Robert Anderson

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(1834–1921)

One of the most gifted architects Scotland has produced, he started work in the office of John Lessels (1808–83). Among his buildings are All Saints' Church, Edinburgh (1864–78), the Catholic Apostolic Church, Edinburgh (1871–94), the Medical School (1874–86) and McEwan Hall (1884–90), Edinburgh University, the Central Station Hotel in Glasgow (1878–84), and Govan Parish Church (1884–8): the last is one of the finest works of the Gothic Revival in Scotland. He designed the well-mannered wings and terrace at Pollok House, Glasgow (1890s), and the Pearce Institute, Govan (1903–5). A meticulous conservationist, his sensitive work at e.g. Iona Abbey (1874–6), Paisley Abbey (1898–1907), and Sweetheart Abbey, near Dumfries (1911–14), may be cited. Among his many important designs, Mount Stuart, Rothesay, Bute (from 1878), and the National Portrait Gallery and Museum of Antiquities, Edinburgh (1884–9), are of considerable interest. His Revivalism was scrupulous and scholarly: his Central Station Hotel draws on Scandinavian C17 precedents to great effect, while elsewhere his work is clearly influenced by the architecture of his native Scotland. He published works on the medieval architecture of France and Italy (1870–5), and, with others, edited a volume dealing with Scottish architecture from C12 to C17.

Bibliography

• McKinstry (1991)
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004)
• Paterson (1921)
• Savage (1980)

The full bibliography for this book is available to download as a pdf file.
Download the bibliography for A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (PDF: 1.2MB)

Anderson, Robert, 1805-71, American army officer, defender of Fort Sumter, b. near Louisville, Ky., grad. West Point, 1825. He fought in the Black Hawk, Seminole, and Mexican wars and was promoted to major in 1857. In Nov., 1860, he took command of the U.S. force in the harbor of Charleston, S.C., where he distinguished himself in the Fort Sumter controversy. Anderson, made a brigadier general in the regular army (May, 1861), commanded the Dept. of Kentucky (June-Oct.). He retired from active service in Oct., 1863. In Feb., 1865, he was brevetted major general for his gallant service in the defense of Fort Sumter.

Biography

A major character star of the silent era, brawny Robert Anderson (born Andersen) hailed from Delaware and not Odense, Denmark, as his official bios claimed. Discovered by D.W. Griffith, Anderson made quite an impact as the comical M'Sieur Cuckoo in the World War I melodrama Hearts of the World (1918), which some critics felt he stole outright from nominal leads Lillian Gish and Robert Harron. Contracted by Universal, Anderson went on to portray a series of equally memorable character parts in mostly undeserving potboilers, and later supported such major stars as Mary Miles Minter, Laura La Plante, Renée Adorée, and Greta Garbo in more popular fare that ranged from the North Country melodrama The Eternal Struggle (1923) to the romantic comedy Love Me and the World Is Mine (1928). Anderson's final memorable performance came in W. S. Van Dyke's offbeat mixture of melodrama and travelogue, White Shadows in the South Seas (1928), in which he played the sadistic trader. Despite the fact that Anderson was as American as apple pie, sound derailed his screen career, a fact later mistakenly blamed on a heavy accent. A different, younger Robert Anderson appeared in RKO films of the 1940s. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, Rovi

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