Description: Benjamin H. Latrobe portrait

Benjamin H. Latrobe portrait

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Bibliographic Details
Collection:	Simon Gratz autograph collection (#0250A)
Box Number:	Box 7/23
Folder Number:	Folder 32
Format:	Electronic
Subjects and Genres:	Latrobe, Benjamin Henry, 1764-1820 Architects Dickinson College Art Print
Copyright:	Please contact Historical Society of Pennsylvania Rights and Reproductions (rnr@hsp.org)
Online Access:	https://digitallibrary.hsp.org/index.php/Detail/objects/13735
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

Summary:	Portrait of Benjamin H. Latrobe from the Simon Gratz collection [0250A]. The inscription lists his birth year incorrectly as 1767, he was actually born in 1764. Latrobe emigrated to the newly-independent United States in 1796, initially settling in Virginia where he worked on the Virginia State Penitentiary in Richmond. Latrobe then moved to Philadelphia where he established his practice. In 1803, he was hired as Surveyor of the Public Buildings of the United States, and spent much of the next 14 years working on projects in the new national capital of Washington, D.C., (in the newly-laid out Federal capital of the District of Columbia) where he served as the second Architect of the Capitol. Latrobe spent the later years of his life in New Orleans, Louisiana working on a waterworks project, and died there in 1820 from yellow fever, the mosquito-spread viral disease, which then still afflicted America and its eastern cities with epidemics as far north as Philadelphia until the mid-19th Century. Latrobe has been called the "Father of American Architecture." This digital record contains one image of one portrait from folder 32 (labeled as: "Latrobe, Benjamin H. Am. Scientists") from box 7/23 (labeled as: "American Scientists: Henry, Joseph-Mayer, Alfred M."). The folder also contains two letters written by Latrobe, which are not currently digitized.

Summary:

Portrait of Benjamin H. Latrobe from the Simon Gratz collection [0250A]. The inscription lists his birth year incorrectly as 1767, he was actually born in 1764. Latrobe emigrated to the newly-independent United States in 1796, initially settling in Virginia where he worked on the Virginia State Penitentiary in Richmond. Latrobe then moved to Philadelphia where he established his practice. In 1803, he was hired as Surveyor of the Public Buildings of the United States, and spent much of the next 14 years working on projects in the new national capital of Washington, D.C., (in the newly-laid out Federal capital of the District of Columbia) where he served as the second Architect of the Capitol. Latrobe spent the later years of his life in New Orleans, Louisiana working on a waterworks project, and died there in 1820 from yellow fever, the mosquito-spread viral disease, which then still afflicted America and its eastern cities with epidemics as far north as Philadelphia until the mid-19th Century. Latrobe has been called the "Father of American Architecture."

This digital record contains one image of one portrait from folder 32 (labeled as: "Latrobe, Benjamin H. Am. Scientists") from box 7/23 (labeled as: "American Scientists: Henry, Joseph-Mayer, Alfred M."). The folder also contains two letters written by Latrobe, which are not currently digitized.

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Benjamin H. Latrobe portrait

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