This home movie captures scenes of the Brown family on vacation in June 1939. The family first travels to Tennessee, through the Appalachians and the Smoky Mountains, then into Washington D.C. where they go sightseeing. Footage of the United States Capitol Building, the Supreme Court Building, the Washington Monument, the White House, the Arlington House, and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is included. The family ends the trip with visits to Norfolk, Virginia and the Stone Mountain Memorial in Georgia. The digital preservation of this film was made possible by a grant to the Texas Archive of the Moving Image and the Houston Public Library from the Texas State Library and Archives Commission and the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Orris Dorr Brown was born in 1890 in Henderson, Texas. He married Edna Myra Webb in 1923, and together they traveled domestically and abroad teaching cake decorating techniques using edible sugar. Brown became interested in filmmaking in the early 1930s and began filming scenery and sites as he traveled. Texas became the focus of many of his films, and he traveled extensively throughout the state to document historical figures and locations, most notably scenes of Uncle Jeff Hamilton, Sam Houston's personal slave (watch this film in the TAMI library). In 1936, Brown filed for a U.S. patent for a Moving Picture Machine through which to view films. He moved into professional filmmaking as an employee of Empire and Superior Studios in the 1940s and 50s to film full-length pictures. Orris D. Brown was a Shriner and a Free Mason. He passed away in 1965.

Orris Brown Orris D. Brown vacation leisure 1939 1930s travel traveling traveling Texans Nashville Tennessee Parthenon Centennial Park Athena park parks urban facade frieze replica The Hermitage Hermitage Andrew Jackson plantation home house mansion grounds National Historic Landmark farm acre acres tour tourist tourists tourism twilight Cumberland Mountains Appalachian Appalachia

scenic mountain mountains Ozone Falls Ozone Falls State Natural Area Cumberland County waterfall waterfalls falls corn cornfield field fields crop farm farming Smoky Mountains Great Smoky Mountains Great Smoky Mountains National Park Sevier County Gatlinburg information bureau Mt. LeConte Mount LeConte Mt. Le Conte Mount Le Conte Rainbow Falls forest forests wildlife flora fauna laurel laurels rhododendrons rhododendron azalea azaleas creek Little Pigeon River

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graves cemetery Arlington National Cemetery Potomac Potomac River Chesapeake Bay Virgina Norfolk ship boat boats ferry bay ferries ships District of Columbia Stone Mountain Stone Mountain Memorial Georgia Our Granite Mother summit bas-relief carving Confederacy Confederate States of America Stonewall Jackson Jefferson Davis sightsee sightseeing sightseer sightseers home movie home movies