Brown, Gertrude Foster, 1867-1956

Gertrude (Foster) Brown was born in Morrison, Illinois, on July 29, 1867, to Charles Foster and Anna (Drake) Foster. Musical as a child, Brown studied piano at home and then entered the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, graduating in August 1885 after completing the four-year course in two years. She taught piano for a year at a private school in Dayton, Ohio, then studied in Berlin with Xaver Scharwenka and in Paris with Delaborde. She made her professional debut as a pianist with the Philharmonic Orchestra in Berlin on January 25, 1889.

In 1889, Brown joined the staff of the Chicago Conservatory of Music, teaching and performing in conservatory concerts. In August 1893 she married Arthur Raymond Brown, an artist and newspaperman. They had no children. In 1896, the Browns moved to New York, and by 1900 she was touring the United States lecturing on Richard Wagner's operas.

After an illness in about 1905, Brown began to focus increasingly on the issue of woman suffrage. She organized a Woman Suffrage Study Club (later merged with the Woman Suffrage Party) in 1909, attended the 42nd annual convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) in 1910, and was elected president of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association (NYSWSA) in 1914. While chairman of the NYSWSA, she wrote Your Vote and How to Use It, which was published by Harper's in 1918. In 1921 Carrie Chapman Catt asked Brown to take control of The Woman's Journal. The magazine was renamed The Woman Citizen and Brown was the general manager until its demise in 1931.

During World War I, Brown served as liaison officer for the Women's Overseas Hospitals in France. She was also an active member of the League of Women Voters and the New York Woman's City Club. In the 1930s, Brown and her husband traveled extensively in Europe and North Africa. During World War II she was active in the Women's Action Committee for Victory and Lasting Peace.

Raymond Brown died on April 30, 1944. Gertrude Foster Brown died on March 1, 1956.