In Jefferson's Shadow: The Architecture of Thomas R. Blackburn [ILLUSTRATED] (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: wash highlighting, lattice rail, wove paper, Thomas Jefferson, University of Virginia, Western Lunatic Asylum (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

At the price, an extraordinary buy; one would expect a price of twice this for such a fine, specialized work... Highly recommended. -- Choice, Feb. 2007

Documentation of the... estimable country builder whose mentor was Thomas Jefferson. Original drawings, history and insight into the practice of architecture in the early 19th century. -- Early Homes, Fall/Winter 2006

Well written and researched and is a must-have addition to any architect's library, not only those interested in Jefferson. We thank Green and the Princeton Architectural Press for producing this volume rather than allowing this work to be buried in archival purgatory. -- Period Homes, May 2007

Product Description

In 1999, historians at the Virginia Historical Society acquired three curiously bound volumes of drawings and documents created between 1821 and 1858 by a long -- and unjustifiably -- forgotten architect named Thomas R. Blackburn. Further inspection revealed that these were, in fact, no ordinary documents, but a unique window onto the life of a distinguished builder and his revered master: Thomas Jefferson. In these extraordinary books, we find Blackburn, at first a young carpenter, engaged in the construction of Jefferson's famed "academical village" at the University of Virginia. He simultaneously embarked on an ambitious program of architectural study, guided, it appears, by Jefferson himself. The drawings he executed in the four decades that followed -- extraordinary ink and watercolor explorations of his many residential and civic commissions -- bear witness to his emergence as a mature and prolific architect in his own right. In Jefferson's Shadow is a unique document of the relationship between an unknown but highly skilled country builder and the American statesman widely considered this nation's first gentleman architect. But it is also an indispensable resource on the little-understood practice of architecture in the early and mid-nineteenth century.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press; 1 edition (August 31, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568984790
• ISBN-13: 978-1568984797
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 4.9 x 3.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #627,604 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars little-known early American architect and his work and influence, December 1, 2006

By	Henry Berry "Henry Berry" (Southport, CT) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Thomas R. Blackburn's recently discovered architectural drawings and related papers at the Virginia Historical Society provide a look at his "architectural education." Blackburn worked on the University of Virginia with Thomas Jefferson and afterwards went on to build notable buildings on his own in Virginia's Piedmont region and Shenandoah Valley. Among these buildings are the Western Lunatic Asylum and the John A. G. Davis House. The discovered drawings and related papers are reproduced, most one per page, in over 150 color plates following the 100 or so pages of biographical and evaluative text by Green, an architectural historian teaching and writing mostly on Virginia architecture. Overall, text and plates establish Blackburn as an important and in some ways seminal first-generation American architect who widened the geographical range of the classic architecture related mostly to Jefferson.