Cass Gilbert which now houses the George Gustav Heye Center. Gilbert served on the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts from 1910 to 1916. In 1906 he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, and became a full Academician in 1908. Gilbert served as President of the Academy from 1926 to 1933. Gilbert was a skyscraper pioneer; when designing the Woolworth Building he moved into unproven ground — though he certainly was aware of the ground-breaking work done by Chicago architects on skyscrapers and once discussed merging firms with the legendary Daniel Burnham — and his technique of
The Captivity of Benjamin Gilbert The Captivity of Benjamin Gilbert The Captivity of Benjamin Gilbert and His Family, 1780-83 is a captivity narrative by William Walton relating the experiences of a Quaker family of settlers near Mauch Chunk in present-day Carbon County, Pennsylvania. The story was originally published in 1784, and has since been republished numerous times under varying titles. In 1780, the Gilbert family was settled near what was then the frontier between encroaching colonists and Native Americans. In a minor action in the American Revolution a war party from the British base at Fort Niagara, under the overall command of Colonel John Butler,