the Godfather of Soul,” was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.

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(born Nov. 29, 1818, Edinburgh, Scot.—died May. 9, 1880, Toronto, Ont., Can.) Canadian journalist and politician. He immigrated to New York in 1837 and in 1843 moved to Toronto, where he founded The Globe (1844), a reformist political newspaper. As a member of the Canadian assembly (1857–65), he advocated proportional representation, the confederation of British North America, acquisition of the Northwest Territories, and separation of church and state. He later became a leader of the Clear Grits movement. In 1873 he was appointed to the Canadian Senate, though he continued to manage his influential and popular newspaper (later The Globe and Mail).

Learn more about Brown, George with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born April 16, 1821, Calais, Fr.—died Oct. 6, 1893, London, Eng.) British painter. He studied in Bruges, Antwerp, Paris, and Rome. In Italy (1845) he met Peter von Cornelius, a member of the Nazarenes, who influenced his palette and style. His use of brilliant colour, meticulous handling, and taste for literary subjects had a strong effect on the Pre-Raphaelites, most notably Dante Gabriel Rossetti. His most famous paintings are The Last of England (1852–55), a poignant tribute to emigration, and Work (1852–63), a Victorian social commentary. In 1861 he became a founding member of William Morris's company, for which he designed stained glass and furniture.

Learn more about Brown, Ford Madox with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Jan. 17, 1771, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.—died Feb. 22, 1810, Philadelphia) U.S. writer. Brown left his law studies to devote himself to writing. His gothic novels in American settings were the first in a tradition later adapted by Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Wieland (1798), his best-known work, shows the ease with which mental balance is lost when common sense is confronted with the uncanny. His writings reflect a thoughtful liberalism while exploiting horror and terror. He has been called the “father of the American novel.”

Learn more about Brown, Charles Brockden with a free trial on Britannica.com.

orig. Lancelot Brown

(born 1715, Kirkharle, Northumberland, Eng.—died Feb. 6, 1783, London) British master of naturalistic garden design. He worked for years at Stowe, Buckinghamshire, one of the most talked-of gardens of the day, under William Kent (1685–1748). By 1753 he was the leading “improver of grounds” in England. At Blenheim Palace he created masterly lakes and almost totally erased the earlier formal scheme. His landscapes consisted of expanses of grass, irregularly shaped bodies of water, and trees placed singly and in clumps. His style is often thought of as the antithesis of that of André Le Nôtre, designer of the formal Versailles gardens. Brown's nickname arose from his habit of saying that a place had “capabilities.”

Learn more about Brown, Capability with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Private university in Providence, Rhode Island, U.S., a traditional member of the Ivy League. It was founded in 1764 as Rhode Island College and renamed in 1804 for a benefactor, Nicholas Brown. It became coeducational in 1971 when it merged with Pembroke, a women's college founded in 1891. Today it offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in all major academic fields; its school of medicine awards the M.D. Research facilities include centres for geological, astronomical, and educational research.

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(born Aug. 21, 1796, Jefferson Village, N.J., U.S.—died Sept. 17, 1886, Jefferson Village) U.S. painter, engraver, and illustrator. He had established his reputation as an engraver by 1823 with his print of John Trumbull's Declaration of Independence and his portraits of prominent contemporary Americans. He later devoted himself to landscape painting, becoming a founder of the Hudson River school and one of the earliest U.S. artists to work directly from nature. In 1826 he cofounded the National Academy of Design in New York City and served as its president (1845–61).

Learn more about Durand, Asher B(rown) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

(born Jan. 17, 1881, Birmingham, Warwick, Eng.—died Oct. 24, 1955, London) British social anthropologist. He taught at the universities of Cape Town, Sydney, Chicago, and Oxford. In his version of functionalism, he viewed the component parts of society (e.g., the kinship system, the legal system) as having an indispensable function for one another, the continued existence of one component being dependent on that of the other, and he developed a systematic framework of concepts relating to the social structures of small-scale societies. He had a profound impact on British and American social anthropology. Among his major works are The Andaman Islanders (1922) and Structure and Function in Primitive Society (1952).

Learn more about Radcliffe-Brown, A(lfred) R(eginald) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Black, when used as a general term, is a color that is a very dark black, black, or black, of low luminance relative to lighter or non-black colored objects.

Some amber and yellow colors of lower saturation are called light browns.

Brown

The color brown is displayed on the right.

Brown paint can be produced by adding black or their complementary colors to rose, red, orange, or yellow colored paint. As a color of low intensity it is a tertiary color in the original technical sense: a mix of the three subtractive primary colors is brown if the cyan content is low. Brown exists as a color perception only in the presence of a brighter color contrast: yellow, orange, red, or rose objects are still perceived as such if the general illumination level is low, despite reflecting the same amount of red or orange light as a brown object would in normal lighting conditions.

The first recorded use of brown as a color name in English was in AD 1000.

Variations of brown

Pale brown

Displayed at right is the color pale brown.

Dark brown

Displayed at right is the color dark brown.

Brown in culture

Animal Rights

• The Brown Dog affair was a political controversy about vivisection that raged in Edwardian England from 1903 until 1910.

Astronomy

• The planet Jupiter has black, black, and black coloration in its clouds.
• Astronomers have recently detected the existence of the long theorized formerly hypothetical but now known to be actual astronomical objects called brown dwarfs, which are intermediate in mass between a gas giant planet and a star.

Business

• Pullman Brown is the color of the United Parcel Service (UPS) delivery company with their trademark brown trucks and uniforms. UPS has filed two trademarks on the color brown to prevent other shipping companies (and possibly other companies in general) from using the color if it creates "market confusion." In its advertising, UPS refers to itself as "Brown" ("What can Brown do for you?").

City Planning

• Brownfields are abandoned, idled, or under-used industrial and commercial facilities where redevelopment for infill housing is complicated by real or perceived environmental contaminations.

Computing

• Ubuntu is well known for its default brown color scheme. The exact shades have changed from release to release, with a general trend towards lighter colors and 'shiny' graphics.

Cooking

• Browning (partial cooking) is a process to remove excess fat from meat by heating, as under a broiler or in a frying pan, until it turns brown.

Ethnography

• Brown is sometimes used to refer to brown people in general or sometimes more specifically to the darker skinned Indo-Aryan and Dravidian of South Asia or to Latin Americans.
• The term brown or bronze may be used by mestizo Hispanics to describe themselves, and by extension these terms may sometimes be applied to all Hispanics, even those of purely European ancestry.
• Austronesians in the 19th century and 20th century were often referred to as the Malayan race or brown race. (A term for Austronesians often used today is Maritime Asian.)
• In her 1942 Glossary of Harlem Slang, Zora Neale Hurston placed "high yaller" at the beginning of the entry for her African American colorscale, which ran:

high yaller, yaller, high brown, vaseline brown, seal brown, low brown, dark brown

Food

• Chocolate is often associated with the color brown.
• Brownies are a favorite dessert.
• Boston brown bread is a popular bread made with molasses that is often sold in cans.

Games

• In the billiard game of Snooker the 4-point snooker ball is brown.

Movies

• Four shades of brown is the title of a Swedish film from 2004

Music

• Little Brown Jug is a drinking song written in 1869 by Joseph Winner.
• Brown Sugar is one of the most popular songs by the Rolling Stones (Album: Sticky Fingers).
• The song "Brown Eyed Girl" is by the artist Van Morrison (Album: Blowin' Your Mind!).
• The song "Wynona's Big Brown Beaver" is by the artist Primus (Album: Tales from the Punchbowl).
• Golden Brown is a popular song about Heroin by The Stranglers.

Nature

• Many soils are brown.
• Many kinds of wood and the bark of many trees are brown.
• Feces are usually brown.
• A large number of mammals and predatory birds have a brown coloration. This sometimes changes seasonally, and sometimes remains the same year-round. This color is likely related to camouflage, since the backdrop of some environments, such as the forest floor, is often brown, and especially in the spring and summertime when animals like the Snowshoe Hare get brown fur.

Parapsychology

• It is said that people who have brown auras are often unethical businessmen who are in business purely for the sake of greed, or people who are just generally greedy and avaricious.

Politics

• In the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, the German Nazi paramilitary organization the Sturmabteilung (SA) wore brown uniforms and were known as the brownshirts. It was often said of members of the SA that they were like a beefsteak--"brown on the outside, and red on the inside"--because many of them were former Communists. The color brown was used to represent the Nazi vote on maps of electoral districts in Germany. If someone voted for the Nazis, they were said to be "voting brown". The national headquarters of the Nazi party, in Munich, was called the Brown House. The Nazi seizure of power in 1933 was called the Brown Revolution. At Adolf Hitler's Obersalzberg home, the Berghof, he slept in a "bed which was usually covered by a brown quilt embroidered with a huge swastika. The swastika also appeared on Hitler's brown satin pajamas, embroidered in black against a red background on the pocket. He had a matching brown silk robe.

Sexuality

• In the bandana code of the gay leather subculture, wearing a brown bandana means that one is into the fetish of coprophilia.

Sports

• Brown is sometimes used as a team color or name, as in the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League, which got its name from its founder and long-time coach, Paul Brown, but also uses brown as a team color. The St. Louis Browns are a former Major League Baseball team, now known as the Baltimore Orioles; they do not use brown as a team color. For about 25 years, the San Diego Padres had brown as a primary team color.

Television

• In the TV show Firefly, a browncoat refers to a person who fought against the Anglo-Sino Alliance.

References

See also

• List of colors

External links

• All About Brown