Becomes Smithsonian's First Black Hire

Although he thoroughly enjoyed his work, Brown left the laboratory position in 1852 to work in the Foreign Exchange Division of the newly opened Smithsonian Institute. The first secretary of the Smithsonian was Joseph Henry, the same electrical engineer with whom Brown had worked at the post office, so the two men had a previous work relationship, and similar roles in the early days of working with Samuel F. Morse and the invention of the telegraph, all in common.

Brown holds the unique distinction of being the first African American hired to work at the Smithsonian Institute. In June 2004, during the one-hundred-year anniversary celebration of the founding of the Museum of Natural History, which was attended by some of Brown’s descendants, his contributions to the Smithsonian were honored by the planting of a Lebanon tree on the museum grounds. Christian T. Samper, the museum’s director, noted that Brown was present at the museum’s original ground breaking.

When Brown was hired by the Smithsonian, he found his niche and his lifelong avocation. He remained with the Smithsonian for fifty-four years and held several positions. He started at the bottom rung with manual labor tasks such as building exhibit cases, was promoted to clerical positions, and finally obtained the position of naturalist. Over the years, he absorbed and compiled a plethora of information on natural history. He then synthesized his knowledge with his artistic experiences and began lecturing before various audiences in the District of Columbia area, demonstrating with his own illustrations on a variety of topics.

Brown’s very first lecture occurred on January 10, 1855 at the invitation of the Young People’s Literary Society and Lyceum at the Israel Church in Washington, D.C. With a dazzling display of forty-nine different drawings, Brown captivated the audience with his expertise on the subject of the social habits of insects. This lecture proved so popular he was called upon to repeat it in surrounding cities such as Baltimore, Georgetown, and Alexandria. Encouraged by the demand for his informative speaking engagements, Brown expanded his repertoire and delivered addresses on water, air, food, coal, mineralogy, fungi, plant embryos, and geology.

For his first lecture on geology, presented to a packed audience at the 1883 Annual Conference of the African Methodist Episcopalian Church in Washington, D.C, he used twenty-nine of his own large illustrations, including one on geologic strata formations. Then, too, Brown’s selection of subjects was not limited to natural phenomena. He enlightened his audiences on philosophical, religious, and educational topics, including “God’s Providence to Man,” “Early Educators of D.C,” Man’s Relations to Earth," and the telegraph. He continued to travel and lecture until 1887.

Brown served under two other secretaries of the Smithsonian, Spencer F. Baird and Samuel P. Langley. When Baird would leave Washington, D.C. during the summers for his family vacation, Brown would conscientiously write him letters, keeping his supervisor abreast of the daily affairs of the Smithsonian, as well as events happening in the city. One letter to Baird dated July 15, 1864, reported that Confederate Army Rebels were threatening the city and that the museum had very few visitors.

On June 16, 1864, when he was a museum assistant, Brown married his wife, Lucinda, who then became his devoted companion and an enthusiastic helpmate, nurturing his enterprising spirit and aspirations. The couple had no children of their own but mentored several young women. In 1869, Brown changed Smithsonian jobs again and assumed responsibility for the registration, transportation, and storage of museum materials and resources.

A nineteenth-century renaissance man, Brown also possessed literary talent and became a published poet. He performed poetry readings and his poems were published in a local African American newspaper, the Washington Bee . In 1983, Louise Daniel Hutchinson and Gail Sylvia Lowe compiled his poetry into a book entitled Kind Regards of S. G. Brown: Selected Poems of Solomon G. Brown . It was published by the Smithsonian Institution Press.

Brown was socially active and involved in his community’s political, educational, and religious activities. He held trusteeships with Wilberforce University, the Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church, and the Washington, D.C. public school system. He was a Sunday School superintendent and helped found the Pioneer Sunday School. He was grand secretary of the District Grand Lodge of Masons, a member of the Freeman’s Relief Association, president of National Union League (1866), director of the Industrial Saving and Building Association, editor of the Sunday School Circle of the Christian Index , and the Washington correspondent for the Anglo-African Christian Recorder . He served as a commissioner for the poor and, beginning in 1871, was elected three times to the District of Columbia legislature. The 1878 minutes of the Negro Society show that Brown was admitted as a member at its meeting on January 19; however, none of the subsequent published minutes demonstrates that he ever attended a meeting.

Solomon G. Brown retired from the Smithsonian Institute on his birthday, February 14, 1906. He was seventy-seven years old and had lived life to the fullest. He died at his home five months later, on June 24. A brilliant man with so many accomplishments in different fields of endeavor, Brown left a legacy of service, entrepreneur-ship, and embracing all life had to offer a man of his class and his race in the late nineteenth century. Brown is best remembered by many historians as the first African American employee of the Smithsonian Institute, but he made other lasting contributions with the telegraph, his natural history lectures, his poetry, and his long record of unselfish public service.