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tv   Jean Baker Building America  CSPAN  February 14, 2021 10:55am-12:01pm EST

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went to find schools and learn to this. so they were perfectly ready to start a new nation based on the very highest principles, and that's what they did. you are right, get, it is a contradiction, but i sure am glad they did it. >> to watch the rest of this program visit our website booktv.org and use search box to look for lynne lynchine title of your book. >> to knights programs going to be an exciting one paragraph dra retired professor of history, taught history for more than 30 years, has written 11 books and we're here to talk about her most recent. just fascinating biographies of james buchanan, of mary todd lincoln, of marcus anger. tonight she'll talk to us about her latest book "building america: the life of benjamin henry latrobe." dr. baker will be joined in conversation not by me tonight
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but by my esteemed colleague doctor susan schoelwer, mount vernon estate executive director of the stork preservation and collections and the robert smith curator. we will hand things off you and excited to watch to watch this and learn more about this. i'll put everything in advance. take care, have a great evening everyone. i will see you another time. susan, thanks so much. >> thank you, kevin, and thank you to all of those who are joining us. gene, it's wonderful to have you with us tonight. >> thank you. >> i'm really excited about this. i think benjamin henry latrobe is one of those important figure some early america that i have really know that much about and perhaps that's true of many of our audience as well. kevin mentioned several of the previous books you have written on a variety of topics and they
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don't necessarily seem to lead to latrobe, so it always curious about how authors come to find the subjects. how did you get interested in latrobe? >> well, it's been a long road. i live in baltimore and latrobe has had an important effect on our cityscape. he designed our wonderful basilica. he designed a huge merchants exchange, and there are several latrobe folks who have had an impact on baltimore's history. and as i age to come at a guess that something that everybody does, i decided that i wanted to stay home. no more of those long, lonely research trips, especially illinois.
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and the bulk of all of latrobe's papers is at what it used to call the maryland historical society, but they changed their name during the pandemic and they are now the maryland center for history and culture. a huge repository of latrobe materials is in their library. here was a local project, and a different one. i do want to go on too long about this but there's one other aspect of why i decided to do a biography of benjamin henry latrobe, and it has to do with teaching at a liberal arts college. you teach not just your specialties but you may find yourself, , as i did my second year of teaching, in the classroom discussing medieval history. you don't get closed into just
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one subject. where i began this book on latrobe i thought how lucky i am to be able to at least try to explain this fantastic life of a man who came to the united states and who really built the major spaces of the early republic. >> well, what a wonderful segue to telling us about that fantastic life. so i know you have some great images from latrobe's work and ensure all looking forward to seeing those. >> shall we see the first slide? i will begin with one, as a biographer you have to begin with the birth. this is fulneck, england.
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this is the moravian community that existed in his lifetime. he was born here, and in the moravian community, parents were simply not to be a part of their children's life. if the children were going to find jesus, and this is a very jesus kind of religion, they would be raised by surrogates. and so when benjamin henry latrobe was born here in 1764, he grew up in these various buildings, in dormitories, that were in many ways regimented and controlled by older moravians. no parents. parents interfered with this basic connection that moravian children should have, was jesus.
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when latrobe was 13 he was chosen as one of the clever boys, and believe me, latrobe was a clever boy all his life, and he was sent to the moravian at ago jia as they called it, in what is now eastern germany, but for reasons that are always unclear to biographers, although we like to find the keys to our subjects, he rebelled against him moravian background. he was expelled from the moravian community, much to the disgruntlement of his parent who were leading stars in the moravian church.
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his father became an important figure in the moravian church, as was his mother who ran the educational program. but despite their stature he was nonetheless expelled from the moravian schools, and he ended up, in 1783, in london. so, susan, maybe we could see the next slide. here is the young moravian is no longer dressed in a quiet clothes of moravians and no longer has the demeanor of them. he has become something of a dandy. i spent a lot of time on that hair. i could never figure out whether it was a week, and i finally,
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finally decided that this was the way that the young in london wore their hair. what is also significant about this portrait, and this by the way is by a swedish artist who had come to london to study portraiture under john turner. what is also surprising about this portrait is the very interesting series of books and eyeglasses. at this point in his life, benjamin henry latrobe was deciding what it was that he wanted to do, and london was a crucible and his entire existence. it's in london that he begins studying architecture under some of those leading rights of the georgian period. he also studies engineering.
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this will be a sideline that will be extremely important, in my judgment, in the building of america. latrobe is not only a critical architecture in formulating our spaces, but he also was an engineer who develop roads, surveys for canals, et cetera. so maybe we could see the next slide. this is one of the houses that latrobe built as, designed and built as a young man in london. it's ashdown. all of these english places that other special name. in any case, here we have i think manifested an example of the real genius of latrobe's
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ability to design both houses and anything almost that you can think of. see here the clear effort to control the windows to make them symmetrical. we see here a geometric space that spans as itself as a sculpture. and we also see in that front portico and effort in creating an unusual kind of a space, but even here there are neoclassical influences that will be critical to the development of benjamin latrobe's career as an architect or, an architect. there's one other important
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aspect of his life in london. he marries, and he marries a woman who was older than he but who nonetheless became, offered him him him the kind of emotional life that he had lacked in his moravian upbringing. but sadly after two children were born to the couple, the third pregnancy was a disaster. the child died and his beloved wife lydia died. he was also, and this is one of the harbingers of his career, he was also in debt. this will be a constant during latrobe's whole career. it's not that he spent a lot of money on lavish goods or whatever housing, whatever.
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but it's that he became so involved in his condition that he would, for example, as we're still looking at ashdown, he used the most expensive stone that you could possibly find to build that interesting portico. and so we ended up in debt, and arose over the death of his wife he decided to immigrate to the united states. >> so here we go. i think are you ready for the next slide? >> yeah, yeah. latrobe was a very talented watercolorist. i believe he was kind of a renaissance holy man as we call them.
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this is one of those watercolors that he did on board the analyzer allies of which was a small ship that he took to the united states. it was a really disastrous trip in many ways. it took two weeks to get out of the english channel, and then her in a trip that usually takes two months, it took four months before the eliza to ever, to arrive in the united states. this is a view of dover, and it is one of the early watercolors that suggest that he could've possibly had a career as a successful artists. let's go on to the next slide.
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now, all of you know this, and i think that this, susan, helping with this. this is now one of your collection that you actually own this watercolor. could you tell us a little bit about that process, how you got it? >> how we got it? >> yeah. >> this watercolor had been in a family collection, one of the washington family descendents for many years, and they elected to sell it several years ago. we researched it. it depicts as you well know, and you will likely tell us about it, it depicts latrobe's trip to mount vernon on a july afternoon in 1796. it's something latrobe writes about at length in his journal, and we have used the image many
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times as an illustration, and so we were delighted to be able to purchase it. it was at auction at sotheby's, and word sort of got out that mount vernon was interested, some of the parties that might've been interested. we were just thrilled to be able to bring it home. >> as latrobe's biographer i looked at this in somewhat of a different way. latrobe arrived in norfolk in the spring him of 1776. a few months later he is visiting george washington at mount vernon. to latrobe is seen and indication of the possibilities of the united states.
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in the monarchy of george iii, one would never have had such easy access to a powerful player such as the king or the prime minister. so when latrobe arrived on horseback at george washington's estate, it was to him something of a miracle. of course he had an injury. he had become friends with bush wall, washington who was george washington's nephew and add a letter of introduction. nonetheless, he was thrilled to have this opportunity to meet a man who he considered to be a noble creator of the american republic. he was not so thrilled with the
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house, mount vernon. he wrote in his journal that it was no better than a country english gentleman so, a man who might have access to 500 pounds a year. nonetheless, this is an outstanding moment in latrobe's early life in the united states. and as in immigrate, it gives him hope for the future. and if we could go on to the next slide. this is the famous bank of pennsylvania. virginia could not keep latrobe as there were not enough commissions. the cities were not, the small towns were not large enough for him to be able to use his talents. he did find a a commission, ad
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there were always people in the united states who appreciated him, and one of these was samuel fox was head of the board of directors of the bank of pennsylvania, which was to be located in philadelphia. this is an iconic building. it speaks i think to something that as americans we all know. this is a typical state capital or a county municipal building. it is a real classical icon with the columns, the vocabulary of the neoclassical architecture. latrobe always like low saucers domes, and we see one here.
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but we also see this elegant portico which also replicates at the back of the building. and we see the recessed windows, et cetera. latrobe wanted his buildings to be sculptures, and i think it's clear that this is. when we located in terms of the buildings in terms of philadelphia we see brick and wood. latrobe always wanted to build with the most permanent material possible. and this building him was something that even came up in novels. he would talk about the famous bank of pennsylvania by benjamin latrobe. now if we could have the next slide.
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unfortunately, our destructive efforts as americans resulted in the demolition. here are in 1872. this slide gives you some indication of how large the bank was. it was being demolished him for reasons i've never been clear about. but ultimately it ended up, this particular block, as a parking lot, something of a sad indication of our taste and what we believe is important. let's go on to the next slide. here is the famous portrait of latrobe which was painted while he was living in philadelphia.
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latrobe was a great friend of the peale family. they ran museums, et cetera. this is a portrait that is now in the white house. see the glasses? latrobe was an architect who couldn't see very well, but glasses were very essential to his career. it seems to me he's looking forward. he has just come to the united states. he has designed and built the famous bank and he's looking forward to being an american. this idea of being an american became one of the themes that i played with. when i first began i thought that because latrobe had been expelled from school and was a
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rebel, i thought that's what this guy is. but it turns out he was not a rebel, and i kept looking as i wrote the biography about what is the central theme of his life, and the search went on. let's see the next slide. as latrobe struggled to be an american, and to play the role of the patriot, he did everything that one should do. he joined the militia. he even wrote a piece on pocahontas. he tried to in many ways to celebrate george washington by creating an impossible monument for george washington.
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on the other hand, there's always a sign of latrobe of his life in the united states and he is a critic of what is going on. first of all he hated our politics. and no doubt we can all understand that today. he thought that american politics were cramped and local. he talked about political mania. he also hated our social system. he went to dinner parties in philadelphia and founder that the butcher was there with him, and that offended him to no end. there is simply no doubt that we would call latrobe ferocious english snob. but nonetheless, one of the most important of his criticisms of the united states is slavery.
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this is a famous, famous watercolor that is used in many textbooks. it has latrobe's cynical title, overseer doing his duty. and here we have an overseer standing, and the enslaved women working hard. latrobe was a critic of american slavery, and yet on the other hand, twice in his life he certainly had men who took care of his horses in his carriage when he could afford one, men who were endangered servants or enslaved. and it is this difficult compromise that i think many americans undertook. yes, intellectually they hate
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slavery but, in fact, practically they often use slaves. let's go to the next. by 1803, latrobe having lived in philadelphia during the period after he left virginia, he needed a job. he's kind of architecture rapidly dried up commissions because the only designed extensive holdings. none of this carpenter wooden shacks. he appealed to his friend thomas jefferson. to meet this is one of the great friendships that perhaps is forgotten in american history, is that of thomas jefferson and benjamin henry latrobe. jefferson, like samuel hauck,
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the quaker who was head of the board of the bank of pennsylvania, appreciated latrobe's genius, and appointed him surveyor of buildings which gave him control over what was called then the president's house, and, of course, the u.s. capitol, the two most important pieces of civic architecture in the early nation. this is a view of latrobe's vision of our capital. you will see that it replicates his neoclassicism. there are the low saucer domes. there's the portico. there are the balance symmetry and the idea of a harmonious building where everything fits
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together. i believe, of course this is speculation, latrobe is long dead, that he would've hated the huge dome that so many americans celebrate over our capital today. in any case he and jefferson collaborated, and they were times when they both were at odds over how to light, whether it would be lanterns in these areas or would there be sky risings. they had a a falling out and l latrobe produced this watercolor and sent it to jefferson in hopes that the relationship could be repaired. let's see the next slide here
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this is a digitized, it was a digitized image of latrobe's assembly room but i think it is very accurate and it gives you some sense of how inspiring his architecture was. this is a terrific room. however, members of congress found it to be much to elaborate for a new republic, and they started to complain about how they couldn't hear, especially randolph of virginia who said none of the speeches could be heard. and you can see and tell that in an age without microphones that it would be very hard to hear. latrobe responded to this criticism by saying that the speakers were not very good anyway.
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however, congress gain more and more to try to control and cut back on the spending that they gave to latrobe. there was a falling out by 1809, and latrobe was no longer the surveyor of the public buildings. i do want to say, although i have no slides of this, that latrobe also contributed to the president's house. he believed that it was the blandest building possible, that it simply replicated a banal municipal building in dublin. and so it's to latrobe that we owe the famous portrait share in
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the front of the white house, and it is to latrobe that we owe the idea for the south side of the white house. so let's go to the next slide. having worked so hard on the capital and having anticipated that he might also work on the rotunda, in 1814 the u.s. capitol was destroyed by an invading british army. the army had found, and many of the officers said so in the report, that there were only two buildings worth destroying and paying attention to in early federal washington and, of course, the capital was one of them. the british took all of the word
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and the furniture and then fired their famous concrete rockets into the center of the building, and essentially the building was, at least as far as the interior was concerned, it was mainly destroyed. you will note here that the famous rotunda has not been finished, and latrobe and jefferson both hoped that he would be able to work on the creation and refurbishing of the building, and also the creation of the rotunda. he did change his design, and we see some of his design on the evening news. if you watch clearly you will
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find the politicians who are maybe interviewed, you will see what is his famous marble. latrobe like to use native elements, and he has discovered what was called pottle stone. it is great and it has flex of purple and red and yellow. it's gorgeous. he used this in the new version of the assembly room. i encourage you all when you're listening to the politicians talking about current events to look behind them in statutory hall at those great columns. that is latrobe's enduring contribution to our civic culture. having returned to the capital,
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latrobe had hoped that he might stay there. but again they really was not enough going on, enough architectural commission for him to do so. he had had a short interim time when he had left washington and he had gone to design a steamboat, if you can imagine. i bring this up just to suggest how brought his careerwise, how many things he did. he went to pittsburgh as an agent, an employee of robert fulton, to design a steamboat. he was always looking to some kind of an avenue to create a secure financial move for his family. he had married again in
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philadelphia and he had three children whom he needed to educate, and the problem with architecture and public architecture is he never knew when he was going to be paid. he also didn't know when he would be fired. he was, in fact, fired a second time. at that point he moved to baltimore. let's see the next slide. here is a portrait of, later date portrait of latrobe. i love the fact that the eyeglasses that had been such a constant part of his portraits, and now they are now on his face. i love the idea that the curly hair is still somewhat uncontrolled.
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now, this is the rembrandt peale portrait of the probe. rembrandt peale was charles wilson's son, this in the family, just to give a short shout out to the peale family. charles wilson peale maintains a son rembrandt rafael, and this is his view of latrobe as he moved to baltimore. ..
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his steamboat project had failed in pittsburgh and so with some humiliation latrobe declared bankruptcy and came to the city of baltimore in 1816. he had been working on the basilica for a number of years before that and so he knew the city. this is a cross-section and i include it because it seems, to me, to characterize the sophistication of latrobe's presentation to clients. one said that is not what architectures do and you shouldn't get clients because
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you can make pretty pictures but nonetheless, here is a view, a cross-section of the capital basilica in baltimore. it remains one of the cities most impressive and most important buildings. what is significant about it is that it is so different from most cathedrals and basilicas and it is light, it is airy, there is a double dome that permits light and latrobe was always playing around with the idea of light and shadow. in an era without constant electricity to give light this was an important elimination of all of his buildings. it was also significant because this is high stage neoclassicism
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and we have the portico's and the capitals and we have the columns and of course we have the massive design that was so important to this whole notion of architecture. the building remains and i hope that many of your listeners or viewers or whatever we are will take a visit to baltimore and investigate what is a great triumph of the benjamin henry latrobe's and let's go on to -- this is another building that latrobe did in baltimore and the merchants exchange -- i think of it as a mall of merchants where you include there is a bank in
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here and post office and there is a meeting room and here is this dramatic dome but it is still a low dome that lighted the hold building. it came in a time in baltimore history when the city was going through something of a renaissance after the war of 1812 and again, it is suggested by baltimore ian's that their city was important and that through its buildings it would indicate that to others. this is the last of the slides but there is a final chapter two latrobe's life and it involves
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his move to new orleans. latrobe again, hoping for some kind of annuity or some kind of way to have a stable income, moved to new orleans in 1818 and he had previously built a water system in a municipal water system in philadelphia and now he has been hired by the new orleans city council to create a similar municipal water system in new orleans and he worked there for several years until tragically in the summer of 1820 of that cities fever epidemic he
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died of yellow fever and he is buried in new orleans and i think maybe because we are in the midst of difficulties with what we call a pandemic it is interesting to note that in the 19th century yellow fever was the great killer. it was not a pandemic in the sense that internal communities had epidemics because it was carried by mosquitoes. we know how we get our coronavirus. they did not know how they were exposed to the lethal illness that killed about half of the people who were infected but interestingly enough, they also
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used scars and pieces of cloth which they would put in can for to prevent the manifestation of the deed or is it disease. things change what they sometimes stayed the same and i want to conclude and i hope there are some questions from your audience. i want to conclude with the contributions that i think latrobe made to our civic culture. he designed almost every kind of building that exists from what he called rational, private homes in which he designed a far more reasonable kind of set up
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in terms of where the kitchen was to churches and remember stn that recently has been in the news and he designed educational institutions and he and jefferson collaborated some of the buildings on jefferson's famous campus on the university of virginia and he designed barnes and he designed almost anything that you can think of always behind this was the idea that he was building in america that was permanent and that had important understandings of how significant buildings can be. you know, winston churchill once said and i think this was west minister was being rebuilt that we create buildings but
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then they shape us and to that extent benjamin henry latrobe had a great influence on the early republic and on our subsequent lives. >> thank you so much. i think this is just been really fascinating and i've enjoyed so many of your insights on latrobe as you have gone through the various moments of his life. reading your biography of him it almost feels like a series of cliffhangers as you go from one city to the other, you know one crisis to the next and what will he do next and how will he get out of this and then yet he doesn't come across as discouraged or like a curmudgeon but he seems to always be
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helpful in looking forward. >> that is true. yes, excuse me, he was an optimist. that got him in trouble. he was a speculator and he would invest in some of the schemes. for example, the idea of a game textile machine and he invested in all kinds of projects, including his own steam engine steamboat and some of them were unsuccessful but he kept going and kept trying and one of the important emphases in his life was always his family. latrobe was a devoted family man
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and one of the legacies that he has left my home city is his children after he died in new orleans and he returned because he had a sponsor in baltimore and they lived in baltimore and that became important businessman and engineers and his grandson ferdinand was a seven-time mayor of the city of baltimore. i think, we as baltimore residents, have a special allegiance to this creative genius. >> and since you brought up his family i wanted to ask you a little bit about his wife, mary elizabeth hazel hearst. her role in his career. >> she's was fantastic. one of the things that is so upsetting when one does a biography of a man is there are
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no pictures. i could never find images of mary latrobe. there are all of these wonderful portraits we have of latrobe but there is no image but my view of her because he writes really sexualized for that generation letters like i wish i could hold you and feel your bosom and it's amazing but he always complements her figure and how even though after six children she has gotten a little stout or but nonetheless she has the best figure of any of the women in washington but mary latrobe was willing to go wherever latrobe went in to make for him the best possible home.
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she is there at the end and she has left the east coast and traveled with her two young children to new orleans and they have rented a house. latrobe is special in this way because he never designed all these houses for people and never had his own house but none the less they have a small house in new orleans and mary and the two children had come down to make for him proper, domestic setting and i think without her he would have been his verbal. >> i think i want to open it up. if we have any questions to or from the audience at any point. cynthia asks going back to the beginning of your talk and i will share with the audience that the first chapter in your book is titled itchy ears which
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is fascinating but cynthia asks, interesting about the moravian connection. how much did that background play a part in his future career? >> thank you, cynthia for that question. i think it played a fair share and a lot of important but first of all there's an intellectual contribution that the trading in moravian schools gave him. it's a first-class education, especially in math and the almond tree -- geometry and its talents as an artist and beyond that just the mental discipline of a moravian education however, i think i might have a quote here which if i could find it
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easily i think that and i probably won't so i will just paraphrase the thought but he always disputed how important the moravian institution was and i think he never forgave his father for the fact that he did not have this emotionally close relationship with his relatives. this is what he wrote to henry. i'm quoting from a letter. how could a man whom his short stay at a moravian school had been taught to consider wealth as vanity and the trust of the prominence for daily food and was taught that support yourself by your own industry was disgraceful, how could such a
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man to private and independent fortune expect to go through the world otherwise as i have done. i would argue that yes, in terms of intellectual prowess the moravian background held but in terms of his ability to get along in the world, it hindered him. >> yeah, i think that's a really interesting point and you see that in your book in so many ways after you go through his life but i think that unusual upbringing that he had in his childhood yet he goes on to create a much more effective or affectionate family in his own life. >> exactly. >> yeah, tammy asks did latrobe
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serve as a mentor to other architects? did other share his affinity for low domes? [laughter] >> no, not all of them. you can trace latrobe's influence through various architecture down to frank lloyd wright. the critical influence here is probably robert mills but he did have, when he was living in philadelphia he began to take some or a young man and to mentor them and some concepts were successful but sometimes it was not. but in terms of mentoring other architects one can go through the list to louis sullivan and
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then down to frank lloyd wright and it's a wonderful kind of genealogical architectural tree but again, there weren't a lot of architects so when one looks at latrobe's career one of the things to understand is that he really tried to establish architecture as a profession and that was hard. it was hard because it was so much competition from carpenters, books and from artisans who simply built houses without any desire to make them the kind of splendid spaces that he wanted to. as far as low domes i would answer no, others did not share
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his affinity for low domes. that is why we have the capital today. you probably know this but on the eve of the civil war that the great dorm of thomas [inaudible] was being erected and congress wanted to have more and congressman liked it and they wanted to have domes put over the house of representatives and over the senate and latrobe it was special in that way and i don't know whether this is an issue of taste and it is my own view that latrobe was searching always for a harmonious structure and that is why i suspect that he would not have liked the u.s. capitol building today. >> fascinating. i was so interested that you mentioned frank lloyd wright because you talk briefly in your
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book about the house in philadelphia and that commission has been recently studied by one of my colleagues at the philadelphia museum of art and latrobe was very interested in designing every detail in that house down to the castle on the upholstery and its the type of control right liked to have. >> yes, that is new. architects did not always go inside and this is what gets latrobe into the view of dolley madison. he and dolly madison worked hard on the interior furniture et cetera in the white house when he came back to redo the white house. >> we have another question now from neo who asks, how did latrobe change or extend neoclassicism within the
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founders embrace of classical ideal so that architectural, visual counterparts use a political ideal? >> yes, i'm not sure i will answer the question the way it is presented but it is late in the evening and this is what i will say. the reason i argue that latrobe was a founder of the united states not of its political ideals but it's buildings is that he connected with them because they too if one reads the federalist papers want to understand this and they too were looking at some ancestor, some precursor print look, if you have a revolution against the british you are not going to look to british ideals and
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political theorists but you will have to find your ideals somewhere else. latrobe found them as did hamilton, jay, madison, jefferson, washington found them in the roman and greek republics so here we have of this other path that is being taking, politics here which is being based on classic ideas of non- monarch roll regime and then there is latrobe who is building these buildings that represent those ideas. in terms of how he changed or extended neoclassicism it is different. one can look -- if you look at just at the architect you can look at the pantheon and see that the probe has changed it and there are more columns and
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often the capitals are different and there is a sense of having more light, many more windows that one finds on latrobe's buildings than one would ever find in the antecedents and greek and roman. >> i think it is getting late and you have given us much to think about so i think we have time for just a couple more questions if you can stick with us that long. tony asks, and the not so distant past the basilica involved was restored so do you think it was a faithful restoration to its original design? >> i will pass on that but look,
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latrobe was said that the basilica would endure forever unless there was an earthquake. he actually said that and then there was an earthquake and there were all kinds of cracks and so the archdiocese decided that it is a restoration to its original design and i think it is a faithful restoration and i think they did a superb job. i think if one compares to what has happened and this is what happens to buildings though. they get encroached upon and the basilica in the night before the restoration was full of all the decorations that latrobe hated and he was very limited in terms of his agree never to
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decorations and the colors in the basilica before it was restored were just simply terrible, dark and whatever. i will leave that other question to be solved because i'm not sure anyone -- there is a great controversy which is like going down one of alice and wonderland's rabbit holes, as far as i am concerned. >> we will go on to the last question then from adam who asks, that's -- this is changing the subject a bit. that's an impressive library behind you and other than your own what would you encourage us to pick up and read? >> okay, here is just to keep i? this is a new book on latrobe's
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[inaudible] can you see it? it is all about his [inaudible]. of course, it is just the one nearest to me. >> that seems like a good one and i will simply look forward to seeing it. it's got mount vernon on the cover so what is not to love. doctor baker, you have graciously agreed to write an article for us for our upcoming mount vernon magazine on latrobe's visit to mount vernon in 1796 and i think that is something all of our members and followers can look forward to. we really appreciate your passion and you certainly have gotten me fired up to go and look at many of these buildings
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with different eyes to look for latrobe's hand in them and his role in the building of america. i want to thank you for joining us tonight and i want to thank all of our listeners and viewers for joining us. it is your support that makes it possible for mount vernon to continue offering their programs and i hope that you will continue to join us for those and come to see us at mount vernon as opportunity presents and continue to support mount vernon and our mission to relate and support american history and learn about american history. thank you so much for joining us. >> here is a look at some publishing industry news. president biden son hunter biden will be releasing mmr this spring. the book titled oedipal things
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will be published by gallery books and imprint of simon & schuster and will focused on the substance abuse issues as well as the loss of his mother, sister and brother. "the new york times" reports that carol blew hitchens the widow of author christopher hitchens has asked that people close to her late husband not participate in a planned biography by first-time author steven phillips. the book currently titled, the life and times of christopher hitchens, is being published by w ww norton. editor-in-chief of norton defended the project by saying quote, i was impressed by the framing that steven proposal for a book on hitchens but his plans for researching it, the cultural issues the proposal raised and the way that some of the issues hitchens himself wrote about and represented resonate to this day and of all the biographies i published i'm be hard pressed to one that was authorized by the estate. in other news, print book sales were up 19 and a half% for the
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weekend and generate 30. former first lady michelle obama is adapting her best selling memoir. her publisher random house has announced that the new addition for readers ten and up will be available on march 2. same day the paperback version of the coming will be released more than two years after the book was first published. booktv will continue to bring you new programs and publishing news. you can watch all of our past programs anytime at booktv.org. >> you are watching book tv on c-span2. every weekend with the latest nonfiction books and authors. booktv on c-span2 created by america's cable television company today we are brought to you by these television companies who provide book tv to viewers as a public service. >> it is an extra day of
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nonfiction authors and books on presidents day. examination of pulitzer prize-winning novel, the color purple. a critical look at the impact of the baby boomer generation and a report on the instagram an interview with presidential biographer and longtime congressional quarterly ceo robert mary as well as many other author discussions. you can find and schedule updates @booktv .org or consult your program guide. >> up next, investigative journalist million paying reports on the labor camps in china used to produce u.s. consumer goods and is interviewed by princeton universities center on contemporary china yan bennett. >> so, thank you today for coming today amelia. i was wondering if you could tell us about your book and what motivated you to write it. >> absolutely. thank you for having me.

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