"A visit to the Anne S.K. Brown Collection (of Toy Soldiers)" Topic

Last month my wife, our two younger daughters and I travelled to the East Coast to drop my son off to start his freshman year of college. Afterwards we visited some other colleges in the area which my older daughter is potentially interested in attending. One of those was Brown University in Rhode Island. During the tour of the campus our student guide pointed out a Library building which he said contained "The world's largest collection of TOY SOLDIERS" (emphasis mine).

Needless to say, as a near lifelong toy soldier collector and miniature wargamer, I was intrigued and after the tour ended, made my way to the building in question, iPhone camera in hand.

Here's a quick sampling of teaser pics…

A toy soldier version of Teddy Roosevelt from the Spanish-American War (the Library housing the collection happens to be named in honor of John Hay, who served as Roosevelt's Secretary of State)…

An Anglo-Indian Elephant Battery…

An Imperial Chinese procession…

And Queen Elizabeth II at the Trooping of the Colour…

If you'd like to see more, kindly click on the link to visit my humble blog, where a great many photos of somewhat passable quality tell the rest of the story…

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Thanks for this. I didn't know that these were there and it woould be a reasonable weekend trip for me to go see. Photos were great!

Great stuff – am reminded of the Forbes collection – any connection?

I got very spoiled while going to school there – a lot of great uniform references as well. Echo your comments about the other libraries as well – including several of their Napoleonic pieces.

Thanks for the comments, guys!

FusilierDan: it's great to hear you might visit the Collection based on what you saw here and on my blog, nothing blog-related can make me happier than when I hear something like that, so thanks for letting me know!

Green Tiger: I actually saw the Forbes collection once -- after Malcolm Forbes died and it was put up for auction at Christie's in Manhattan (one part of the collection was in New York and the other part was up for auction in London). I went with a military history and wargaming buddy to see the part of the collection for sale in Manhattan while it was on view and submitted bids on a couple of small lots of late 19th Century Colonial figures, but didn't win any of them, unfortunately! As I recall just the portion for sale in New York was at least as large and possibly even larger than the collection at Brown. I don't know if there is any connection whatsoever between the collections, and my guess would be that there isn't, but you never know. It seems like the periods when they were collected probably overlapped at least somewhat, Anne S.K. Brown being only about 15 years older than Malcolm Forbes. Maybe they knew each other! If nothing else they might have competed to buy the same batch of figures at some point.

DisasterWargamer: that's so cool! We didn't get to see anything other than the soldiers and the handful of vintage posters on display, but if I ever go back I will try to arrange it so I can check out the military sword collection at the other location.

I've seen the collection twice on visits to Boston. I couldn't believe that it was open to the public for free, but it was difficult in finding someone to open it because both times were in August, between semesters, and the curator, Peter Harrington wasn't there. It's not connected to the Forbes Collection which is now sold and never to be seen as a group. Anyone who is into toy soldiers should make a visit there. Everything is displayed in well lit museum quality cabinets. The amount and quality was mind boggling. It could be mecca for toy soldier collectors.

A lawyer named Orson Munn passed away a few years ago leaving a 10,000 plus collection of Britains. His family would like to have the collection displayed. Perhaps Brown?