The Poetry of Solomon Brown

 As we celebrate National Poetry Month, it is a good time to celebrate the poets of the Smithsonian.  Poetry can pop up in the most surprising places around the Smithsonian – on images of snowflakes, in scientists’ field books, and in the personal papers of our first Secretary, Joseph Henry.

One of the Smithsonian’s most prolific poets was Solomon G. Brown.  One of our earliest employees, and the first African American employee, Brown was an assistant to Spencer Baird and a pivotal force in creating the U.S. National Museum. Originally hired in 1852 by Secretary Joseph Henry as a laborer, Brown soon became fast friends with then Assistant Secretary Baird. As an assistant to Baird, Brown quickly rose through the ranks at the Smithsonian, becoming Baird’s ‘eyes-and-ears’ whenever he was away from the Institution.  Brown collected artifacts and specimens for the museum, served as an illustrator, and gave educational lectures to the African American community based on the Smithsonian’s collections and research. Within the larger Washington, D.C. community, he served in the D.C. House of Delegates and was a trustee of the 15th Street Presbyterian Church.

In addition to all these roles, Solomon Brown was a talented poet. As a public figure in Washington, D.C., his poems were published by the Smithsonian and he read them to local audiences and civic organizations. Perhaps his most famous poem is "Fifty Years Today" commemorating his fifty years of service at the Smithsonian.  In it he speaks of the people and places that have meant so much to him:

 

My mind goes back to hallowed spots

Fraught by memories by some forgot;

Which brings up friends most dear to me

Who’ve long since gone beyond the sea –

                It seems I’ll not forget them.

A prolific writer, his poems were gathered together in a volume published by the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum (now the Anacostia Community Museum) in 1983. The poems featured showed the breadth of his poetry and his ability to capture everyday life for a free black man in Washington, D.C.  Brown writes in memoriam of friends who passed away, in celebration of Easter 1905, in the voice of a wife, and on the place of a free African American man. In his piece "Time Dealing with Man," he explores the inevitability of passing time:

Brown’s poems are not only beautiful pieces of art, but a window into his daily life both at the Smithsonian and in Washington, D.C. While this certainly isn’t the only poetry written about life at the Smithsonian, his is most likely the first. 

Related Resources

Solomon G. Brown, Renaissance Man, The Bigger Picture, Smithsonian Institution Archives

Solomon G. Brown's Poetry, Smithsonian Collections Blog

Solomon Brown, "Fifty Years To-day," poem commemorating his 50th anniversary of employment at the Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian Institution Archives

Kind Regards of S.G. Brown, Smithsonian Institution Archives