Guide to the Hubert W. Brown and Wilma Jacobs Brown Papers
Open for research.
Hubert W. and Wilma Jacobs Brown were Presbyterian missionaries in Mexico City from the 1880s to 1906. Hubert W. Brown was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1858. He earned a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Michigan in 1879, and served briefly as principal of Ypsilanti High School before attending Princeton Theological Seminary, graduating in 1883. He served as Stated Supply in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, 1883-1884, and was ordained as an evangelist in 1884 by the Monmouth Presbytery. In 1884, Brown was appointed by the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Board of Foreign Missions to the Southern Mexico Mission. In 1886, he married his fellow missionary, Mary Wilma Jacobs, who had been posted to the Northern Mexico Mission in 1883. Following their marriage, the two worked together at the Mexico Mission in Mexico City. Wilma Jacobs Brown was engaged in educational work. Hubert W. Brown taught at the Presbyterian College and Theological Seminary at Coyoacan and was editor of the newspaper El Faro. He also wrote and translated works on the history of the church in Mexico. The Browns returned to the United States when Hubert W. Brown became ill in 1906. He died the same year, and Wilma Jacobs Brown retired from missionary work.
The Hubert W. Brown and Wilma Jacobs Brown Papers document the couple’s experiences as PCUSA missionaries in Mexico City from 1884 to 1906 and, to a lesser extent, their personal lives from 1870 to 1941. The collection includes incoming and outgoing correspondence of Hubert W. and Wilma Jacobs Brown; manuscript and typescript writings by both of the Browns; foreign and home mission pamphlets and publications; diaries of Hubert W. Brown, 1870-1893; and diaries of Wilma Jacobs Brown, 1889-1892. Included in the correspondence are two letters to Hubert W. Brown from Porfirio Diaz, President of Mexico, and letters from Brown’s sister, Charlotte H. Brown, documenting her work for the Syria Mission from 1911 to 1915. Other materials in the collection include a volume titled "Copies of Letters and Other Documents Secured for the Preparation of a History of Presbyterianism in Mexico," including several biographical sketches; bound copies of Hojas de Lecciones Dominicales and Cuaderno de Lecciones Dominicales, newspapers edited by Brown; a scrapbook of Hubert W. Brown’s published letters from Mexico, 1884-1898; and Wilma Jacobs Brown’s notes on Brown family history.
Summary of Box Contents
Box 1: Hubert W. and Wilma Jacobs Brown correspondence, 1882-1941; essays; speeches; clippings; Hojas de Lecciones Dominicales, 1894; and research files, including a bound book of manuscript copies of letters and other documents used in Brown’s research on the history of Presbyterianism in Mexico
Box 2: Diaries of Hubert W. Brown and Wilma Jacobs Brown, 1870-1893; scrapbook of clippings of published letters from Mexico by Hubert W. Brown, 1884-1898; supplements to El Faro, 1899-1940; Cuaderno de Lecciones Dominicales, 1903-1906; historical sketches of Presbyterians in Mexico and home and foreign mission pamphlets and books, 1884-1940
Received from Mrs. Wilma Brown between 1937 and 1942 and from Dr. F.L. Brown in 1967.
This collection is minimally processed: materials may not have been ordered beyond their original condition. A preliminary inventory is provided in this guide. Guide revised in 2009 by Jennifer Barr, Archives Intern.
Hubert W. Brown and Wilma Jacobs Brown Papers, RG 458, Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
| Box | Folder | Description | |
| 1 | 1 | Correspondence to Hubert W. Brown, 1885-1900 | |
| 1 | 2 | Correspondence to Hubert W. Brown, 1900-1940 | |
| 1 | 3 | Correspondence from President Porfirio Diaz, 1886 August 23 | |
| 1 | 4 | Correspondence from Paul M. Clayton (U.S. Embassy), 1901 September | |
| 1 | 5 | Correspondence from President Porfirio Diaz, 1901 November 5 | |
| 1 | 6 | Correspondence to Wilma Jacobs Brown, 1885 July 15-1941 October | |
| 1 | 7 | Correspondence from Wilma Jacobs Brown, 1882 March-1884 December | |
| 1 | 8 | Correspondence from Wilma Jacobs Brown, 1885 January-1895 December | |
| 1 | 9 | Correspondence from Charlotte H. Brown, 1911 September-1912 December | |
| 1 | 10 | Correspondence from Charlotte H. Brown, 1913 January-1915 September | |
| 1 | 11 | Correspondence to Lida Clark, 1884 April 12-1884 June 13 | |
| 1 | 12 | Correspondence of other missionaries to Mexico, 1901-1937 | |
| 1 | 13 | Writings of Hubert W. Brown, 1887-1902, undated | |
| 1 | 14 | Writings of Hubert W. Brown, 1890-1905, undated | |
| 1 | 15 | Writings of Wilma Jacobs Brown and clippings, 1933, undated | |
| 1 | 16 | Writings and other papers of Wilma Jacobs Brown, 1880-1937, undated | |
| 1 | 17 | Clippings and articles, 1872-1935, undated | |
| 1 | 18 | Miscellaneous papers, 1885-1937, undated | |
| 1 | 18 | Bound volume of Hojas de Lecciones Dominicales, 1894 | |
| 1 | 19 | Miscellaneous papers, 1860-1941, undated | |
| 1 | 20 | Miscellaneous papers, 1872-1938, undated | |
| 2 | 1 | Diaries of Hubert W. Brown, 1870-1878 | |
| 2 | 2 | Diaries of Hubert W. Brown, 1879-1888 | |
| 2 | 3 | Diaries of Hubert W. Brown, 1888-1893 | |
| 2 | 4 | Diaries of Wilma Jacobs Brown, 1889-1892 | |
| 2 | 5 | Scrapbook of clippings of Hubert W. Brown letters from Mexico, 1884-1898 | |
| 2 | 6 | Miscellaneous papers, 1885-1905, undated | |
| 2 | 7 | Pamphlets and memorabilia, 1884-1904 | |
| 2 | 8 | Supplements to El Faro, 1899-1940 | |
| 2 | 9 | Publications of PCUSA Women’s Board of Home Missions, PCUS Executive Committee of Foreign Missions, and the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1889-1902 | |
| 2 | 10 | Bound volume of Cuaderno de Lecciones Dominicales, 1903-1906 | |
| 2 | 11 | Clippings and publications, 1889-1908 | |
| 2 | 12 | Pamphlets, 1885-1925 | |
| 2 | 13 | Pamphlets, 1900-1940 | |
| 2 | 14 | Programs, mission pamphlets, and hymnals, 1900-1940 |