Series I: Drawings

Drawings are arranged by subject and location, when known. Drawings larger than 6 x 8 3/4 inches are housed separately, listed as Oversize drawings. The series contains work in graphite, charcoal, colored pencil, pen and ink, pastel and watercolor and includes portraits of soldiers, depictions of their daily lives, as well as images of the towns and countryside they passed through in North Africa and Italy. Brown drew his fellow soldiers constantly, sketching them working, traveling, eating, playing cards, drinking, fighting and sleeping. The series contains a large number of sketches aboard a transport ship, showing the cramped quarters that the soldiers endured while at sea. Brown also sketched injured soldiers being treated both in an unidentified hospital and aboard the hospital ship Arcadia. Images of soldiers in North Africa include a small painting of a patisserie in Sidi Bel Abbes. Two children peer in the bakery window while soldiers loiter out front. Brown drew several images of soldiers at play that are especially evocative. He labeled these images with titles like "Hot Dice" and "Jumpin' Jive." "Naples Bout," a small pen and ink sketch, shows a lively group of soldiers watching a boxing match.