The Care of Ancient Monuments

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His interest in the wider social context of art was reflected in his concern for the preservation of ancient monuments for the public. It was after the publication of the present book in 1906 that Brown was appointed member of a Royal Commission to compile an inventory of ancient Scottish monuments. The first half of the book outlines best practice for the preservation of monuments and architectural and natural beauty. The second part, based on extensive secondary literature and official documentation, demonstrates how other countries managed their historic monuments: in Europe, India, the Middle East and the United States."

Gerard Baldwin Brown was an English art historian. He was the son of church minister James Baldwin Brown and his wife, a sister of the sculptor Henry Leifchild.

He studied at Oriel College, Oxford and became a Fellow at Brasenose College in 1874. He became the first holder of the Watson Gordon Chair of Fine Art at the University of Edinburgh in 1880 and held the chair until his retirement in 1930.

The six-volume The Arts in Early England, which he began publishing in 1903 and which still occupied him at his death, has been regarded as Brown's most important work. Brown also wrote an early review of historic preservation legislation in various European countries The Care of Ancient Monuments (1905), in which he made unfavourable comparisons between policies in Britain and in other European countries. The book came to the attention of Sir John Sinclair, Secretary for Scotland, and led to the establishment in February 1908 of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (on which Brown served as one of the first Commissioners), followed by equivalent Royal Commissions for Wales and England. His The Glasgow School of Painters was published in 1908.