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An Early Project by Robert Mills, Famed South Carolina Architect and Designer of the Washington Monument.
A handsome example of this exceptionally rare aquatint by Jonathan William Hill depicting one of Robert Mills's early public designs, an obelisk monument to Johann von Robais, Baron de Kalb, a German hero of the American Revolution.
Mills is famous for his role in producing the first atlas of South Carolina, as well as his many contributions to Southern architecture. His most famous work was the Washington Monument, which he designed in 1836. That project was not completed until 1885, thirty years after his death.
The DeKalb Monument presages the Washington Monument as a public obelisk, though on a much smaller scale. As noted in the print, Lafayette laid the cornerstone for the monument on his 1825 anniversary tour of the United States.
The rendition of the monument is quite detailed, with the dedication reading:
Here lies the Remains of Baron DeKalb a German by birth in principle a Citizen of the World.
The DeKalb monument still stands in Camden today.
Rarity
OCLC records only two examples of the print, at the University of South Carolina and the Society of the Cincinnati Library.
![(Colonial Charleston, South Carolina) This Indenture... [Land documented signed at Charles Town, South Carolina, 14th of August, 1772 by William and Ann Holmes]](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/92691.jpg)
