Forrest Brown was born in 1928 in Princeton, Minnesota. He graduated from Hamline University and earned a Masters degree in both History and Library Science from the University of Minnesota in 1954. Forrest worked as an assistant librarian at Lawrence College in Appleton, Wisconsin, and then the library director at Cornell College, Mount Vernon, Iowa. In 1961 until his retirement in 1991, he served as the Director of the St. Olaf College Library. After his retirement, he was active in the Norwegian American Historical Association as archivist. Forrest had a passion for Norwegian-American genealogy. 

Scope and Content:

Research notes on Norwegian Americans from Goodhue County, Minnesota. Includes 30 volumes of research, organized by a card catalog system. Forrest Brown, former NAHA archivist, had an unrivaled knowledge and passion to document Goodhue County Norwegian settlements.