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Table of Contents: Case of the Ingenious A

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"Dr. T-" Examined and the Case of the "Ingenious A" "Saturday, Feby 1st a fine day. The ground covered with the deepest snow we have ever seen here (in 5 yrs.) - river frozen over. Dr. T- engaged in drawing at his plan for a House to build one day or another on Sq. 171."     Or Why William Thornton Didn't Design the Octagon House and Isn't the "First Architect of the Capitol"    By Bob Arnebeck author of Through a Fiery Trial: Building Washington 1790-1800 and Slave Labor in Capitol: Building Washington's Iconic Federal Landmarks Introduction:  How Glenn Brown, an architect of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, helped his own career by making William Thornton the most famous American architect of the 18th century.  Chapter One:   A Tale of Two Properties (1755 to 1786) Lancaster, Tortola and a Scientific Education - The roots of Thornton's wealth, his Quaker education, medical degree and mentors  Chapter Two:   Going ...
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Chapter Twelve: On the heights of Mount Chimborazo

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  The Doctor Examined, or Why William Thornton Did Not Design the Octagon House or the Capitol by Bob Arnebeck Table of Contents I am revising this chapter Chapter Twelve: On the heights of Mount Chimborazo Capitol in 1800 In a brief memoir of her husband written just after his death in 1828, Mrs. Thornton regretted his embracing "a greater variety of sciences" because it prevented him from attaining what he truly wanted. She credited him for genius in many fields - "philosophy, politics, Finance, astronomy, medicine, Botany, Poetry, painting, religion, agriculture, in short all subjects by turns occupied his active and indefatigable mind." She concluded that "had his genius been confined to fewer subjects, had he concentrated his study in some particular science, he would have attained Celebrity."(30) He would have challenged what she wrote. He simply knew too much and could have done so much to have his genius confined to fewer subjects. He als...
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