The illustrated story of the life and times of architect Richard Morris Hunt, his forty-year career, and his impact on American culture after the Civil War. Celebrated internationally in the nineteenth century as America's premier architect, Richard Morris Hunt (1827?1895) is best known for his opulent Gilded Age Vanderbilt mansions, including Biltmore, the Breakers, Marble House, and other landmark works. Yet Hunt's impact on American culture after the Civil War ranges far beyond his lavish palaces. In The Gilded Life of Richard Morris Hunt, historian Sam Watters reveals Hunt's remarkable influence in creating the institutions and their conventions that transformed Old World traditions into his generation's idea of an American civilization, through architecture, interior design, sculpture, painting, and the ardent advocacy of artisan trades. Watters repositions Hunt and his forty-year career in light of new discoveries and connections made through his meticulous study of the Richard Morris Hunt Collection at the Library of Congress. Featuring 200 illustrations, including Hunt's drawings, images he collected, portraits of his privileged New York and Newport inner circle, and new photographs and plans, this dynamic biography follows the contours of American thought that shaped Hunt's life and work among the ruling one percent. AUTHOR: Sam Watters lectures and writes about forces that shaped American art, architecture, and landscape before World War II. An author of numerous books, columns, and essays, his first volume in association with the Library of Congress, Gardens for a Beautiful America 1895?1935: Photographs by Frances Benjamin Johnston (2012), won the Botanical and Horticultural Libraries Annual Literature Award. He lives in New York and California. Michael Froio is a photographer and educator in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. His commissioned work includes architectural, railroad, and heavy industry documentation and research projects in various mediums. His work resides in noted collections, including the Library of Congress, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Woodmere Museum, and the Camden County Arts Bank collection. SELLING POINTS: . Richard Morris Hunt was America's most famous nineteenth century architect, best known for his fabulous Gilded Age mansions. . Julian Fellows' TV show The Gilded Age and its direct connection to Richard Hunt will garner public interest. . Includes riveting details about the people, intentions, and design of landmark Gilded Age Vanderbilt mansions that are popular with contemporary tourists, including Biltmore (North Carolina), the Breakers, and Marble House (Newport, RI). . Accessible text and extensively illustrated biographical format creates a book with gift appeal. . Publication coincides with the public release of the Library of Congress's vast Richard Morris Hunt collection to researchers. Featuring an estimated 160,000 drawings, 30,000 photographs, and hundreds of rare illustrated books, the Hunt Collection is the core of the core of the American Institute of Architects/American Architectural Foundation (AIA/AAF) Collection that was donated to the Library in 2010. 200 illustrations