Louise Fargo Brown was born in 1878 in Buffalo, New York and received her B.A.
Two years later, Brown published The Political Activities of the Baptists and Fifth Monarchy Men in England During the Interregnum, for which she was awarded the Herbert Baxter Adams Prize from the American Historical Association for the best monograph in modern European history.
In 1915, Brown became dean of women and professor of history at the University of Nevada.
After the war, she became a professor at Vassar College where she remained until her retirement in 1944 and co-founded the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians in 1930.
Brown published The First Earl of Shaftesbury in 1933 and wrote Apostle of Democracy: The Life of Lucy Maynard Salmon a decade later.