The Journals of Benjamin Henry Latrobe 1799-1820 (Series 1): Volume 3 1-3, From Philadelphia to New Orleans

by Benjamin Henry Latrobe, Edward Carter II (Editor), John C. Van Horne (Editor)

Benjamin Henry Latrobe was best known as the architect of the United States Capitol. His career as surveyor, architect, engineer took him to many places in the US, and in close contact with Thomas Jefferson. Also known for designing the Richmond Penitentiary, the Bank of Pennsylvania and the Baltimore Cathedral, as well as the historical study and annotation of the Susquehanna River Survey Map. Latrobe played a major role in the creation of the American technological community, publishing many scientific papers, technical reports, newspaper and journal articles and essays. Latrobe moved from Richmond to Philadelphia in late 1798 to execute his first great commission, the Bank of Pennsylvania. He sporadically wrote in the journals printed in this volume while in such cities as Philadelphia, New Castle, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., where he served as architect of the U.S. Capitol. He kept journals more regularly while in New Orleans during the last year of his life - he died in 1820. In addition to recording daily events, Latrobe made observations on a wide variety of topics, from the origins of yellow fever to slavery and black music in New Orleans. His pen-and-ink drawings and watercolors compliment the text.

Published for The Maryland Historical Society

388 pages, Hardcover

First published September 10, 1981

About the author

Benjamin Henry Boneval Latrobe was a British-American neoclassical architect who emigrated to the United States. He was one of the first formally trained, professional architects in the new United States, drawing on influences from his travels in Italy, as well as British and French Neoclassical architects such as Claude Nicolas Ledoux. In his thirties, he emigrated to the new United States and designed the United States Capitol, on "Capitol Hill" in Washington, D.C., as well as the Old Baltimore Cathedral or The Baltimore Basilica, (later renamed the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary). It is the first Cathedral constructed in the United States for any Christian denomination. Latrobe also designed the largest structure in America at the time, the "Merchants' Exchange" in Baltimore. With extensive balconied atriums through the wings and a large central rotunda under a low dome which dominated the city, it was completed in 1820 after five years of work and endured into the early twentieth century. He is the father of Benjamin Henry Latrobe II.