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Building America: The Life of Benjamin Henry Latrobe tells the story of one of America’s greatest architects and engineers. To the extent that we build buildings and then they shape us, given Latrobe’s  broad practice, he influenced every aspect of life in early America—from its worship and governance to its education and domesticity.  And yet his personal story is a tangled one of an innovative architect who was unable to resist speculations and who at one point went to jail for his debts. This biography is, then, the tale of the intersection of Latrobe’s personal and professional life with the established practices of the early republic.

Jean H. Baker retired from teaching history at Goucher College as the Bennett-Harwood professor of history and from the college’s Prison Education Program in 2013. She continues with her history-writing and most recently, is the author of Building America: The Life of Benjamin Henry Latrobe. During the centennial celebration of the women’s suffrage amendment in 2020 she lectured and completed several short biographies of Maryland’s suffrage women, many of whom had Goucher connections. Forthcoming in the fall is a book of essays on Maryland during the Civil War that she coedited along with Charles Mitchell.

Please note that this lecture will not be recorded.