Bravo Brown!

Terence FitzSimons is an Honorary Research Fellow at Federation University Australia and an honorary historian with Sovereign Hill Museums Association, an affiliated institute of the university. His research interests are centred on Victorian social history.

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These are the letters received and sent by Charles Henry Brown between the years 1847 and 1864.


As an aeronaut, Brown’s lifelong obsession with aerostation took him from his native Great Britain to Australia. While his aeronautical endeavours met with only limited success he was, however, determined to record his contribution to the science, and from an early stage established a vital correspondence with a number of leading figures in the world of ballooning.


The letters provide insights into the developing field of aeronautics, and reveal the tensions, rivalries and downright underhand conduct of some of the pioneers of aviation.


Brown’s intention was to publish his collected correspondence, but his failure to fully realise his own lifelong ambition as an aeronaut of note led him in despair to take his life before he achieved his objective of bringing the compiled correspondence to print.


The manuscript was later recovered by a relative and deposited at the State Library of Victoria where it sat receiving but scant attention until now.