Five volumes of sketchbooks, four of which also contain notes. The first volume is entitled "Sketches from Nature" and is dated 1843-1844. Most of the sketches are of people, with some animals and still lifes. The second volume bears the dates 1848-1849. In addition to sketches of people, boats, and wagons, it contains French exercises and notes about drawing heads and facial features. The third volume is dated 1854-1863. It records receipts and expenditures for 1854, mentioning Brown's move in February to new quarters and listing expenditures for outfitting his new place as a daguerreotype studio. Volume three includes some landscape sketches, a sketch of a woman, and notes entitled "Strong and Weak points of a picture." Of special interest in this volume are the notes dated 1859-1863, relating to photographic processes, including the ivorytype, albumen prints, and collodian prints. Brown writes about his own experiments and mentions formulas devised by other photographers. The fourth volume includes records of receipts and expenditures dated 1853. There are notes about drawing faces and sketches of people, landscapes, and animals. Some of the sketches are illustrations for "The Faerie Queene." Brown records income from selling mediums, quarters, and lockets; these refer to sizes of photographic portraits. The fifth volume includes sketches of people, French exercises, and notes about how to paint and the use of colors. Also included is a recipe for a paste for gluing lining or paper onto canvas and a recipe for mustard. Also with the collection is an journal article based on Brown's financial accounts.
