John Russell Pope

John Russell Pope (April 24, 1874 – August 27, 1937) was an architect most known for his designs of the National Archives and Records Administration building (completed in 1935), the Jefferson Memorial (completed in 1943) and the West Building of the National Gallery of Art (completed in 1941) in Washington, DC. Pope was born in New York in 1874, the son of a successful portrait painter. He studied architecture at Columbia University and graduated in 1894. He was the first recipient of the Rome Prize to attend the newly-founded American Academy in Rome, a training ground for the designers of the "American Renaissance." He would remain involved with the Academy until his death in 1933. Pope traveled for two years through Italy and...