In 1994 Arms & Armour Press published a marvellous book entitled Napoleon's Soldiers: The Grande Armée as Depicted in the Paintings of the Otto Manuscript. The text was written by Guy C.Dempsey, and the colour artwork is part of the Otto manuscript in the Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection at the Brown University Library, Providence, Rhode Island. This is certainly a very important collection of documents and manuscripts that many serious researchers of the period make use of. The Curator, Mr. Peter Harrington, has very kindly sent me details of the collection and how to access the items contained therein. The Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection was formed over a period of forty years by the late Mrs John Nicholas Brown (1906-1985) of Providence and is still being added to. It contains approximately 12,000 printed books; 18,000 albums, sketchbooks, scrapbooks and portfolios (containing thousands of prints and drawings); and over 12,000 individual prints, drawings and water-colours as well as a collection of 5,000 miniature lead soldiers. Formerly in the Brown family residence the entire collection (which was probably the largest private military collection in the world) was presented to Brown University and transferred to the John Hay Library in 1982. The original emphasis or focus of the collection was the history and illustration of world military and naval uniforms from the 17th century to the present. However, the collection also now contains a vast amount of material on military and naval history; military and naval arts and tactics; wars and campaigns; ceremonies, biography, portraiture and caricature. There are also sections on early military science, early travel, weaponry, heraldry, orders, medals and decorations, flags, general costume, military artists, and world royalty. It contains manuscripts, original photographs and other graphic documentation, and is used by publishers, scholars, museums, television and film-makers. Today the collection is concerned with all aspects of military and naval history particularly covering the period circa 1500 to the present. Located in the John Hay Library of Brown University, it may be visited weekdays from 9.00am to 5.00pm. The building is closed at weekends. For further information on the collection contact the Curator at Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection, Box A, Brown University Library, Providence, Rhode Island 02912-0001, USA. Tel. 401 863 2414 Fax. 401 863 2093 E-mail: AP201095@Brownvm.Brown.Edu The University also contains some smaller collections of Napoleonic items. These are the Hoffman Napoleon Collection and the Bullard Napoleon Caricatures Collection. Details of these may be obtained from the same source. More Dusty Archive: Conference on the French Emigrés in Europe 1789-1814 Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection Wellington La Garde Imperiale Back to Age of Napoleon No. 23 Table of Contents Back to Age of Napoleon List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master List of Magazines © Copyright 1997 by Partizan Press. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com