Brown, John Carter (1797 -1874)

John Carter Brown, founder of the John Carter Brown Library, was the youngest son of Nicholas Brown, and Ann, daughter of John Carter, the second printer of Providence, Rhode Island. He went into the family business, and at the same time started collecting books. At first he collected Aldines, early editions of the classics, polyglot Bibles, and extra illustrated books, but later turned to American printing. His gifts of books, buildings and land to Brown University, which had been founded by his father, culminated in the building of the new University Library. He married, 23 June 1859, Sophia Augusta, daughter of the Hon. Patrick Brown, member of Council and associate justice of the General Court of the Bahama Islands. His widow transferred the title of the John Carter Brown collection to her elder son John Nicholas Brown, who left it to Brown University, with an endowment fund of $500,000, and a sum for the erection of a special building to house it.