Rhode Island Stampless Covers & Letters
1826 Cover from Amsterdam, Via Captain Ames on Isabella Through Boston
(Scroll Down for Background Information and History)

John Carter Brown, the son of Nicholas Brown, Jr., (founder of Brown and Ives) was born in Providence, Rhode Island on August 28, 1797. He graduated from Brown University in 1816 and then entered the family business. He became a full partner in 1832. On the death of his father Nicholas, Jr. in 1841, John assumed control of the firm.

John Brown was a partner in several Rhode Island cotton factories and was engaged in various business enterprises outside of the state. John was also an active collector in the literary field and owned one of the finest pre-1800 Americana Libraries in the world. His library contained the most complete known collection of the "Jesuit Relations;" the letters and journals of the Jesuit missionaries in North America, which included forty-eight volumes.  He owned books relating to the settlement and history of New England, and books relating to Spanish and Portuguese America, the north polar district, and other regions of North and South America. His collection comprised over 6,230 separate works or titles, of which an elaborate catalogue was prepared by John Russell Bartlett and published in 1871. 

John Brown was a liberal benefactor to Brown University, donating more than $160,000 for the erection of fire-proof library building. He was a trustee of the University from 1828 to 1842 and a fellow from 1842 to 1874. 

John Carter Brown died in Providence, Rhode Island on June 10, 1874. and on his death he bequeathed $50,000 to various Rhode island charitable institutions. 

Moses Brown Ives, (1794-Unknown) and Robert Hale Ives, (1798-1878) were the brothers of Thomas Poynton Ives, (Partner of Nicholas Brown Jr. in Brown and Ives). I could not find much information concerning them, however we can assume, (as indicated in the cover above) that they were heavily involved in the firm of Brown and Ives.