Anthony St. John Baker
Anthony St. John Baker (1785-May 16, 1854), was the English diplomat who carried the Treaty of Ghent to the United States at the close of the War of 1812. During his years of official service in Europe and America, he recorded his impressions in written accounts as well as watercolor sketches, ultimately publishing the autobiographical Mémoires d’un voyageur qui se repose (Memoirs of a Traveler Now in Retirement) in 1850.Baker took a leave of absence from Washington in 1828 and officially resigned his post in 1831. [1] Retiring to Tunbridge Wells, England, he compiled Mémoires d’un voyageur qui se repose, published privately in 1850 in a limited edition of 50 copies. The four-volume set included numerous engravings after Baker’s watercolors, along with maps and other illustrations. [2] A collector of coins and medals, Baker was elected to the Numismatic Society in 1842, and actively supported the British Archaeological Association from its first congress in 1844. [3] Baker also subscribed to the seven-volume Collectanea Antiqua (1850) [4] His “valuable assemblage of coins and medals” and his “select library” of books relating to the history, laws, and statistics of the United States were auctioned by Messrs. S. Leigh Sotheby and John Wilkinson in December 1854. [5]
Sites
Riversdale, Mount Airy, White House
Terms
Arboretum, Arcade, Avenue, Bowling Green, Conservatory, Deer Park, Fall/Falling Garden, Fence, Ha-Ha/Sunk fence, Lawn, Nursery, Park, Plantation, Square, Statue, Sundial, Terrace/Slope Wall
Images
"View of the White House," 1826, from Mémoires d’un voyageur qui se repose (1850).
Mount Airy, Virginia; northeast front, 1827, from Mémoires d’un voyageur qui se repose (1850), in Therese O'Malley and Marc Treib, Regional Garden Design in the United States (1995), p. 152, fig. 21.
Mount Airy, Virginia; southwest front as viewed from the bowling green, 1827, from Mémoires d’un voyageur qui se repose (1850), in Therese O'Malley and Marc Treib, Regional Garden Design in the United States (1995), p. 152, fig. 22.
B. King (lithograper), "Riversdale, near Bladensburg," 1827.
- ↑ Proceedings of the Numismatic Society, April 1853-January 1854, 15; 65-66 view on Zotero.
- ↑ Copies of Baker’s valuable and extremely rare memoirs are held by the Huntington Library (extra-illustrated with 18 watercolors by Baker); Yale University Library (also extra-illustrated); New York Historical Society; William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan. See Childs, 1970, 198-204, view on Zotero; Carey S. Bliss, "Acquisitions: July 1-November 15, 1952," Huntington Library Quarterly, 16 (1953): 216, view on Zotero.
- ↑ "Proceedings of the Numismatic Society. Session 1842-43," The Numismatic Chronicle and Journal of the Numismatic Society, 5 (1842–1843): 57, 62 view on Zotero. For Baker’s subscription to the Journal of the British Archaeological Association and his participation in the Association’s congresses, see "Obituary for 1854," The Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 11 (1855): 60 view on Zotero.
- ↑ Charles Roach Smith, Collectanea Antiqua: Etchings and Notes on Ancient Remains, 7 vols. (London: J. Russell Smith, 1852), view on Zotero.
- ↑ Athenaeum (December 8, 1854), 1478; "Obituary for 1854," 60, view on Zotero.
