Series V. Partners' Papers (1859-1966)

The subseries includes personal and family-related correspondence and other records of both Thatcher and Caro Noyes Brown.

Caro Noyes's letters from her 1898-1899 trip to Liverpool, London, Paris, Rouen, Naples, Rome, and Switzerland include drawings in her hand of purchases of clothes and accessories, a description of the funeral of French President Faure, and a pressed edelweiss from Pontresina, in the Swiss Alps. The letters, which are occasionally annotated in red in another hand, mention various Delano family members (to whom she was related through her mother and would also later be through her husband), and include a letter from Susan Delano thanking Mr. Noyes for the loan of his daughters.

Her letters from Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut, and a dance card with the names of both Thatcher and James Crosby Brown, indicate that she knew both brothers while they attended Yale University in nearby New Haven.

The letters of Montagu Norman, who was a Brown Brothers partner and Governor of the Bank of England, to Caro Noyes Brown are affectionate and often apologetic for not having written sooner. After 1933, letters from his wife Priscilla include descriptions of life in pre-war and wartime Britain. The correspondence was used by Sir Henry Clay in researching his 1957 biography Lord Norman and includes notes from Clay at that time.

Letters during World War II to Thatcher and Caro Brown from Gertrude Balfour (1877-1970), who was Montagu Norman's sister and the wife of Scottish botanist Alistair Balfour (1873-1945), have text cut out where they were redacted by the censor.

Much of Thatcher Brown's personal material pertains to the estates of family members for whom he served as executor, including his brother James Crosby Brown, cousin Moreau Delano, and wife Caro Noyes Brown. As part of his brother's estate, Thatcher Brown donated the Pasque Island property deeds to Dukes County Historical Society (now the Martha's Vineyard Museum) and sold the property to then Massachusetts Governor Forbes. He corresponded extensively with family members and with staff at Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, regarding the upkeep and improvement of various family plots there.

The correspondence with his brother William Adams Brown is mostly to do with managing the latter's investments, but also discusses a loan of their mother Mary Elizabeth Adams Brown's instruments from the Metropolitan Museum. William Adams Brown's 1933 letters after a visit to Germany record his impressions of the political and economic situation there and include some newspaper clippings in German.

Correspondence with his son Daniel Noyes Brown is likewise mostly to do with investments, but the 1943 letters detail Daniel's experience while serving in the military in North Africa.

An English impression of the impending war is provided in the 1939 letters from Edward Clifton-Brown; his wartime letters record conditions on the home front as well as the whereabouts of various family members and firm employees.

Thatcher Brown's personal involvement with fundraising and other efforts for charitable institutions in around New York City is reflected in the records for the Building Fund of Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church; during his service as treasurer of 1st Presbyterian Church in Rumson, New Jersey; and with St. Cloud Church, where his mother had had a marker installed after the demolition of a spring house provided by her husband John Crosby Brown. The church's Men's Club had been established with funds from the John Crosby Brown estate.

Thatcher and Caro Brown initially rented an apartment at 139 east 79th street, which was later converted to a cooperative plan. Thatcher Brown helped to form that plan, served on the building's Board, and Mrs. Brown owned half of the proprietary lease on the commercial property on the building's ground floor.

Chester Jay Hunt was a Yale classmate (1897) of Thatcher Brown's who wrote many letters detailing his financial woes while running a bulb-growing company and later about the inadequacies of his New Jersey state pension. Thatcher Brown assisted him with job possibilities, took up a collection for his benefit from Yale classmates, loaned him money, and made frequent gifts of cash and checks. He also corresponded extensively over the same period with fellow Yale Fund class agent George Parmly Day about the class's charitable efforts on behalf of Hunt.

In 1950, Brown had privately printed and distributed Brown Brothers & Co. [and] Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., 1900-1950, a continuation of his father's account of the firm's first 100 years. Copies of the book that were with the related correspondence are now included in Series X. Published Material.

Caro Noyes Brown's bride's book (Volume 60) for her June 3, 1904, marriage in St. Paul, Minnesota, includes signatures of ushers and bridesmaids from the Adams, Moore, Coe, Brown, and Delano families. Her 1929 diary (Volume 61) is from a trip to South America, during which her husband was guest of honor at dinner given by the Mayor of Lima, Peru (see illustration on p. 195 of Partners in Banking).

The household inventory in Volume 62 is illustrated with pencil sketches of individual items and annotated with their location in Thatcher Brown's homes (775 Park Avenue in 1932; 139 east 79th Street in 1943), purchase prices, provenance, and any disposition after sale.

Thatcher Brown served as executor, financial and investment advisor, and banker for many members of the extended Brown, Delano, and Noyes families, including his cousins, nieces, and nephews.

A son of John Crosby Brown, Thatcher Brown's siblings were William Adams Brown (1865-1943), Eliza Coe Brown (called Bessie, 1868-1959), Mary Magoun Brown (1869-1962), James Crosby Brown (1872-1930), and Amy Brighthurst Brown (1878-1960).

In 1892, William Adams Brown (1865-1943) married Helen Gilman Noyes, whose sister Caro Lord Noyes would marry Thatcher Brown in 1904. William and Helen Noyes Brown's children were John Crosby Brown (1892-1950), William Adams Brown (1894-1957), Winthrop Gilman Brown (1907-1987), and Helen Adams Brown (1910-1928). In 1936 William Adams Brown retired after 40 years on the faculty at Union Theological Seminary.

Eliza Coe Brown married Edward Caldwell Moore (b. 1857) in 1887 and their three children were Dorothea May Moore (1884-1995), who in 1941 married Arthur Burkhard (1891-1973); John Crosby Brown Moore (1897-1993), principal of the architectural firm of Dunham and Moore in New York City; and Elizabeth Ripley Moore (1907-1983).

Mary Magoun Brown trained as a nurse at Presbyterian Hospital and began her career in 1899 on the staff of the Henry Street Settlement Visiting Nursing. She retired in 1951 after 50 years of service.

James Crosby Brown died unexpectedly in 1930, leaving a large and complicated estate valued, even after the stock market crash of 1929, at over $1.5 million, and of which Thatcher Brown was executor. It included Clifton Wynyates, a 194 acre property in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, as well as land on Pasque Island, Massachusetts. After his death, his widow moved from the Pennsylvania property, and by 1933 it was being subdivided by developers Durham and James.

In 1898 James Crosby Brown had married Mary Agnes Hewlett (1875-1919) and had two sons: James Crosby Brown (called Crosby, 1903-1965) and Alexander Crosby Brown (called Alec, 1905-1993). In 1921, he married Aurelia Gladys Pomeroy Jenkins (1883-1938), the widow of a Yale classmate and mother of Allston Jenkins (called Allie, 1903-1994). The guardian of their daughter, Aurelia Clifton Brown (called Thistle, b. 1925), after her mother's death was her half-brother Allston (who was also executor of his mother's estate), and she lived at one time with her uncle Thatcher Brown.

Amy Brighthurst Brown (1878-1960) married Henry Lockwood de Forest (1875-1954) in 1899 and had three children: May de Forest (1902-1990); Emily Johnston de Forest (1903-1977), whose second husband was Leslie Tillotson Webster (1893-1943); and Robert Weeks de Forest, who died at birth in September, 1909. Henry Lockwood de Forest's sister Frances Emily (b. 1878) was the wife of William Adams Walker Stewart.

Caro Lord Noyes Brown's (1876-1947) mother, Helen Gilman Noyes, was the sister of Serena Hale Davenport. Caro and Thatcher Brown's three children were Moreau Delano Brown (1905-1974), who became a Brown Brothers Harriman partner in 1939; Daniel Noyes Brown (1906-1985), who trained as a physician at Columbia University; and Thatcher Magoun Brown (1908-1983).

The children of Thatcher Brown's maternal aunt and uncle Sarah Magoun Adams and Brown Brothers partner Eugene Delano included partner Moreau Delano (1877-1936; see Subseries I.C.vi. Partners); William Adams Delano (1874-1960), the architect of, among many other buildings, the Rockefeller estate Kykuit, Otto Kahn's Oheka, and Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney's Old Westbury studio; Caroline Delano (called Lina), who married Dr. Augustus B. Wadsworth and was the mother of Eugene Delano Wadsworth; Augustus Baldwin Wadsworth; and botanist and supporter of Harvard University's Arnold Arboretum, Susan Adams Delano McKelvey (1883-1964).

In London, partner Edward Clifton-Brown (1870-1944; see Subseries I.C.vi. Partners) was a great-grandson of Sir William Brown (1784-1864,) who established the family firm in Liverpool. Edward's paternal uncle was London partner Sir Alexander Hargreaves Brown (1844-1922; see Subseries I.C.vi. Partners); his son was Anthony Clifton-Brown (1903-1984).

The subseries is arranged chronologically; within the chronological arrangement, many of the subjects have multiple files bearing the same title, which are themselves organized chronologically.

Placed at the beginning of the series is an annotated inventory of the carton containing personal correspondence of Thatcher Brown, originally in the possession of his son Moreau D. Brown, from which these materials were taken.

Various blueprints of grave markers from Green-Wood Cemetery have been removed to oversized boxes listed at the end of the subseries.

The subseries includes correspondence and other records related to Thatcher Brown's service as a director of a variety of insurance and banking concerns, as well as his partnership at Brown Brothers & Co. and Brown Brothers Harriman.

The subseries includes personal banking, tax, and estate financial materials from both Thatcher and Caro Noyes Brown, including the accounting for Mrs. Brown's estate and trusts under her will. The checks and desk checkbooks document payments to charitable organizations. The returned canceled checks and wallet checkbooks are boxed separately because of their size.

The subseries includes correspondence with architecture firm Delano & Aldrich, developers Starrett Brothers, and others; specifications; leases; design samples; and other information pertinent to the development, construction, and decoration of the "new" 59-61 Wall Street building. The 1895 materials appear to have originated from the files of partner Howard Potter. The bulk of the records date from 1925-1929.

By 1926, the land under Brown Brothers & Co.'s New York headquarters at 59 Wall Street was owned by Wall & Hanover Realty Co., which had been created to capitalize the property for the benefit of James Brown's heirs (see Subseries I.B. "Property" files).

Brown Brothers & Co. sold the building (by selling the stock in Wall & Hanover Realty Co.) to developer Starrett Brothers to build a new, larger structure to the firm's specifications, which opened in May, 1929. Brown Brothers & Co., along with other tenants, became lessees of office space in the new building, and the firm brought with it paneling and other details from the original building. It occupied the basement, ground, first, mezzanine, and second floors of the new building. At the firm's behest, Starrett employed the architecture firm of Delano & Aldrich (see Subseries V.C.i., Biographical Note, for an explanation of William Adams Delano's relationship to the Brown family); 59 Wall Street was the architects' only skyscraper design.

The new building expanded on the previous property to include parts of the building at 61 Wall Street, but was oriented to retain the historical address and unique diagonal doorway design of the original structure. While construction on the new building was underway, Brown Brothers & Co. leased space at 37 Wall Street previously occupied by the Equitable Trust Company.

These materials were housed separately from the "Property" files in Subseries I.B. Subject Files, and were marked as originating from partner Robert A. Lovett's files. A 1964 typed note with annotations in Kouwenhoven's hand indicates that they may have been destined to be included with the former materials. To retain their original provenance, they have been included here; researchers interested in the 59-61 Wall Street building and its history should consult materials in both series for more complete information on this subject.

The daily log sheets, typed by his secretary, document tersely Lovett's scheduled meetings and interactions with visitors while he served as Under Secretary of State from 1947 to 1949. His responsibilities included promoting the Marshall Plan and effecting it through detailed negotiations with American businesses and trade promotion associations; ensuring increased sales for American products overseas; and rebuilding postwar Europe while forestalling, it was hoped, the growth of Communist governments there. Among the officials Lovett met with on a regular basis were Secretary of State George Marshall, Secretary of Defense James Forrestal, White House counsel Clark Clifford, advisors George Kennan and Dean Rusk, U.S. Representatives and Senators, committee chairs, and Brown Brothers Harriman partner W. Averell Harriman in his capacity as Secretary of Commerce.

Materials were originally housed in three large looseleaf binders: July 1 - December 31, 1947; January 2 - June 30, 1948; July 1 - January 27, 1949. They are now foldered chronologically in acid-free boxes.