Joe Brown

• I have located the collected correspondence, reference to a collection of photos of works by Bill Gregory, a Joe Brown Foundation that is probably at Princeton, and a likely resource at Princeton University.  I found no reference in the National Museum of American Art database, but their reference library may have more detail.  It looks like there is enough information to write a book. 
  
  
• Feb 14, 2000:  I just recently purchased a metal sculpture at and antique store. It is the bust of a man. On the front are the intials RMT. On the side is the signature of the sculptor. It reads Joe Brown 1938. I am interested in learning who RMT is and what other work Mr. Brown has done. I'm not much of an art/antique collector, but I have drawn a liking to this piece, and hope to buy more of his work. Please respond if you know anything about either. Aim23ee@aol.com   http://www.libertynet.org/gmslide/forum.html   
  
  
• At 11:39 PM on September 3, Bill Motley (mtlycrew@cs.com) said:
  My great uncle was the sculptor, Joe Brown, of Temple and Princeton Universities. My mother, before her death, gave me a piece done by Joe Brown dated 1949. It is a bronze piece of a swimmer. I would appreciate any assistance in researching this piece or other information on my great uncle. Thanks.   http://www.caminobooks.com/art-in.html  
  
  
• Benjamin Franklin, Craftsman
  
  

Joseph Brown

Bronze
Height: 10'
Base: granite

North Broad Street, opposite City Hall
Unveiled June 20, 1981

This sculpture of young Benjamin Franklin at the printing press stands across from the Masonic Temple, whose members commissioned it in honor of the 250th anniversary of Free Masonry in Pennsylvania. There was a great deal of criticism in the news media about the esthetics of this piece when it was first unveiled, but no one mentioned that the sculptor had lost the sight of one eye and had failing vision in the other.

Joe Brown became a sculptor almost by accident. He was graduated from Temple University in 1931 at the height of the depression. He couldn't get a position as a physical education instructor, but since he was an athlete he got a job posing for artists at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. There he was tempted to try sculpting himself, and the three pieces he produced were accepted by the Academy for exhibition. His work caught the eye of Dr. R. Tait McKenzie, a noted physician and sculptor. Brown served a seven-year apprenticeship to Dr. McKenzie and then joined the Princeton University staff as boxing coach in 1937. In 1939 he began teaching a sculpture course and eventually became a full professor in the School of Architecture.


• Brown was a member of the Philadelphia Art Commission for 12 years, and Philadelphia has many of his bronze athletes in public places.
  http://toltec.lib.utk.edu/~spec_coll/manuscripts/a1884 
  
  
• The Special Collections home page is located at the following address:
   http://toltec.lib.utk.edu/~spec_coll/manuscripts/special.htm
  
  
• For further information please contact the staff:
  
  
• University Archives and Special Collections
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  Knoxville, TN 37996-4000
  
  
• phone (423) 974-4480
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• phone: (615) 974-4480 (old area code?)
  
  MS-1884
  JOSEPH BROWN COLLECTION Papers, 1927-1985 40.5 shelf ft.4,200 pieces
  
  Joseph Brown, former Princeton University Professor, is best remembered for his sculpting, particularly of sports figures. He was a professional boxer for a short time before he took up sculpting. Joe Brown taught sculpting classes at Princeton University and also coached boxing. Brown was involved in designing and developing innovative children's playground equipment.
  
  This collection contains Joseph Brown's personal and business files. Included are financial papers and correspondence with family and associates. The collection also includes many of Joseph Brown's manuscripts, photographs, and sketches, along with newspaper articles and awards reflecting his accomplishments.  Lastly, there is a small section containing the personal and business files of Gwyneth Brown, Joseph Brown's wife.
  
  
• http://mondrian.princeton.edu/CampusWWW/Companion/creative_arts_program.html 
• The original program was supported by a five-year grant from the Carnegie Corporation that made possible the enrichment of opportunities for undergraduates with particular aptitude and interest in music, painting, sculpture, and writing. For student composers of music, regular courses in harmony and composition were supplemented by weekly meetings with Professor Roger Sessions. Students interested in drawing and painting worked with James E. Davis '23 and Alden Wicks '37. Classes in sculpture were conducted by Joseph Brown, the boxing coach, in the cellar of Dean Gauss's residence, the Joseph Henry House. Students with talent in writing worked with Allen Tate, poet and critic, who came to Princeton as first resident Fellow in Creative Writing.
  
  
• http://www.princeton.edu/~paw/PAW97-98/16-0610/0610let.html#story4
  
  
• Remembering Joe Brown - Princeton Alumni Weekly - http://www.princeton.edu/~paw/
  
  
  
• I enjoyed the letters on Joe Brown in the March 11 and April 8 issues. When I was a freshman, Joe was the instructor in our physical education class, so several years later, in 1944, I was surprised to see him standing next to me during a physical exam for the draft. I remember his reading from a piece of paper the list of broken bones he had incurred in his days as a professional boxer. I believe that Joe wasn't drafted because of these many injuries and also because at the time he was teaching Navy and Army cadets at Princeton.
  James P. Harrington '47*51
  West Chester, Penn.
  
  
• In the March 11 paw you identified one of the two students pictured with Joe Brown in the January 28 From the Archives photo as Lester Mount '43*48. I believe that I am the other student.
  
  
• Joe and I both arrived at Princeton almost 50 years ago. Competing in the freshman boxing tournament, I lost a front tooth to classmate Tom Calvert and did not endear myself to Joe. But returning after the war, I had better luck as a sculptor apprentice and recipient of his priceless philosophical dissertations. He was a fine artist and athlete, but his real strength lay in his ability to make connections among all things: his experiences in the ring, the famous men he sculpted, and the deep morality and integrity that guided him in his art and life. He added a new dimension to my architectural studies and to my future practice, and we remained close friends until his death. At my 40th reunion Joe asked me to come by his studio at 185 Nassau Street, saying he had a surprise. He pulled down a small sculpture from one of the shelves and presented it to me -- my first "opus," which he had saved all those years.
  Bill Burwell '42*49
  Teaticket, Mass.
  
  
• http://www.mohilldesign.com/nytreview.html 
  
  
• If Mr. Zorochin were part of the New York City scene, he might by now have intensified the fetishistic side of his art, for better or worse. Already, there is, in the head of a young black apprentice wearing goggles, an uneasy affinity with Nancy Grossman's male images costumed in black leather. But the way things are going now, this former student of Joe Brown, the monumental sculptor, expresses his passion in the most prosaic, academic terms.
  
  
• The New York Times, Sunday, July 26, 1981
  
  
• http://www.princeton.edu/~paw/PAW96-97/15-0507/0507cns567.html   42ND REUNION DINNER: MAY 31
  PRESENT DAY CLUB
  Reception at 5:30. Dinner at 6:30. Fireworks after nightfall.
  An exhibition of photographs by Bill Gregory continues through May 31 at the Cameron Gallery in Princeton. His show, titled "Patterns," is composed mainly of works made during his travels around the globe. Bill works exclusively in black and white using a variety of 35mm cameras. "Using a camera helps me to see when I travel . . . " Bill's photos appear regularly in various New Jersey publications. His work is also displayed at The Light Fantastic, in Flemington, a gallery focusing on photography. Bill has also made a graphic record of sculptor Joe Brown's work for the Joe Brown Foundation.
  http://chronicle.com/data/articles.dir/eguid-44.dir/19eguide.htm   WESTERN MARYLAND COLLEGE has received 17 sculptures from the estate of Joe Brown, a professional boxer who became a respected sculptor and professor: A8  (The link goes to a registration form)   http://www.wmdc.edu/ is the home page for Western Maryland College.   http://www.geocities.com/Athens/9688/tiger/doctrina.htm  This is a little outre so will let you read the rest yourself.   I can tell you about this. There are two maverick actions going on within the force field of Princeton's faculty, and maybe more, I don't know, because I don't keep track of sociology; but these two minor tempests are important, and one of them was named Joe Brown.
  
  
• Frank Gray sent in a long article in the Baltimore Sun about our late honorary classmate, Joe Brown. The athlete-artist and Princeton art professor for almost 40 years left a number of sculptures to Western Maryland College, which bestowed an honorary doctorate upon him nearly 20 years ago.
  
  
• The Art History Department at Western Maryland College is at (410) 857-2595.