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James Dudley Morgan collection of Digges-L'Enfant-Morgan papers, 1674-1923
Title Page | Collection Summary | Scope and Content | Arrangement
The James Dudley Morgan Collection of Digges-L'Enfant-Morgan Papers consist primarily of the correspondence, accounts, commissions, maps, and estate papers of architect-engineer Pierre Charles L'Enfant (1754-1825). The title of the collection was stipulated in James Dudley Morgan's bequest of the papers to the Library of Congress in 1920. Morgan (1862-1919) inherited the majority of the L'Enfant papers represented in this collection through his grandfather, William Dudley Digges (1790-1830), with whom L'Enfant was residing until his death in 1825 and added other documents pertaining to L'Enfant's life. The collection is divided into three sections; the Pierre Charles L'Enfant Papers, 1778-1864, the Digges Family Papers, 1674-1852, and the James Dudley Morgan Papers, 1859-1923.
The papers of Pierre Charles L'Enfant are concentrated in the period 1778-1828 and consist primarily of correspondence, with a small number of accounts, commissions, notes, certificates, petitions, and printed matter. The papers reflect the professional activities of L'Enfant and shed light on his personal and family life. L'Enfant's papers document the artistic and political forces at work in the establishment of the nation's capital. The correspondence reveals the conflict between L'Enfant and the three commissioners, Thomas Johnson, Daniel Carroll, and David Stuart, appointed by President George Washington to oversee the planning of the city. L'Enfant lamented what he saw as the commissioners' greed for profit thwarting his own goals of establishing a capital city worthy of the new nation. Difficulties arose when L'Enfant failed to produce a map as quickly as the commissioners desired, with the result that the commissioners published a map drawn by Andrew Ellicott based on altered L'Enfant plans. At one point, L'Enfant halted construction and ultimately demolish a house owned by Daniel Carroll of Duddington, which L'Enfant found to lie in a proposed street. Washington and Jefferson were required to intervene in this and other matters on which L'Enfant and the Commissioners disagreed. Eventually L'Enfant was dismissed by Washington in February 1792 for failure to submit to the authority of the commissioners. Many of the letters and petitions dating from 1792 to 1825 reflect L'Enfant's attempts to secure what he considered a just compensation for his services.
L'Enfant's papers also indicate his activities after his dismissal. In 1792, he accepted Alexander Hamilton's offer to assist the Society of Useful Manufactures in their efforts at Paterson, New Jersey. From 1793 to 1797, L'Enfant designed a house for Robert Morris in Philadelphia, the construction of which was hampered by Morris's unstable financial position. The papers reflect L'Enfant's work on Fort Mifflin, Pensylvania, and Fort Washington, Maryland.
L'Enfant's correspondents include Daniel Carroll; Alexander Hamilton; Thomas Jefferson; Thomas Johnson; Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier, marquis de Lafayette; Tobias Lear; James Monroe; Robert Morris; Isaac Roberdeau; the Baron Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin von Steuben; David Stuart; and George Washington.
The papers of the Digges Family consist primarily of land patents, newspapers, and genealogical notes of the Maryland family who befriended L'Enfant in his later years. While working on the reinforcement of Fort Washington, L'Enfant resided in the home of Thomas Attwood Digges. Upon the latter's death in 1821, L'Enfant moved to the home of Thomas's nephew, William Dudley Digges (1790-1830) of Green Hill in Prince Georges County, Maryland. When L'Enfant died in 1825, he was buried on the Digges estate at Green Hill. The patents and newspapers belonging to the Digges family, together with the L'Enfant documents that had come into the Digges' possession, were given to James Dudley Morgan.
The third group of material represents Morgan's interest in L'Enfant, as well as in his own anecestors, Thomas and William Dudley. Correspondence, newsclippings, and printed matter note Morgan's efforts to have L'Enfant body moved from Green Hill to Arlington National Cemetery.