G.T. Brown & Co. Lith.

Grafton Tyler Brown (1841–1918) was an American painter, lithographer, and cartographer. Brown was the first African American artist to create works depicting the Pacific Northwest and California. The son of a freedman, Brown worked for a printer in Philadelphia before moving to San Francisco in the 1860s. In San Francisco, Brown worked at Kuchel & Dressel from 1861 until 1867, when he opened his own firm and in 1878 created The Illustrated History of San Francisco, which consisted of 72 topographical images of the city.

Brown’s work in the Bay Area and in the Nevada Territory included documentation of settlements, property sales, claims and city boundaries. His works are held in the collections of the Oakland Museum of California, Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.