Introduction

Biography

Pluma was the daugh­ter of Wil­bur and Fran­ces Kim­ball, and wife of John Kipp Brown, a wi­dowed banker 31 years old­er than her (mar­ried 1882).

The 1880 and 1890 cen­sus­es show them in Des Moines, Min­ne­so­ta, with her oc­cu­pa­tion listed as mu­sic teach­er. By 1900 they were in Jack­son, Min­ne­so­ta.

John Brown died in 1908, and Plu­ma mar­ried Stan­ley L. Church in Adair, Io­wa, in 1914.

In 1918 Plu­ma re­ceived a fine arts de­gree at Co­lum­bia Uni­ver­si­ty in New York Ci­ty. In Oc­to­ber of 1920, she left for a one year tour of Eur­ope to stu­dy art; her 1925 pass­port ap­pli­ca­tion shows her liv­ing in Cleve­land, Ohio, and leav­ing for an­oth­er year’s stu­dy of art in France, It­aly, Bel­gium and Swe­den. She ex­hib­it­ed her art with the Na­tion­al As­so­cia­tion of Wo­men Ar­tists in 1935, 1936 and 1937.

Works

• Song-Hym­nal of Praise and Joy (Jack­son, Min­ne­so­ta: Plu­ma M. Brown, 1897)