The Browning Birds

at Scripps College

History

Browning Hall was built in 1929. Then who knows what happened to it for the next 90 years.

Photograph of Browning Hall with the tower visible taken between 1929 and 1966, sourced from the Claremont Colleges Library.

In April 2022, a group of Scripps students, armed with paints and flashlights, snuck up to the Browning Tower to add the first six birds: The Quetzal, Hoatzin, Acorn Woodpecker, Mallard Duck, Puffin, and Swallow-Tailed Bee Eater.

Collage of six bird paintings in the Browning Tower.

We had been sent home from Scripps for the pandemic from March 2020 - August 2021; when we got back to campus, we felt disconnected from campus culture, and so many traditions had been forgotten because of this gap in the college's history. We had been sent home as first-years and returned as upperclassmen, becoming the people who should have known about these traditions. So we wanted to start something new. So at the bottom of the east window next to the staircase, we wrote "Add Your Own Bird".

Photograph of a windowsill in the Browning Tower, with the message Add Your Own Bird painted on in blue

By August 2022, the Red-Winged Blackbird, lesbian Albatrosses, and small red chicken (?) had been added, officially turning the Browning Birds into a community mural.

Painting of two albatrosses with their beaks touching, labeled (they r lesbians)

Somebody also left paints and brushes up in the tower, and a list of guidelines.

(I'm working on finding a picture of the tower guidelines)

Sometime in late 2022/early 2023, somebody added the Bird Tower Poem.

A poem painted in green on the wall of the tower. It reads: Welcome here to this space/ Where birds fly on the walls/ and the crooked words shine in the night sky.

During this time, people started talking about the Bird Tower around campus. A few people asked me if I had seen the Bird Tower at Scripps. When a friend of mine planned a party up in the tower, somebody from Harvey Mudd asked if the Browning Tower was the same as the Bird Tower (it is). People made plans to add their own bird before graduation.

The Bird Tower also infiltrated whiteboards around Scripps dorms.

Photographs of three Scripps whiteboards. The first says: 'make this whiteboard look like the Browning Tower (add a bird)', and has drawings of birds. The second says: 'Places to Live next Semester: Tent on Jaqua/ Routt bathroom/ Browning slide/dungeon/ Kimbo browsing room... oh wait/ Browning Bird Tower/ With Suzanne Keen/ Mark's Basement (not the CMC place, just hte basement of some guy named Mark)'. The third says: 'Draw a bird (pls!)', and has drawings of birds.

As of May 2023, the Bird Tower has 53 birds and tons of doodles and other pieces!! Thank you to everyone who painted a piece of Scripps history--I'm so glad to have been a part of this. Wishing the best to all the future Scrippsies :)

I haven't credited most of the people in this history because I was only around for a small part of it. Email me at thebrowningbirds@gmail.com if you know more of the history, or if you want a specific credit (but be warned that this website is public, meaning that anyone can see this information.)

Website created 2023. Contact thebrowningbirds@gmail.com if the images aren't loading correctly or if anything breaks.