In 1871 Henry Richard Babb, as professor of drawing/painting in Plymouth and Devonport, was living with his wife Mary H (from Sheerness, Kent) and son Ernest H (born in Devonport), in the Saltash, Cornwall parish at 6 Tamar Terrace. He was the Headmaster of the School of Art, Princess Square, Plymouth, and of the Municipal School of Art, Devonport.
Source: https://cornwallartists.org/cornwall-artists/henry-r-babb

In addition to being the headmaster of these art schools, he was also an accomplished painter. I’ve located a few of his works online:

Why Tell His Story Now?

It’s a fair question. The reason he came across my field of view is that he also had a piece on display at the Royal Academy of Arts Exhibition at the same time Stanley Nicholson Babb was showing his latest piece in 1913. We find Henry under item 624 below.

A picture of the painting is not available as of this writing. However, the title gives us some ideas of what the work may have looked like and moreover leads to the story of the Plunder of Greek Antiquities on the Island of Aegina in the Temple of Jupiter.

I don’t know if Henry would have had the opportunity to visit Greece, but he could easily have used this book as a reference for his painting.

Looking into Henry’s Family Tree I found that he and Stanley Nicholson Babb were 2nd Cousins 1xRemoved. They would likely have known each other and together they present yet another connection from a different part of Devon, Barnstaple, which is on the Northern Shore. As of this writing no link has been established between the Northern Shore and the Babbs on the Southern Shore of Devon. For the Record Henry’s Tree is currently named Devon Pedigree (Barnstaple 1711) 04, 15, 34. As you will note from the tribute given him in the cover picture, one who counted amongst his pupils was Stanley Nicholson Babb!

Dinner and a Show with Stanley Nicholson Babb

The Temple

THE TEMPLES OF JUPITER PANHELLENIUS AT AEGINA by C.R. Cockrell was published in 1860 and via the wonders of technology is now available for download at this link, compliments of Archive.org. The book gives an extensive overview of each panel throughout the temple and just happened to be published in London which is just where Henry submitted his painting to the Royal Academy for this exhibition. By the way, C.R. Cockerell was a Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy. 🤔

This book is replete with dozens of exquisite reproductive drawings that explain virtually every aspect of this Temple and its surroundings. I’ve included just a fragment of the drawings in the book below:

Plunder 101

Attitudes have largely changed regarding the appropriateness of keeping antiquities collected from other countries. However, there are still a number of holdouts, that are chiefly composed of Museums who currently holding the possessions. I’m not calling anyone out, but you know who you are!

I’ve never known the introduction of a book to be that interesting. Personally, I keep mine to a minimum expecting that virtually no one will read it. However, this book comes with an eye-opening look into the mindset of an 1860s author who was tracing an 1811-2 architectural dig in which a multitude of objects were taken from their homeland. I can’t tell the story any better than C.R. Cockerell whose introduction reads as follows:

Back then this was Business as usual. Now it is considered theft. We shouldn’t judge those of the past for what was the norm of their times. Richard was clearly captivated by the Temple and sought to reproduce it in whatever state it was in during his lifetime. I hope that this was the work of his life and that it still adorns the walls of a private collection somewhere in this world!