Armed with pencil, pen, and watercolor brushes, Cass Gilbert visually raided the cities and countrysides of England, Italy, and France for their architectural wonders, their scenery, and anything else that served his fascination with the monumental and the picturesque. CASS GILBERT ABROAD combines the fledgling architect's drawings and watercolor sketches from his European tour with letters he wrote home to his mother and to his closest friend and architectural confidant, Clarence Johnston.

"I am learning to live, and to see beauty in everything."
—Cass Gilbert, St. Antheme, France, 1880