Studio full-length portrait of Neal Brown and wife. Commerce, TX: Jos. M. Driver, n.d. Pencil inscription reads: “Neil Brown [sic] / Dodge / Peace Commission / with wife” to mount verso.

A fine studio portrait of Neal Brown and his wife, Nancy Jane Jones Brown. The handsome and stylish couple is situated in front of a painted backdrop that contrasts in color and elegance with the studio’s straw floor. Behind a seated Neal Brown, the hint of a ship’s sail rises above his right elbow as a shoreline appears to his left. He is dressed in a dark suit coat and vest, and his mustache and hair appear neat and freshly trimmed. Nancy Brown, standing to the right of her husband, is elegantly dressed in layers of white fabric and lace. Her right shoulder is complemented by a backdrop of painted white flowers placed upon a table. Between the couple stands a fringed table that holds Neal Brown’s right forearm and a white book held vertically by Nancy Brown.  

Born in Iowa, Neal Brown (1844–1926) was a member of the famed Dodge City Peace Commission. Brown served as a law enforcement officer and deputy United States Marshal. According to the Kansas City Journal-Post’s 4 April 1926 edition, “The peace commission was composed of the following noted gun fighters on the side of law and order, Neal Brown, W.H. Harris, Luke Short, Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, Bill McClain, Charley Bossett and Bill Tighlman,” stating “it was this bunch of clear-eyed fighters that brought order and regard for law to that turbulent town, Dodge City, the cowboy capital.” In June 1883, the eight members of the Dodge City Peace Commission sat for a portrait that became one of the most famous photographs produced in the Old West.

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