The Royal Crescent, Bath
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ID: 2005-33528
Creator: Graf, C
Form/Genre: Exterior
Date: 1768
Citation: Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7000, Box 5, Folder 6
This is a view of the building called the Royal Crescent, Bath in 1768. The grandest of Bath's many Georgian crescents, the Royal Crescent was built by John Wood the Younger between 1767 and 1774. It consists of thirty elegant mansions of freestone, uniformly built. Columns of the Ionic order, rising from a rustic basement, support the superior cornice, and the stately fronts of the houses at each end, add greatly to the general effect. James Smithson's mother, Elizabeth Hungerford Keate Macie, was from the nearby town of Weston and Mrs. Macie in 1761 enjoyed the freedom of widowhood and the elaborate social life of Bath. Bath was the favorite playground in England for the upper class. It is suspected that this is where she met and had an affair with Sir Hugh Smithson. The affair led to the birth c. 1765 of James Smithson, founding donor of the Smithsonian Institution.
Historic Images of the Smithsonian
Appeared in a pamphlet.
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 7000, Box 5, Folder 6
Institutional History Division, Smithsonian Institution Archives, 600 Maryland Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20024-2520, SIHistory@si.edu
1768
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2005-33528
Number of Images: 1; Color: Color; Size: 4 1/4w x 3 1/2h; Type of Image: Exterior; Medium: Engraving; Lithograph