Episcopal Church Richmond, Virginia
Cartographer : - Bartlett, William H. 1809 - 1854
- Date: - 1840
- Size: - 10 1/2in x 8 1/2in (268mm x 215mm)
- Ref#: - 35380
- Condition: - (A) Very Good Condition
Description:
This original steel-plate engraved antique print a view of Monumental Church Broad Street in Richmond Virginia by William Bartlett was engraved by James Archer and was published by Samuel Walker in the 1840 edition of Nathaniel Parker Willis American Scenery; or Land, Lake, and River: Illustrations of Transatlantic Nature
General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: -
Colors used: -
General color appearance: -
Paper size: - 10 1/2in x 8 1/2in (268mm x 215mm)
Plate size: - 10 1/2in x 8 1/2in (268mm x 215mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)
Imperfections:
Margins: - Light soiling
Plate area: - Light age toning
Verso: - Light age toning
Monumental Church is a former Episcopal church that stands at 1224 E. Broad Street between N. 12th and College Streets in Richmond, Virginia. Designed by architect Robert Mills, it is one of Americas earliest and most distinctive Greek Revival churches and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is a National Historic Landmark and is located in the Court End historic district.
Monumental Church was built between 1812 and 1814 to commemorate the 72 people who died on the site in the December 26, 1811 Richmond Theatre fire. The building consists of two parts: a crypt and a church. The crypt is located beneath the sanctuary and contains the remains of those claimed by the fire. The church is an octagonal construction of brick and Aquia sandstone with a stucco coat.
The site of Monumental Church was known initially as the first Academy of Fine Arts and Sciences in America, or The Theatre Square. Chevalier Quesnay de Beaurepaire, a French officer in the Revolutionary army, had developed the idea for the academy but the plan was abandoned due to the war. In 1786 on this site Richmonds first theatre was built, which had the appearance of a barn-like building. The Virginia Ratifying Convention of 1788 was held in this building beginning on June 3 for three weeks after first convening in the temporary capitol at Cary and fourteenth streets. Among the many individuals in attendance were James Madison, John Marshall, James Monroe, Edmund Pendleton, George Wythe, George Nicholas, Edmund Randolph, George Mason, Richard Henry Lee and Patrick Henry. This building was destroyed by fire in 1802 and the Richmond Theatre would replace it.
Following the 1811 theatre fire, the church was commissioned by Chief Justice John Marshall and designed by architect Robert Mills, the first American-born architect, the only pupil of Thomas Jefferson and the architect of the Washington Monument and White House of the Confederacy. Mills had a reputation for being particularly concerned with fireproofing, probably owing to his work on Monumental, and later in his career designed Charleston\'s Fireproof Building as a testament to that fact.
Monumental Church established the first Sunday School program in Richmond on Nov. 20, 1817. Famous parishioners included Chief Justice John Marshall whose family occupied pew No. 23, Edgar Allan Poe, whose foster parents the Allans were members and occupied pew No. 80, the Marquis de Lafayette when he visited Richmond in 1824, William Mayo of Powhatan and the Chamberlayne family.
Three Richmond congregations were formed from Monumental, including: St. James\'s in 1831, St. Paul\'s in 1845 and All Saints in 1888.
Deconsecrated in 1965, it was given by the Medical College of Virginia to the Historic Richmond Foundation, an affiliate of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities.
Was a British artist, best known for his numerous drawings rendered into steel engravings.
Bartlett was born in Kentish Town, London in 1809. He was apprenticed to John Britton (1771–1857), and became one of the foremost illustrators of topography of his generation. He travelled throughout Britain, and in the mid and late 1840s he travelled extensively in the Balkans and the Middle East. He made four visits to North America between 1836 and 1852.
In 1835, Bartlett first visited the United States to draw the buildings, towns and scenery of the north-eastern states. The finely detailed steel engravings Bartlett produced were published uncolored with a text by Nathaniel Parker Willis as American Scenery; or Land, Lake, and River: Illustrations of Transatlantic Nature. American Scenery was published by George Virtue in London in 30 monthly installments from 1837 to 1839. Bound editions of the work were published from 1840 onward.
In 1838 Bartlett was in Canada producing sketches for Willis Canadian Scenery Illustrated, published in 1842.
Bartlett made sepia wash drawings the exact size to be engraved. His engraved views were widely copied by artists, but no signed oil painting by his hand is known. Engravings based on Bartletts views were later used in his posthumous History of the United States of North America, continued by Bernard Bolingbroke Woodward and published around 1856.
William Henry Bartlett died of fever on board of a French ship off the coast of Malta returning from his last trip to the Near East, in 1854.
Bartletts primary concern was to render lively impressions of actual sights, as he wrote in the preface to The Nile Boat (London, 1849). Many views contain some ruin or element of the past including many scenes of churches, abbeys, cathedrals and castles, and Nathaniel Parker Willis described Bartletts talent thus: Bartlett could select his point of view so as to bring prominently into his sketch the castle or the cathedral, which history or antiquity had allowed.
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