FREDERICK L. BROWN

Seattle, Washington
fbrown1455 at gmail dot com

EDUCATION

• Ph.D. in History, University of Washington, 2010
  I received my doctorate in history, with fields in environmental history, twentieth-century U.S. history, history of technology, and history of Africa. My thesis advisor was Dr. Linda Nash. My dissertation considered the cultural and material role of animals in the history of Seattle.

• Master's Degree in Library and Information Science, University of Washington, 1999

• Master's Degree in French Studies, New York University, 1987

• Bachelor's Degree summa cum laude in French and Classics, Washington University in St. Louis, 1984

EXPERIENCE

• Historian and Book Indexer, Seattle, Washington
  self-employed
  8/13 to present
  My next book, Birds of Home: How House Sparrows, Starlings, and Other European Songbirds Became American, will be published by the University of Washington Press, in the spring of 2027. My award-winning book, The City is More Than Human: An Animal History of Seattle, was published by the University of Washington Press in 2016. I have also completed a book-length historic resources study of Redwood National and State Parks on a contract basis for the National Park Service. I am available to prepare back-of-the-book indexes for academic books, textbooks, and trade books. 

• National Park Service, Pacific West Region Office, Seattle, Washington
  historian
  6/03 to 8/13
  I worked as a project historian in the Pacific West Region office in Seattle. I researched and wrote book-length studies of Lava Beds National Monument and Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument. I contributed to historic studies of Lemhi Pass National Historic Landmark, Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks, Redwood National and State Parks, Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park, and the National Park of American Samoa. I collaborated on cultural landscape studies of Lava Beds National Monument, Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks, Mojave National Preserve, and Joshua Tree National Park. My history of Lava Beds was published as "The Center of the World, The Edge of the World: A History of Lava Beds National Monument" (GPO, 2011).

• University of Washington, Bothell, Washington
  reference and instruction librarian
  9/00 to 2/02
  Provided reference services to students, faculty and staff of UWB and of Cascadia Community College. Collaborated with faculty and other librarians in promoting information literacy. Selected materials relating to computing and information technology.

• S & T Onsite (on contract at Microsoft), Seattle, Washington
  indexer
  6/99 to 6/00
  Collaborated with fellow team members in developing controlled vocabularies and in producing and analyzing search statistics, in order to improve results of intranet search.

• Book Indexer, Seattle, Washington
  self-employed
  5/93 to 11/98; 2/02 to 9/02
  Wrote back-of-the-book indexes for trade and textbooks primarily in history, biography and politics, with work in human evolution, archaeology, science and medicine, legal affairs, economics, advice, how-to, etc. Over 100 books indexed.

• Peace Corps, Guider, Cameroon
  community development volunteer
  12/88 to 3/91
  Worked within the community development bureau of the Cameroonian Agriculture Ministry to support rural development projects, including helping communities build a school, plant a mango orchard, maintain a community grinding mill, and receive health and improved wood-stove training.

• S. W. Cohen and Assoc., New York, New York
  indexer and editorial assistant
  9/86 to 11/88; 8/91 to 5/93
  Wrote and edited indexes for trade books and textbooks. Supervised word processors and proofreaders of indexing projects. Developed procedures and computer programs to revise indexes for new editions of books. Wrote procedures manual for computer indexing.

Last updated August 2026.