The American architect Richard Morris Hunt (1827-1895) was a major contributor to the eclectic style of the 19th century.

Richard Morris Hunt was born in Brattleboro, Vt. His father was a lawyer and member of Congress, his mother a painter. He graduated from the Boston Latin School in 1843. He was sent to a military school in Geneva but soon tired of it and entered the studio of the architect Samuel Darier. In 1845 Hunt went to Paris to work with the architect Hector Martin Lefuel. The following year he was admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts. To round out his artistic training, he also studied painting and sculpture. For long periods he traveled in Europe, Asia Minor, and Egypt, evidently determined to see everything before beginning his career.

By 1854 Lefuel had appointed Hunt an inspector of construction at the Louvre in Paris. Though urged to remain in Paris...