The Vault at Pfaff'sCharles Brown was born in London in 1828. Brown immigrated to the United States in 1845 as a wood engraver. Brown was introduced in Thomas Butler Gunn’s diaries just five years later. After meeting Brown, Gunn decided to take a room at Brown’s Canal Street boarding house. Brown briefly grew closer with Gunn during the holiday season and leading into New Year’s 1851. However, Brown soon departed New York for a newspaper job in Boston that same year. His lack of correspondence eventually spurred resentment in Gunn. Gunn would continue to harbor difficult feelings toward Brown until the pair reconnected in New York after Brown took a brief sojourn to Boston. He later secured a position at Frank Leslie’s Illustrated News.
Brown legally changed his name to Charles Francois Damoreau in 1853 for, as he claimed, the sake of his future bride. Gunn believed that Damoreau’s wife helped turn Damoreau’s life around. After reintegrating himself in the Bohemian scene, Damoreau was acquainted with Jesse Haney, Solomon Eytinge, George Arnold, and A. F. Banks. Damoreau struggled professionally for some time: “Damoreau is astonished that his gentlemanly address don't bring him the prosperity [in wood engraving] he thinks he deserves, finds it as hard to keep a customer as he used to to retain a sweetheart” (vol. 9, p. 119). However, Damoreau’s talents as a wood engraver did connect him to artist Winslow Homer during an artist's apprenticeship: "At Bufford's Homer met the French wood engraver Charles F. Damoreau. Damoreau taught him the tricks of the trade about how to draw for the wood engraving process" (Friends of Mount Auburn, p. [1]). Homer was an apprentice of Damoreau’s from 1855 to 1857.
Damoreau later endured marital hardships, which brought him closer to Gunn, Frank Cahill, Robert Gun, and James Willard Morris. He also became further acquainted with Arthur Ledger, Tracy, Nathaniel Graham Shepherd, Jesse Haney, and George Boweryem. Damoreau frequently reflected on his marital troubles with Gunn, including his previously failed engagement to Charlotte (Lotty) Kidder. Damoreau moved to Newark, NJ in 1861 with his wife and family. Haney described Damoreau as “hospitable, artistic, literary, nicotian, but looked painfully married” (vol. 15, p. 162). Damoreau and Gunn soon fell out of the practice of visiting each other. Most of their encounters came at the Harper’s office or other Bohemian events. Damoreau was only mentioned a handful of times toward the end of the Gunn Diaries in 1862.