Henry Bacon

In 1889 he won the Rotch Tra­ve­ling Scho­lar­ship, which enab­led him to study ar­chi­tec­ture in Eu­rope for two years, most of which he spent in Italy and Greece. He re­tur­ned to the United Sta­tes in 1891, and re-entered the of­fice of McKim, Mead & White, which he had left for his Eu­ro­pean study. From 1897 to 1903 he was a mem­ber of the firm of Bacon & Brite, and since then had prac­ticed alone. He de­si­gned the be­au­ti­ful Lin­coln Me­mo­rial at Wa­shing­ton, D. C., and among the other buil­dings which he de­si­gned were the Pa­ter­son, New Jer­sey Pu­blic Li­brary; the Eclec­tic So­ciety Buil­ding, Midd­le­town, Con­nec­ti­cut; the Pope Buil­ding, Cleve­land, Ohio; the Nau­ga­tuck, Con­nec­ti­cut Rail­way Sta­tion; and the Wa­ter­bury, Con­nec­ti­cut Ge­ne­ral Hos­pi­tal. He also de­si­gned pe­destals, exe­dras and other set­tings for sculp­ture, working in col­la­bo­ra­tion with Au­gus­tus Saint-Gaudens, Da­niel Ches­ter French, and other well-known sculp­tors. He was a Fel­low of the Ame­ri­can In­sti­tute of Ar­chi­tects, a Na­tio­nal Aca­de­mi­cian, and a mem­ber of the Na­tio­nal In­sti­tute of Arts and Let­ters, and the Ame­ri­can Aca­demy of Arts and Let­ters. On May 18, 1923, the Gold Medal of Honor of the Ame­ri­can In­sti­tute of Ar­chi­tects was awar­ded to Mr. Bacon by Pre­si­dent Har­ding. The pre­sen­ta­tion was made on the steps of the Lin­coln Me­mo­rial and was pre­ce­ded by a bril­li­ant pa­ge­ant.