78
Hamilton, Architect, Artist
speaks in friendly sort of him. Of Hamil-
ton I have written not unfrequently during
the last five or six years. An eager, ac-
quisitive, friendly, soapy person, with an ear-
nest vivacious manner, not unkindly nor
at all unlikeable, anxious to distinguish him-
self and spurred by his family responsibili-
ties into rather unwise and injudicious at-
tempts to go in for good things so that he
appeared almost ludicrously greedy at times
and got laughed at. Bellew always spoke
highly of him and he, in turn, soaped Bellew
to an extraordinary extent, which the artist
liked though perhaps he saw through it.
Hamilton had been an architect in London,
came to America, poor enough, with a family,
went to Panama, alone, during the early
California times, returned to practise his
profession in Cincinatti (where he had known
Rosecrans) and boasted that he had revolution-
ized the business in the thriving, coarse, ma-
terial city, but introducing the English
system of the architect getting a per-centage
on the cost of the building designed. He told
me some amusing stories of his Cincinatti
experiences. Bellew had made his acquain-
tance there during the flight of the former
from New York, with the woman who is| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Twenty-One: page eighty-five |
| Description: | Describes journalist and architect Hamilton. |
| Date: | 1862-12-04 |
| Subject: | Bellew, Frank; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Hamilton; Hamilton, Mrs.; Rosecrans, W.S. |
| Coverage (City/State): | Cincinnati, [Ohio]; London, [England]; Panama |
| Scan Date: | 2010-11-16 |
| Volume |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Twenty-One |
| Description: | Includes Gunn's descriptions of his experiences as a war correspondent for ""The New York Tribune"" at New Orleans, Louisiana, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana; boarding house living; a visit to the Rawlings family; a fight with Mr. Blankman at his boarding house; his journey on the North Star with the Banks expedition; the re-occupation of Baton Rouge by Union forces; a visit to a sugar plantation in Louisiana; and Fanny Fern's daughter Grace Thomson's death. |
| Subject: | African Americans; Boardinghouses; Bohemians; Civil War; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Journalism; Military; Publishers and publishing; Transportation; Travel; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | New York, New York; New Orleans, Louisiana; Baton Rouge, Louisiana |
| Note: | Thomas Butler Gunn was born February 15, 1826, in Banbury, England, and came to New York in 1849. During the Civil War he worked as a correspondent for the New York Tribune and the New York Evening Post. He returned to England in 1863, and died in Birmingham in April 1903. The collection includes twenty-one volumes of his diaries, including newspaper clippings, letters, photographs, sketches, and various other items inserted by Gunn. Diary entries date from July 7, 1849, to April 7, 1863, and include his experiences with the New York publishing and literary world, his descriptions of boarding houses, his travels throughout the United States, and his experiences traveling with the Federal army as a Civil War correspondent. |
| Publisher: | Missouri History Museum |
| Rights: | Copyright 2010 Missouri History Museum. |
| Source: | Page images, transcriptions, and metadata of the Thomas Butler Gunn diaries have been provided by the Missouri History Museum. |
