page_title: Charles Bulfinch
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Charles Bulfinch / Early life
context_page_description: Charles Bulfinch was an early American architect, and has been regarded by many as the first native-born American to practice architecture as a profession.
context_section_description: Bulfinch was born in Boston to Thomas Bulfinch, a prominent physician, and his wife, Susan Apthorp. At the age of 12, he watched the Battle of Bunker Hill from this home on the Boston side of the Charles River.
  He was educated at Boston Latin School and Harvard University, from which he graduated with an AB in 1781 and master's degree in 1784.
  He then made a grand tour of Europe from 1785 to 1788, traveling to London, Paris, and the major cities of Italy. Bulfinch was greatly influenced by  Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio. He was also influenced by the classical architecture in Italy and the neoclassical buildings of Sir Christopher Wren, Robert Adam, William Chambers, and others in the United Kingdom. Thomas Jefferson became something of a mentor to him in Europe, as he would later be to Robert Mills.
  Upon his return to the United States in 1787, he became a promoter of the ship Columbia Rediviva's voyage around the world under command of Captain Robert Gray (1755–1806). It was the first American ship to circumnavigate the globe. In 1788, he married Hannah Apthorp, his first cousin. Their sons include Thomas Bulfinch (1796–1867), author of Bulfinch's Mythology, and Stephen Greenleaf Bulfinch (1809–1870), Unitarian clergyman and author.
caption: Thomas Bulfinch (father of Charles), circa 1757
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