Inventory contains the papers of Alexander Brown (1843-1906), farmer, merchant and author who lived in Nelson County, Virginia.

Includes correspondence relating to his books, The Genesis of the United States, The First Republic in America, The Cabells and Their Kin, New Views, and other correspondence and business papers of Brown including letters written from Australia, England, Wales, and Egypt1(1867-1869). Correspondents include Herbert Baxter Adams, Jabez Lamar Monroe Curry, Charles Deane, and Lyon Gardiner Tyler.

The collection also includes papers of Mayo Cabell and ledgers of Mayo Cabell & Co., Lynchburg, Virginia, and of the Lynchburg Female Seminary; accounts of "Belmont," "Benvenue," and "Norwood" plantations (in Nelson County); and genealogical material on the Brown and Cabell families.

In 2011, the following items were added to Box 1, Folder 25: January 24, 1876 letter from R.V. Pierce, M.D. of "Chronic Diseases of Either Sex" to Alexander Brown where Dr. Pierce states "the affection you describe is some form of venereal disease" with an enclosure about remittance of money .

Alexander Brown Papers, Box 1. 112 letters from Brown to Charles Deane is available on microfilm in Swem Library’s microforms area, 1 reel, call number Mss. 65 B83. NOTE: original letters are with the Massachuestts Historical Society.