Descriptive Summary
Repository: Special Collections, University of Virginia Library
Accession number: 9732-f
Title: Letters to Demetra Vaka Brown 1918-[1930]
Physical Characteristics: 4 items.
Language: English
Scope and Content
Julia D. Dragoumis, author of Tales of a Greek Island (1912), and A Man of Athens (1916), wrote Brown,, praising and discussing her book In the Heart of the German Intrigue. Later, she wrote thanking Brown for sending her the copy of A Pawn to a Throne and notes that it was dedicated to Venizelos.
Helen von Kolnitz Hyer, author of On Shiny Wings, Hurricane Harbor, Stories by Seasons, Santee Songs (1923), and Wine Dark Sea (1930), wrote Brown expressing her appreciation of the praise received for her recently published poems, [Wine Dark Sea?]. She also promises to read Brown’s books, and mentions William Rose Benet’s devastating review of the work.
Edwin Arlington Robinson wrote Brown thanking her for a rememberance.
Biographical/Historical Information
Demetra Vaka Brown (1877-1946), a Byzantine Greek, was born on the Island of Bouyouk-Ada (Prinkipo) in the Sea of Marmora. She came to America at the age of seventeen and was on the editorial staff of a Greek language newspaper in New York before teaching French at Comstock School. She married Kenneth Brown on April 21, 1904. She traveled extensively in the Balkans, Asia Minor, and Greece, and interviewed King Constantine and Eleutherios Venizelos, as well as other leaders. She was author, and co-author with her husband, of books including The First Secretary (1907), In the Shadow of Islam (1911), In the Heart of the Balkans (1917), In the Heart of the German Intrigue (1918), and A Pawn to a Throne (1919).
Descriptive Summary
Repository: Special Collections, University of Virginia Library
Accession number: 9732
Title: Papers of Kenneth Brown ca. 1880-1954
Physical Characteristics: Ca. 3000 items (9 boxes).
Language: English
Scope and Content
The Papers of Kenneth Brown contain ca. 3,000 items, ca. 1880-1954, chiefly photographs of the Brown family, of Turkey, Greece, and various western European countries, and of Greek and Turkish leaders of the World War I era. There is some correspondence of the Browns (1876-1954), some bills to Francesca Boone, Kenneth Brown’s sister, three photograph albums, and seven scrapbooks, chiefly filled with clippings, belonging to Kenneth Brown, Caroline Brown, and Francesca Boone. There are also a number of handwritten newspapers that the young Kenneth Brown wrote in Europe.
Biographical/Historical Information
The son of Franklin B. and Caroline Morrill Brown, Kenneth Brown (1868- ) was born in Chicago and lived in Europe as a youth. A University of Virginia alumnus and Harvard graduate, he worked on several newspapers including the Boston Journal and the New York Commercial Advertiser. In 1904 he married Demetra Vaka (1877-1946), a Byzantine Greek who had come to the United States at the age of 17. Together they went to Greece during World War I, interviewed King Constantine, Eleutherios Venizelos, and other leaders, and wrote about their observations. In 1921 the couple did a series of articles on Turkey. Mrs. Brown is known also for several novels and works of non-fiction, including Haremlik (1909), In the Shadow of Islam (1911), and In the Grasp of the Sultan (1916).
Contents List
Letters and postcards to and from Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Brown 1900-1919 Box: 1
Woodrow Wilson to Mrs. Kenneth Brown 1918 February 7 Box: 1
TLS w/envelope Secretary to Woodrow Wilson to Mrs. Kenneth Brown 1918 March 11 Box: 1
TLS Letters and postcards to Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Brown 1920-1929 Box: 1
Letters and postcards, chiefly from Kenneth Brown 1930-1939 Box: 1
Letters and postcards, chiefly from Kenneth Brown 1940-1954 Box: 1
Letters and postcards to and from Kenneth Brown n.d. Box: 1
Carbons of publicity for Demetra Vaka (Mrs. Kenneth Brown) n.d. Box: 1
Clippings, re: Demetra Vaka (Mrs. Kenneth Brown) 1918-1932 Box: 1
Bills of Francesca Boone, A-B 1914-1928 Box: 2
— — —, C 1916-1926 Box: 2
— — —, D 1914-1926 Box: 2
— — —, E 1914-1921 Box: 2
— — —, F 1915-1926 Box: 2
— — —, G 1914-1926 Box: 2
— — —, H 1914-1929 Box: 2
— — —, I 1916-1921 Box: 2
— — —, J-K 1915-1927 Box: 2
— — —, L-M 1914-1925 Box: 2
— — —, N-O 1915-1923 Box: 2
— — —, P-R 1914-1929 Box: 2
— — —, S 1915-1925 Box: 2
— — —, T 1915-1927 Box: 2
— — —, U-V 1916-1924 Box: 2
— — —, W-Z 1915-1929 Box: 2
Photographs of Demetra Vaka (Mrs. Kenneth Brown) at various ages n.d. Box: 2
Photographs and negatives of Demetra Vaka (Mrs. Kenneth Brown) at various ages n.d. Box: 3
Photographs of Demetra Vaka ca. 1920 Box: 3
Photographs of Kenneth Brown at various ages n.d. Box: 3
Photographs of Kenneth Brown as a child ca. 1880 Box: 3
Photographs of Edmund Clarence Stedman, signed by Laura Stedman ca. 1908 Box: 3
Photographs of a group of Harvard athletes ca. 1890 Box: 3
Photographs of Greek Royal family ca. 1920 Box: 3
Photographs of Eleutherios Venizelos, his family, and his houses ca. 1920 Box: 3
Negatives of photographs of the Venizelos family ca. 1920 Box: 3
Photographs and negatives of Greek leaders ca. 1920 Box: 3
Photographs and negatives of Turkish leaders ca. 1920 Box: 3
Photographs and negatives of various identified people ca. 1920 Box: 4
Photographs of unidentified people n.d. Box: 4
Photographs of Brown-Boone house ca. 1901 Box: 4
Photographs of Kenneth Brown house [in New Hampshire] n.d. Box: 4
Photographs and negatives of Virginia scenes ca. 1920 Box: 4
Photographs and negatives of Greece 1917-ca. 1930 Box: 4
Photographs of Greece 1917-ca. 1930 Box: 4
Photographs of Turkey ca. 1920 Box: 5
Photographs of Turkey ca. 1920 Box: 5
Negatives of Turkey ca. 1920 Box: 5
Lists of kinds of photographs n.d. Box: 5
Photographs of Italy n.d. Box: 5
Photographs of Germany n.d. Box: 6
Photographs of Switzerland n.d. Box: 6
Photographs of France n.d. Box: 6
Photographs of European countries ca. 1920 Box: 6
Negatives of photographs of European countries 1910-ca. 1920 Box: 6
Photographs of unidentified places n.d. Box: 6
“A Little Bit of Love” n.d. Box: 6
TMs “The Gray Forsythia Twig” n.d. Box: 6
AMs Visas of Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Brown 1917 Box: 6
Printed and typewritten material, re: Demetra Vaka, Greece 1936-? Box: 6
Religious pamphlets 1930-1939 Box: 6
Pamphlets about Greece 1913-1926 Box: 7
Miscellaneous pamphlets 1910-1936 Box: 7
Miscellaneous printed material 1911-1949 Box: Box 7 Miscellaneous articles n.d. Box: 7
Photograph album, with photographs of Kenneth Brown’s [New Hampshire] home n.d. Box: 8
Photograph album with pictures, chiefly of Paris n.d. Box: 8
Scrapbook of clippings of articles of Kenneth Brown, in the Harvard Advocate, the Boston Journal, and the Magpie 1889-1896 Box: 9
Photograph album of Kenneth Brown’s house and family 1891-? Box: 9
Photograph of Harvard Class of 1891 1916 Box: 9
Photograph of Harvard Class of 1891 with families 1916 June 20 Box: 9
Folklore archive that includes correspondence and many oral histories from the Greek-American Family Project.
The Reuther Library also has miscellaneous other Greek materials which can be searched on that library’s home page.
Notably, the archive includes interviews with historian Dan Georgakas