BROWNS’ GOWNS
Clothing exhibit revives a fashionable family’s history
The Kerr Memorial Museum in Oakmont offers a glimpse of what the wealthy once wore in a special exhibit, “Brown Collection: High Society Fashion From the Gilded Age through the Roaring ′20s.”
The clothing donated by the family of Alice Brown Painter Thompson of Sewickley belonged to the Brown family, Pittsburgh’s forgotten Fricks. Brothers Samuel and W. Harry Brown owned Churchill Downs, piloted the first private yacht through the Panama Canal, owned and operated America’s largest steamship fleet and donated a yacht to the Navy during World War I. One brother is buried in the Samuel Brown Mausoleum in Allegheny Cemetery.
“They were contemporaries of Frick and Carnegie and in fact they sold their coal and coke company to Henry Clay Frick,” said Ms. Stewart, a volunteer at the Kerr Museum (www.kerrmuseum.com).
The exhibit is accompanied by photos showing family members wearing some of the clothes on display. The family lent the Kerr Museum three photo
albums showing what life was like for the rich and famous at the turn of the 20th century. On the first floor, a Victrola plays music from the 1920s near a dress from the flapper era.
“We even have a pair of picnic pants,” said volunteer Jan Shoop, referring to a type of undergarment worn by women.
Evening wear and the dress Mrs. Brown wore to her daughter’s wedding also are on display. The details are impressive on the men’s, women’s and girls’ garments. Made from linen, cotton or wool, some are beaded, embroidered or beribboned.
“The clothing was kept in trunks all these years,” Ms. Stewart said.
Pittsburgh’s industrialists of the last century lived pampered lives with plenty of servants to handle their wardrobes, which required laborintensive care to make and maintain. Ms. Shoop said she spent eight hours hand-washing and starching one dress.
Harry Brown and his wife, Margaret, resided in a 50-room mansion at the corner of Fifth and Murray Hill avenues in Squirrel Hill.
“When they built the stone home in 1897, Pittsburgh had more millionaires than New York City,” said Ms. Stewart. “It had beautiful Tiffany stainedglass windows.”
The house was torn down in 1989.
Harry and Margaret Brown were travelers who took their three children and a tutor on a tour of Egypt in 1900. Marnie, the older of two daughters, died a day after her 15th birthday of scarlet fever. Family members were buried in a mausoleum in Homewood cemetery whose pyramid shape was inspired by the trip to Egypt.
In the museum’s firstfloor parlor is a wind-up record player and a piano with copies of music written for Capt. Samuel Brown, who was a friend of author Mark Twain. One song’s title is “God Bless the Loved Ones at Home.”
Dr. Thomas Kerr built the house on Delaware Avenue in 1897 and lived and worked there with his wife Jessie and daughter Virginia.
“She lived in the house for 91 years and in 1994 when she died, she bequeathed the house to the borough of Oakmont,” Ms. Stewart said.
The Kerr Museum opened in 2002. The clothing exhibit continues through Nov. 10.
The Kerr Museum, 402 Delaware Ave., Oakmont (15139) is open every Saturday from 10 a.m. until 2 pm. Information: www.kerrmuseum.com or 412-826-9295.