Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
Harrison Brown fonds
General material designation
- Multi-media
Parallel title
Other title information
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
- Source of title proper: Title based on contents of fonds.
Level of description
Fonds
Reference code
Edition area
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
-
1914-2002 (Creation)
- Creator
- Brown, George Harrison
Physical description area
Physical description
1.65 m of textual records and other material
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
Parallel titles of publisher's series
Other title information of publisher's series
Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series
Numbering within publisher's series
Note on publisher's series
Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
George Harrison Brown was born in Surrey, England, in 1893. Like many of his peers he went by his middle name and was known to all as Harrison Brown. In 1914, at the age of 21, he enlisted in the British Army and saw active service in France for the duration of the First World War. After the War he lived in London and Paris and became associated with the American Committee for the Outlawry of War. During this period he travelled extensively within Europe, working with the staff of the League of Nations and foreign ministries. The work of the Committee was wound up when the Kellogg-Briand Pact (Treaty of Paris, 1928), was enacted.
He then became a free lance journalist and writer, writing for the Evening Standard, the New Chronicle, the New Statesman, the Fortnightly Review, and numerous other publications, and also broadcasting several radio series for the BBC. He lived in Germany from 1929 to 1933, leaving several months after Adolf Hitler came to power and spent the next few years writing about the rise of fascism and made numerous lecturing tours to university campuses in the United States and Canada, under the auspices of The Institute of International Education.
In 1936-1937 he made an extensive journey through Scandinavia, the USSR, Japan, Korea, and China. In China he travelled to Sian where he interviewed the young Marshall Chang Hsueh Liang, two days before he infamously kidnapped Chiang Kai Shek and obtained from him a change in Kuomintang policy in order to unite the nation against the Japanese invasion. During this period Brown kept a detailed journal and took hundreds of photographs which chronicled his travels. This would later take the form of an unpublished manuscript.
In 1937 Brown moved permanently to Hornby Island, British Columbia, with his common law wife Hilary Brown, an accomplished author. Here they established the Heron Rocks Campsite which later became a Co-op. In 1940 Brown ran unsuccessfully as the candidate for the C.C.F. in the Comox - Alberni riding.
Brown became a Canadian citizen and continued to write articles and short stories. He died in September 1977 at the age of the 84.
Custodial history
The material was collected and maintained by Brown until his death in 1977. After this period Hilary Brown preserved the materials and donated them to Simon Fraser University Library Special Collections and Rare Books in 2002.
Scope and content
The fonds consists mainly of textual materials, including correspondence and diaries. Also present are photo albums, photographs and negatives. The fonds has been arranged into the following seven series: Personal correspondence (1934-1988), Diaries (1914-1973), Desktop diaries (1962-1973), Personal miscellaneous items (1937-1978), Photographs (1927-2002), and Outlawry of War (1921-1960).
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
Arrangement
The materials were arranged according to the original filing system of the creator and to facilitate research.
Language of material
Script of material
Location of originals
Availability of other formats
Restrictions on access
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Reproduction of material subject to approval by a Special Collections and Rare Books Librarian.
Finding aids
Series descriptions and file list available. Collection is available for research in this database: https://digital.lib.sfu.ca/hbc-collection/harrison-brown-collection.
Finding aid
Associated materials
See also Hilary Brown Fonds located at Simon Fraser University Library, Special Collections and Rare Books.
Accruals
No further accruals are expected.
Physical description
Includes 43 diaries, 12 desktop diaries, 4 photograph albums (ca. 450 photographs), ca. 993 negatives, ca. 134 photographs, ca. 51 contact print strips, ca. 75 contact sheets and 2 maps.
Alternative identifier(s)
Standard number area
Standard number
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Brown, George Harrison (Subject)
Genre access points
Control area
Description record identifier
Institution identifier
Rules or conventions
Rules for Archival Description
Status
Published
Level of detail
Full
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
Created May 14, 2014, LZ
Language of description
- English
Script of description
Sources
Digital object metadata
Filename
FINDING_AID_BROWN__HARRISON.pdf
Latitude
Longitude
Media type
Text
Mime-type
application/pdf