Souvenir Nation by William L. Bird

Author:William L. Bird
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
Published: 2013-10-07T16:00:00+00:00

Mexican-American War spoils

Amozoc de Mota, Mexico

———

Gift of Mrs. Harrison Howell Dodge, 1906

This collection of war souvenirs was found by Lieutenant William Henry Browne in what he described as a “ruined house” believed to be near the present-day Mexican city of Amozoc de Mota in the state of Puebla. Just eighteen years old at the beginning of the Mexican-American War, Browne was assigned to the US Army command of Major Winfield Scott. Scott’s forces bombarded the city of Veracruz before marching inland to occupy Mexico City. Browne saw action along the way at Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Molino del Ray, and Chapultepec. Scott’s forces engaged the Mexican army in house-to-house combat, breaking through walls to access occupied rooftops, where parapets offered cover for small-arms fire.

Following the war, Browne mustered out of the army to practice law and drew upon his experiences in Mexico in developing a reputation as a poet and raconteur. In 1853 he published “The Mexican Coquette,” a short story about an American army officer bivouacked in a monastery and later a church that has been turned into a hospital after the battle of Mexico City. Reflecting upon the country’s conquest by the Spanish conquistador Fernando Cortés, Browne’s protagonist is forced to reconsider his own role as “an enemy and an invader.”

Browne later served with distinction in the Civil War, raising fourteen volunteer companies from New York and attaining the rank of general. Returning to his law practice after the war, Browne became an authority on trademarks, publishing a highly regarded text on the subject in 1873.2 Browne died in Washington, DC, in 1900, leaving his modest collection to his wife, Louise Wolcott Knowlton Browne, who placed it on loan to the museum in 1901. The museum exhibited the checkerboard paper, embroidered rose on paper, carved wooden cross, and rosary in a case in the rotunda of the Arts and Industries Building. After Mrs. Browne’s death, her sister, Mrs. Harrison Howell Dodge of Mount Vernon, donated the collection, including Browne’s swords and related war materiel, to the museum.

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