Grafton Tyler Brown--whose heritage was likely one-eighth
African American--finessed his way through San Francisco society by
passing for white. Working in an environment hostile to African
American achievement, Brown became a successful commercial artist
and businessman in the rough-and-tumble gold rush era and the years
after the Civil War. Best known for his bird's-eye cityscapes, he
also produced and published maps, charts, and business documents,
and he illustrated books, sheet music, advertisements, and labels
for cans and other packaging.
This biography by a distinguished California historian gives an
underappreciated artist and his work recognition long overdue.
Focusing on Grafton Tyler Brown's lithography and his life in
nineteenth-century San Francisco, Robert J. Chandler offers a study
equally fascinating as a business and cultural history and as an
introduction to Brown the artist.
Chandler's contextualization of Brown's career goes beyond the
issue of race. Showing how Brown survived and flourished as a
businessman, Chandler offers unique insight into the growth of
printing and publishing in California and the West. He examines the
rise of lithography, its commercial and cultural importance, and
the competition among lithographic companies. He also analyzes
Brown's work and style, comparing it to the products of rival
firms.
Brown was not respected as a fine artist until after his death.
Collectors of western art and Americana now recognize the
importance of Californiana and of Brown's work, some of which
depicts Portland and the Pacific Northwest, and they will find
Chandler's checklist, descriptions, and reproductions of Brown's
ephemera--including billheads and maps--as uniquely valuable as
Chandler's contribution to the cultural and commercial history of
California. In an afterword, historian Shirley Ann Wilson Moore
discusses the circumstances and significance of passing in
nineteenth-century America.
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