Guide to the Ian W. Brown Papers

This finding aid describes the Ian W. Brown Papers, part of the NPS History Collection. To search this guide for names, places, key words, or phrases enter Ctrl F on your keyboard (command key + F key on a Mac). Request an in-person research appointment or get more information by contacting the archivist.

Collection Overview

Collection Number: HFCA 3090
Accession Number: HFCA-02095
Creator: Brown, Ian W.
Title: Ian W. Brown Papers
Dates: 1983-2010
Extent of Collection: 4.5 LF and 12.1 MB
Language of Materials: English

Digital Access: The collection has not been digitized.

Conditions Governing Access: This collection is open to research use. Copyright to Ian Brown’s documents has been transferred to the NPS through the deed of gift but other copyrighted material may be present. See https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en for information about works in copyright. See the NPS general copyright and restricted information here.

Provenance: Donated to the NPS History Collection by Ian Brown in November 2024.

Processing Note: This collection was processed and described by Carson Jarrell-Rourke in April 2025.

Rights Statement for Archival Description: This guide is in the public domain.
Preferred Citation: Ian W. Brown Papers (HFCA 3090), NPS History Collection
Location of Repository: NPS History Collection, Harpers Ferry Center, PO Box 50, Harpers Ferry, WV 25425

Related Materials:

• Frank E. Masland Papers (HFCA-00907), NPS History Collection
• Emil Haury's NPS Advisory Board Photographs, ca. 1964-1978 (HFCA-01428), NPS History Collection
• Audio recordings of Secretary's Advisory Board for NPS meetings, 1971-1975 (HFCA-01599), NPS History Collection
• Edward Bridge Danson's NPS Advisory Board Photographs (HFCA-01808), NPS History Collection
• NPS Advisory Board Meeting Files, 1956-1990s (HFCA-02052), NPS History Collection

• Ian Brown Cemeteries Collection, The University of Alabama Libraries Special Collections

Biographical Note

Ian W. Brown grew up in Guilderland, New York. He earned a BA from Harvard College in 1973 before going on to earn an MA (1973) and PhD (1979) from Brown University. He taught at Harvard from 1980-1989, also serving as assistant director at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology from 1989-1990. While there, he curated the permanent exhibition in the Peabody’s Hall of the North American Indian and helped create the museum studies program in Harvard’s Division of Continuing Education.

Brown moved to the University of Alabama in 1991. He was director of the Alabama Museum of Natural History and then became the museum’s curator of Gulf Coast Archaeology. In 1993 he became a full professor in the Department of Anthropology. For many years he served as director of Graduate Studies in the department, advisor for the Anthropology Club, and chair of the department. He was also awarded a College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Commitment to Students Award (2000), a Distinguished Teaching Fellowship (2004-2007), and a National Alumni Association, Outstanding Commitment to Teaching Award (2008).

Brown has over 50 years of fieldwork experience in the Lower Mississippi Valley and the Gulf Coastal Plain and is an expert on uses of salt since prehistory. He conducted major projects in the Natchez Bluffs and Yazoo Bluffs of Mississippi, in Louisiana, and in southeast Alabama. He was both vice president (2008-2009) and president (2009-2013) of the Association for Gravestone Studies. In 2002 he began a long-term study of the historic and modern cemeteries of Tuscaloosa County in Alabama.

Brown served as president of the Southeastern Archaeological Conference (SEAC) between 1992 and 1994. From 1997 to 2005 he served three terms as chair of the Society for American Archaeology National Historic Landmark Committee (SAA-NHL) and was also a member of the National Historic Landmarks (NHL) Committee of the National Park System Advisory Board. Brown was also a member of the Archaeology Committee from 1993 until 2005. He served as the committee’s chair between 1997 and 2005.

The SAA-NHL Archaeology Committee featured nine members of the archaeological profession representing both the Society of American Archaeology (SAA) and the Society for Historical Archaeology (SHA). The committee’s main responsibility was to provide the National Park Service (NPS) with documented professional opinions and evaluations of existing national historic landmark themes and sub-themes for archaeological properties. It also assisted NPS personnel with initiating, developing, and presenting thematic and sub-thematic studies of such properties. A third role was to promote awareness about the NHL program among SAA membership and to encourage the development of documentation which might lead to the nomination of nationally significant archaeological properties. The committee reviewed between five and ten NHL nominations per year. The committee assembled at least once a year at the annual SAA meeting, and committee members served for three-year periods.

The NHL Committee for the NPS Advisory Board is composed of experts in the fields of history, historic preservation, architectural history, archaeology, and related disciplines. At semi-annual meetings, the NHL Committee makes detailed reviews of nominations and offers recommendations to the Advisory Board, which then advise the NPS director who, in turn, provides a list of recommended properties to the secretary of the Interior. Nomination reviews that were particularly contentious during Brown’s tenure as chair were for the Gettysburg Cyclorama and Graceland.

Scope and Content Note

Correspondence, photographs, annual reports, theme studies, meeting notes, and other documents from Ian Brown’s tenure on the National Park System Advisory Board's Society for American Archaeology National Historic Landmark Committee (SAA-NHL) and National Historic Landmarks Committee (NHL). Brown’s correspondence regarding his resignation from both SAA-NHL and NHL is present. Files of Shereen Lerner and David Brose, past chairs of SAA-NHL, and Brown's papers from the Southeastern Archaeological Conference (SEAC) are also included.

Arrangement

Organized into three series, as follows:
Series I: Society for American Archaeology National Historic Landmark Committee (SAA-NHL)
Series II: National Historic Landmarks Committee of the National Park System Advisory Board (NHL)
Series III: Southeastern Archaeology Conference (SEAC)

Series I: Society for American Archaeology National Historic Landmark Committee (SAA-NHL), 1983-2007

Volume of Series: 3.0 LF
Arrangement: Arranged alphabetically by subject and thereunder chronologically by year.

Scope and Content

SAA-NHL Archaeology Committee reports and correspondence on individual National Historic Landmark (NHL) nomination reviews in numerous states including Alaska, California, Florida, Kansas, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Wisconsin, as well as the US Virgin Islands. Photographs of awards that Brown received while on the SAA-NHL Committee are included. Files of the two previous SAA-NHL chairs, David S. Brose (1980s) and Shereen Lerner (1990s) are included. SAA-NHL reports reviewing theme studies, some with draft reports and associated correspondence, are included. Correspondence, meeting notes, reports, theme studies, and other documents associated with Brown’s membership and chairmanship of the SAA-NHL Archaeology Committee are included. Electronic records of NHL studies for Parkin Site, Arkansas; Anna and Winterville Sites, Mississippi; and Los Adaes Presidio, Louisiana archaeological sites are present, intended to be used as examples for formatting future site reports.

Photographs from a visit to Salt Bay Archaeological Site are included in Folder 03 under “Correspondence” as opposed to the “Nomination Files” folder for the Salt Bay Archaeological Site, as they were sent to Brown with other communications from Barto Arnold. See also Series II for topical overlap due to the cooperative nature of Brown’s work, particularly regarding his resignations from both committees.

Container List

BOX 01
Folder 01: Annual Reports to Executive Board, 1997-2005
Folder 02: Committee Member Contact Lists, 1997-2003
Folder 03: Correspondence, 1993-1997
Folder 04: Correspondence, July 1997-December 1998, 1 of 3
Folder 05: Correspondence, July 1997-December 1998, 2 of 3
Folder 06: Correspondence, July 1997-December 1998, 3 of 3
Folder 07: Correspondence, January 1999-March 2000, 1 of 3

BOX 02
Folder 01: Correspondence, January 1999-March 2000, 2 of 3
Folder 02: Correspondence, January 1999-March 2000, 3 of 3
Folder 03: Correspondence: Barto Arnold, 2001
Folder 04: Correspondence: Mark Barnes, 2006-2007
Folder 05: Committee Guidelines Materials and Personal Meeting Notes, 1997-1998
Folder 06: Committee Request to Become a Member, 2003
Folder 07: Financial, 1997-2005
Folder 08: Landmarks Nomination Project, 2003
Folder 09: Landmarks at Risk Project, 2003
Folder 10: Meetings: Denver, 2002
Folder 11: Meetings: Gallup, 2000
Folder 12: Meetings: Key Largo, 1993
Folder 13: Meetings: Milwaukee, 2003-2004
Folder 14: Meetings: Montreal, 2004

BOX 03
Folder 01: Meetings: New Orleans, 2001
Folder 02: Meetings: Philadelphia, 1999-2000
Folder 03: NHL Archaeology Inventory, 1999
Folder 04: Nominations: Amalik Bay Archaeological District, 2002-2004
Folder 05: Nominations: Annaberg Plantation and School, 1997
Folder 06: Nominations: Bethabara, 1998
Folder 07: Nominations: Big Eddy Archaeological Site, 2000
Folder 08: Nominations: Borax Lake Site, 2004-2006
Folder 09: Nominations: Bottle Creek Site, 2003
Folder 10: Nominations: Caloosahatchee, 2000
Folder 11: Nominations: Carson Mound Group and Humber-McWilliams, 1995
Folder 12: Nominations: Coso Rock Art District, 2000
Folder 13: Nominations: Fort Blount-Williamsburg Site, 1998
Folder 14: Nominations: Fort Corchaug, 1998
Folder 15: Nominations: Fort King, 2002-2005
Folder 16: Nominations: Fort Southwest Point, 1998
Folder 17: Nominations: Fort St. Pierre, 1998
Folder 18: Nominations: Graceland, 2004-2006
Folder 19: Nominations: Grand Mound Site, 2004
Folder 20: Nominations: George Washington’s Childhood Home, 1999
Folder 21: Nominations: Gettysburg Cyclorama, 1999
Folder 22: Nominations: Hester Site, 1997
Folder 23: Nominations: Hedgepeth Mounds Site, 1997
Folder 24: Nominations: Lower Cimarron Spring, 1998
Folder 25: Nominations: Meadowcroft Rockshelter, 2001-2006
Folder 26: Nominations: Menoken Indian Village Site, 2003-2004
Folder 27: Nominations: Miami Circle at Brickell Point, 2004-2005
Folder 28: Nominations: Mission Santa Ines, 1998
Folder 29: Nominations: Missouri Villages (10 Nominations), 1998
Folder 30: Nominations: Multiple Property Listing, Guana River Shell Ring Site, Fort George Shell Ring Site, 2000-2001

BOX 04
Folder 01: Nominations: Okeechobee Battlefield Boundary Change, 2000
Folder 02: Nominations: Pritchard Landing Site, 1997
Folder 03: Nominations: Port of Nova Albion, 1984-1997
Folder 04: Nominations: Salt River Bay, 2001
Folder 05: Nominations: Santa Elena/Charlesfort, 1997
Folder 06: Nominations: Silver Mound Archaeological District, 2003-2005
Folder 07: Nominations: Travellers Rest, 2004-2005
Folder 08: Past Chairs: David Brose, 1983-1985
Folder 09: Past Chairs: David Brose, 1986-1990
Folder 10: Past Chairs: David Brose, 1991-1992
Folder 11: Past Chairs: David Brose, 1993, 1 of 2
Folder 12: Past Chairs: David Brose, 1993, 2 of 2
Folder 13: Past Chairs: David Brose, 1994-1995
Folder 14: Past Chairs: Draft of “Prehistory in the Southeast Region of the United States” Site Survey, 1993

BOX 05
Folder 01: Past Chairs: Shereen Lerner, 1993-1995
Folder 02: Past Chairs: Shereen Lerner, 1993-1997
Folder 03: Past Chairs: Shereen Lerner, 1994-1996, 1 of 3
Folder 04: Past Chairs: Shereen Lerner, 1994-1996, 2 of 3
Folder 05: Past Chairs: Shereen Lerner, 1994-1996, 3 of 3
Folder 06: Photographs: SAA-NHL Award Plaques, 2001, 2006
Folder 07: Program Information for New Member, 1988-2003
Folder 08: Records of Brown’s Early Involvement, 1988-1993
Folder 09: Records of Brown’s Early Involvement, 1992-1993

BOX 06
Folder 01: Records of Brown’s Early Involvement, 1993
Folder 02: Records of Brown’s Early Involvement, 1994
Folder 03: Records of Brown’s Early Involvement: Criteria and Workshop Files, 1993-1994
Folder 04: Records of Brown’s Early Involvement: Nomination Evaluations, 1993-1995
Folder 05: Responsibilities as Chair, 2000
Folder 06: Status Reports, 1991-1992, 2004
Folder 07: Theme Study: Earliest Americans, 1993-2002, 1 of 2
Folder 08: Theme Study: Earliest Americans, 1993-2002, 2 of 2
Folder 09: Theme Study: Earliest Americans, 2002, 1 of 2
Folder 10: Theme Study: Earliest Americans, 2002, 2 of 2
Folder 11: Theme Study: History of Archaeology, 2002
Folder 12: Theme Study: Labor Archaeology, 2000
Folder 13: Theme Study: Southern Florida Sites Associated With The Tequesta, 2004

Series II: National Historic Landmarks Committee of the National Park System Advisory Board (NHL), 1999-2010

Volume of Series: 1.0 LF
Arrangement: Arranged alphabetically by subject and thereunder chronologically by year.

Scope and Content

Correspondence, meeting notes, reports, and other documents associated with Brown’s membership on the NHL Committee. Documents regarding NHL committee meetings attended by Brown as SAA-NHL Archaeology representative are included. Correspondence regarding Brown’s resignation from both the SAA-NHL and NHL committees in protest of the sudden reorganization of the Cultural Resources Department at NPS are included in Box 02.

Container List

BOX 01
Folder 01: Committee Members and Program Staff Contact List, 1999
Folder 02: Essays on Modern Architecture, 2003
Folder 03: Meetings, December 1999
Folder 04: Meetings, March-May 2000
Folder 05: Meetings, November 2000
Folder 06: Meetings, May 2001
Folder 07: Meetings, October 2002
Folder 08: Meetings, February-May 2003
Folder 09: Meetings, May-June 2003
Folder 10: Meetings, July-September 2003
Folder 11: Meetings, May-September 2004
Folder 12: Meetings, March-April 2005

BOX 02
Folder 01: NHL Guidelines, 1999-2000
Folder 02: SAA-NHL and NHL Resignation Correspondence, May 2005
Folder 03: SAA-NHL and NHL Resignation Correspondence, May-December 2005
Folder 04: SAA-NHL and NHL Resignation Correspondence, February 2006-January 2010

Series III: Southeastern Archaeology Conference (SEAC), 1985-1996

Volume of Series: 0.5 LF
Arrangement: Arranged alphabetically by subject and thereunder chronologically by year.

Scope and Content

Correspondence and other material from Brown’s time as president of the Southeastern Archaeological Conference (1990-1994) and as chair of the SEAC Archives Committee (1994-1996). Brown’s files associated with his role as president-elect (November 1990-October 1992) and president (November 1992-October 1994) of the SEAC are included. Copies of bylaws, meeting minutes, programs, reports, financial reports, student paper competition, and the notes of various subcommittees are present.

Container List

BOX 01
Folder 01: Correspondence, 1994-1996
Folder 02: President-Elect, 1985-1992
Folder 03: President, November 1992-October 1993
Folder 04: President, October 1993-February 1994
Folder 05: President, February-September 1994
Folder 06: President, October-November 1994

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