Bacon, Henry

views updated May 29 2018

Bacon, Henry (1866–1924). Illinois-born American architect, much influenced by his elder brother, Francis Henry Bacon (1856–1940), architect, who had been involved in archaeological expeditions in Asia Minor in the 1880s. In 1889 Henry Bacon himself travelled in Greece and Asia Minor, before returning to the prestigious firm of McKim, Mead, & White, where he contributed to the designs of RI State House (1891–1903), the World's Columbian Exposition and the Brooklyn Museum (both 1893), and the J. P. Morgan Library (1902–6). In 1897 he set up his own practice, producing buildings of scholarly refinement and exquisite detail, including a large number of monuments and mausolea. His expertise in this field led to the commission to design the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC (1911–22), which terminates the axis of the Mall at the Potomac River: it is one of the finest examples of Neo-Classical Greek Revival architecture in the world.

Bibliography

Hitchcock (1977);
Kidney (1974);
V. J. Scully (1988)

About this article

Henry Bacon

All Sources -
Updated Aug 24 2016 About encyclopedia.com content Print Topic