Erastus Brainerd

Who was Erastus Brainerd?

Erastus Brainerd was an American journalist and art museum curator. During the Yukon Gold Rush, he was the publicist who "sold the idea that Seattle was the Gateway to Alaska and the only such portal".

Born in Middletown, Connecticut to Norman and Leora, Brainerd attended Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard University, from which he graduated at the age of 19. He served as curator of engravings at the Boston Museum of Arts, then traveled to Europe, where he promoted a tour for "lecturing showman" W. Irving Bishop. He was a social success in Europe, and became a Knight of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, a Knight of the Red Cross of Rome, a Knight Templar, and a Freemason.

Back in America, he wrote editorials for the New York World, where he also became assistant night editor, then served as associate editor at the Atlanta Constitution and Philadelphia Press. As in Europe, he continued to be a gregarious joiner, becoming a member of the Union League, Penn Club, the Authors Club of New York and the Press Club of New York and numerous others. During his stay in Atlanta he went to Richmond, Virginia to marry Mary Bella Beale, Jefferson Davis's granddaughter, on 31 May 1882. Their first child, Mary Beale, was born the following year but died several months later. They named their second child Mary Beale too when she was born in 1886; Elizabeth came in 1888.