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Former Diplomat to Discuss His Book on “The Man Who Built Washington”

Alexander Robey Shepherd Was Washington’s Public Works Czar

http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2016/16-193.html

            Alexander Robey Shepherd (1835-1902) was the District of Columbia’s powerful head of the D.C. Board of Public Works from 1871 until 1874. Better known as Boss Shepherd, he was a self-made man who made his fortune in the plumbing and gas-fitting business. His business inspired his fight to establish the city’s physical infrastructure at a time when opposition forces were calling for the nation’s capital to be moved to the Mississippi Valley, closer to the center of the country.

Boss Shepherd’s achievements included grading and paving of streets, installing a sewage system and the planting of thousands of trees.His methods were not without controversy, however, as demonstrated in this first comprehensive biography of Shepherd.

John Richardson, who did much of his research at the Library of Congress, will discuss and sign his book, “Alexander Robey Shepherd: The Man Who Built the Nation’s Capital” (Ohio University Press, 2016), on Thursday, Nov. 10, at noon in the Montpelier Room, sixth floor of the Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E. This Books & Beyond event is co-sponsored by the Library’s Center for the Book. It is free and open to the public; no tickets are required.

 

Click http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2016/16-193.html for more information.