The staff of the Military Collection consists of the curator, Peter Harrington. A native of Manchester, England, he joined the collection as assistant curator in 1983 following further graduate studies at Brown University in archaeology. At that time, the curator was Richard B. Harrington (no relation), who had been with the collection since 1951. Upon the death of the latter, Peter succeeded to the position. Since then his main focus of research has been the artistic representation of war, and the archaeology of the British Civil Wars of the 1640’s, and he has written and lectured extensively on both subjects. He can be reached by email (Peter_Harrington@brown.edu) or by calling (401) 863 2414; fax: (401) 863 2093.
Former Staff Members
Richard B. Harrington (right) was Curator of the Military Collection from 1951 until his death in 1989. Born in Worchester in 1926, he studied at Harvard University and Simmons College before moving to Providence to work as Mrs. Brown’s curator. His extensive knowledge of world history and royalty coupled with his foreign language skills enabled Mrs. Brown to create an extensive card catalogue which is still in use. Away from work, Richard’s primary interest was architectural history, and he built up an extensive collection of books, pamphlets, and photographs on this subject.
Robert W. Kenny, Jr., (1932–2004) Brown class of 1955, worked in the Military Collection from 1994–2003 as a Military Researcher assisting the curator; he was also a trustee of the Committee of Management. Bob was instrumental in developing the program honoring the veterans of Brown who served in World War II, and also began a project to acquire archival material from this war. In this photograph from 1994, Bob (left) is looking over a collection of drawings and water-colors of a World War II German POW camp donated by the late artist, William M. Capece of Lincoln, R.I., (center) and Peter Harrington, Curator of the Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection. Capece, a flyer with the U.S. Army Air Corps, was shot down over Munich during a bombing raid.
