This volume is the first of what will be three volumes of selected correspondence and miscellaneous papers of Benjamin Henry Latrobe (1764-1820), America's first professional architect and engineer. Of the 235 documents in this volume the majority are letters to and from Latrobe, interspersed with his pamphlets, newspaper articles, government reports, and scientific papers. The first section traces Latrobe's formative years in England and Germany and his early professional career in England before his emigration to America in 1795. By 1800 Latrobe had designed the Virginia State Penitentiary, the Bank of Pennsylvania, and the Philadelphia Waterworks. In 1803 President Jefferson appointed him surveyor of the public buildings in Washington, and thereafter he began to take on more important commissions. Thus a great deal of this volume is given over to Latrobe's work on the Capitol and the President's House as well as his work as surveyor and engineer of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company. In 1804 Latrobe accepted an appointment as engineer to the Navy Department and also began work on his monumental Baltimore Cathedral. This book comprehends both Latrobe's personal and professional beginnings and at least the genesis of the major works of his professional career.