{{short description|American politician, lawyer and writer}} {{For|other people with the same name|Robert Conrad (disambiguation)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Robert T. Conrad | image = Robert T. Conrad.jpg | caption = | order = [[Mayor of Philadelphia]] | term_start = 1854 | term_end = 1856 | predecessor = [[Charles Gilpin (mayor)|Charles Gilpin]] | successor = [[Richard Vaux]] | birth_date = {{Birth date|1810|6|10}} | birth_place = [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]], U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1858|6|27|1810|6|10}} | death_place = [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]], U.S. | resting_place = [[Laurel Hill Cemetery]], Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. | constituency = | party = | spouse = | alma_mater = | profession = | signature = Robert T.svg | footnotes = }}
'''Robert Taylor Conrad''' (June 10, 1810 – June 27, 1858)<ref name="google">{{cite book|title=The Ridpath Library of Universal Literature ...: A Biographical and Bibliographical Summary of the World's Most Eminent Authors, Including the Choicest Extracts and Masterpieces from Their Writings, Comprising the Best Features of Many Celebrated Compilations, Notably the Guernsey Collection, the De Puy Collection, the Ridpath Collection, All Carefully Rev. and Arranged by a Corps of the Most Capable Scholars|author=Ridpath, J.C.|date=1898|volume=6|publisher=Globe Publishing Company|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xuIbnFpflFQC|accessdate=13 May 2015}}</ref> was an American politician, lawyer and writer from Pennsylvania who served as mayor of [[Philadelphia]] from 1854 to 1856. He was the first mayor of Philadelphia after the [[Act of Consolidation, 1854|Consolidation Act of 1854]].<ref>Simpson, Henry (1859). [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_eHkFAAAAQAAJ ''The Lives of Eminent Philadelphians, Now Deceased: Collected from Original and Authentic Sources'']. Oxford University. p. 247. Google Book Search, accessed 29 March 2009.</ref>
==Life and politics== He was the son of a publisher of Philadelphia, was educated for the bar, and attained a high reputation as a political speaker, and as an editor and poet. Before he was 21, he wrote a tragedy, ''Conradin'', and in 1832 published the ''Daily Commercial Intelligencer'', which was merged into the ''Philadelphia Gazette''. Abandoning this occupation from failing health in 1834, he returned to the law, became recorder, and in 1838 judge of the criminal sessions for the city and county of Philadelphia. When the latter court was dissolved, he resumed the pen, edited ''[[Graham's Magazine]]'', and became associate editor of the ''[[North American Review]]''.<ref name=acab>{{Appletons|wstitle=Conrad, Robert Taylor|year=1900|inline=1}}</ref>
Conrad was [[recorder (judge)|recorder]] (part-time judge) for the suburban township of [[Northern Liberties]], which became part of the city under the Consolidation Act of 1854. In the 1854 Philadelphia mayoral election, Conrad was the nominee of both the [[Whig Party (United States)|Whigs]] and [[Know Nothings]] (later known as the American Party). He won in a landslide, riding a wave of [[Nativism (politics)#Nativism in the United States|nativist]] sentiment that swept the United States in the mid-1850s.<ref name="obit">[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1858/06/30/78856225.pdf "Obituary. Death of two distinguished Philadelphians"]. ''New York Times'', June 30, 1858. p. 2.</ref> In 1856 he was appointed to the bench of the quarter sessions, serving in that capacity until 1857.
In literature he is best known by the tragedy of ''Aylmere'', purchased by [[Edwin Forrest]], in which that actor played the part of [[Jack Cade]].<ref name=acab/> The play was said to be "one of the few American tragedies to hold the stage."<ref name="obit"/> In 1852 Judge Conrad published a volume entitled ''Aylmere, or the Bondman of Kent, and other Poems'', the principal poems being "The Sons of the Wilderness," a meditative poem on the wrongs and misfortunes of the [[Native Americans in the United States|North American Indians]], and a series of sonnets on the [[Lord's Prayer]]. Another tragedy that he wrote, ''The Heretic'', was never acted, nor published.<ref name=acab/>
Conrad lived in [[West Philadelphia]] (at the corner of Lancaster Road and Market Street) at a time when that part of the city was largely uninhabited.<ref>Rosenthal, Leon S. [http://www.uchs.net/Rosenthal/wphila.html ''A History of Philadelphia's University City''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191117075216/http://www.uchs.net/Rosenthal/wphila.html |date=17 November 2019 }} (1963)</ref> Conrad was the son-in-law of U.S. Representative [[Thomas Kittera]].<ref name="politicalgraveyard">{{cite web|url=https://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/kirksey-kittleman.html |title=The Political Graveyard: Index to Politicians: Kirksey to Kitto |author=Lawrence Kestenbaum|publisher=politicalgraveyard.com|accessdate=13 May 2015}}</ref>
[[File:Robert T. Conrad Monument.jpg|thumb|Robert T. Conrad Monument in [[Laurel Hill Cemetery]]]] He died on June 17, 1858, and was interred at [[Laurel Hill Cemetery]] in Philadelphia.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hepp |first1=Christopher K. |title=Laurel Hill, a hidden cemetery, gets new look |url=https://www.inquirer.com/philly/business/20090404_Laurel_Hill__a_hidden_cemetery__gets_new_look.html |website=www.inquirer.com |date=4 April 2009 |publisher=The Philadelphia Inquirer |access-date=6 June 2022}}</ref>
==Legacy== The Robert T. Conrad public school in Philadelphia was named in his honor.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Custis |first1=John Trevor |title=The Public Schools of Philadelphia: Historical, Biographical, Statistical |date=1897 |publisher=Burk & McFetridge Co. |location=Philadelphia |page=303 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cggUAAAAIAAJ&q=robert+t+conrad+philadelphia&pg=RA5-PA102-IA1 |access-date=6 December 2020}}</ref>
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
== External links == * {{Gutenberg author | id=33747}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Robert Taylor Conrad |sopt=t}} * [https://www.prices4antiques.com/works-on-paper/mezzotints/Sartain-John-Engraving-Robert-T-Conrad-First-Mayor-of-the-Consolidated-City-of-Philadelphia-22-inch-D9969553.htm Robert T. Conrad. First Mayor of the Consolidated City of Philadelphia (an 1854 engraving of Conrad by John Sartain)] * [http://digital.library.villanova.edu/Joseph%20McGarrity%20Collection/Joseph%20McGarrity%20Books/JosephMcGarrityBooks-00089.xml Oration delivered by the Hon. Robert T. Conrad, at the celebration of the anniversary of American independence by the Philadelphia Repeal Association, at the Arch Street Theatre, July 5, 1841.]
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{{PhiladelphiaMayors}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Conrad, Robert T.}} [[Category:1810 births]] [[Category:1858 deaths]] [[Category:19th-century American dramatists and playwrights]] [[Category:19th-century American newspaper publishers (people)]] [[Category:19th-century American poets]] [[Category:American magazine editors]] [[Category:Burials at Laurel Hill Cemetery (Philadelphia)]] [[Category:Lawyers from Philadelphia]] [[Category:Mayors of Philadelphia]] [[Category:Pennsylvania Know Nothings]] [[Category:Pennsylvania Whigs]] [[Category:Poets from Pennsylvania]] [[Category:Recorder (judge)]] [[Category:Writers from Philadelphia]] [[Category:19th-century American lawyers]] [[Category:19th-century American male writers]] [[Category:Orators]] [[Category:Dramatists and playwrights from Pennsylvania]]