Brown, Harriet Connor, 1872-

Harriet Chedie Connor Brown (b. 1872) was born in Burlington, Iowa. Following graduation from Burlington High School, she spent a winter at Wheaton Seminary, Norton, Massachusetts before entering Cornell University where she received her A.B. degree in 1894. Among other honors, she was the first woman on the staff of Erg, the University newspaper. Having received a scholarship from the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, predecessor of Association of American University Women, she had a year of study in Berlin. Beginning in 1896, she served intermittently on the staffs of the New York Tribune, Washington bureau of the New York Journal, and the Buffalo Enquirer. From 1903 to 1907, she prepared the United States Geological Survey's regular press bulletin. As the wife of Herbert D. Brown, whom she married in 1897, she collaborated with him in preparing reports on superannuation in the Civil Service of the United States, and for Congressional committees along with studies for the Bureau of Labor and President Taft's Commission on Economy and Efficiency. She also participated in official missions to Caribbean countries. In 1929, Brown received the Atlantic Monthly prize for the biography Grandmother Brown's Hundred Years, 1827-1927, the story of Harriet's mother-in-law of Ft. Madison, Iowa.