Early Life and Education

A drawing of the capital of a composite-style column decorated with leaves and curved forms. The light column and capital stand against a dark background. The capital is cut off by the right side of the paper. A purple date stamp in the upper left and red crayon marks in the lower right interrupt the otherwise black and white drawing.

Raymond Hood
Study drawing of a capital, April 1905
Charcoal on paper
24½" × 18½"
Raymond Mathewson Hood papers, 1903–1931, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

After graduating from MIT and working for the firms of Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson and Palmer & Hornbostel, Hood went to Paris to study at the École des Beaux-Arts—at that time the best architecture school in the world.

One of Hood’s first drawings from Paris is this view of a capital he made to meet his architectural history requirement.