Brown, Gertrude Foster, 1867-1956

A concert pianist active in the women's suffrage movement, Gertrude Foster Brown (1867-1956) studied music in Boston, Berlin, and Paris, was an officer and president of the New York State Woman Suffrage Association (1913-1917), Director-General of the Women's Overseas Hospitals in France (1918), and General Manager of the Woman Citizen (1921-1931). Her husband, Arthur Raymond Brown (1865-1944), was descended from the Raymonds of Rindge, New Hampshire, and was great grandson of Revolutionary General Artemas Ward. Raymond Brown was an artist and advertising executive.

From the description of Additional papers, 1732-1956 (inclusive), 1815-1956 (bulk). (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 539585174

Gertrude (Foster) Brown was born in Morrison, Ill., on July 29, 1867, to Charles Foster and Anna (Drake) Foster. Musical as a child, GFB 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 GFB 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 U.S. lecturing on Richard Wagner's operas.

After an illness in about 1905, GFB began to focus increasingly on the issue of woman suffrage. In 1909 she organized a Woman Suffrage Study Club (later merged with the Woman Suffrage Party), 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 in 1914. She continued to work for suffrage through 1920, except that she spent 1918 in France as liaison officer for the Women's Overseas Hospitals. In 1920 GFB wrote " Your Vote and How to Use It," published by Harper's in 1921.

Also in 1921 Carrie Chapman Catt asked GFB to take control of The Woman's Journal, founded in 1870 by Lucy Stone and Henry B. Blackwell. The magazine was renamed The Woman Citizen and GFB was the general manager until its demise in 1931. GFB was also an active member of the League of Women Voters and the New York Woman's City Club.

During the 1930s, GFB 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. She also nursed her husband through his final illness; Raymond Brown died on April 30, 1944. GFB died in 1956.

Researchers should be aware that some facts and dates given in the editor's introduction to the autobiography in 1v do not correspond with information supplied in Who Was Who, vol. 4, 1961-1968. Where there were discrepancies, the processor has used information from Who Was Who in this biographical note.