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US Capitol Building Washington DC - Washington DC Stock Photography
The United States Capitol Building is located on Capitol Hill at the east end of the National Mall in Washington DC. The US Capitol is among the most symbollically important and architecturally impressive buildings in the United States. It has housed the meeting chambers of the US House of Representatives and US Senate for two centuries. An example of 19 century neo-claccical architecture. Architectural details include columns, porticos, arches, steps, the US Capitol dome and rotunda. A washington D.C. landmark and national icon it is a popular tourist attraction and travel destination in Washington DC.
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Space shuttle Discovery, mounted atop a NASA 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) flies near the U.S. Capitol, Tuesday, April 17, 2012, in Washington. Discovery, the first orbiter retired from NASA’s shuttle fleet, completed 39 missions, spent 365 days in space, orbited the Earth 5,830 times, and traveled 148,221,675 miles. NASA will transfer Discovery to the National Air and Space Museum to begin its new mission to commemorate past achievements in space and to educate and inspire future generations of explorers. Photo Credit: (NASA/Rebecca Roth)
Space shuttle Discovery, mounted atop a NASA 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) flies near the U.S. Capitol, Tuesday, April 17, 2012, in Washington. Discovery, the first orbiter retired from NASA’s shuttle fleet, completed 39 missions, spent 365 days in space, orbited the Earth 5,830 times, and traveled 148,221,675 miles. NASA will transfer Discovery to the National Air and Space Museum to begin its new mission to commemorate past achievements in space. Photo Credit: (NASA/Smithsonian Institution/Donald E. Hurlbert)
Small Senate Rotunda Chandelier
This chandelier has hung in the Small Senate Rotunda since 1965. Imported from Europe in 1903, it previously hung in a historic Baltimore theater and a Capitol Hill church. Originally smaller, it has been enlarged and modified over its history.
Bronze and crystal chandelier, Small Senate Rotunda, U.S. Capitol
The chandelier hanging in the Small Senate Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol has attracted attention ever since it was installed in 1965. It was purchased for $1,500 from the ABC Wrecking Co., which had removed it from the Capitol Hill United Methodist Church on Seward Square in southeast Washington, D.C., before razing that building. Although its manufacturer is not known, the chandelier was imported from Europe in 1903 for the grand Maryland Theater in Baltimore. Over the years this theater was the scene of vaudeville, film and live dramatic presentations.
When the theater was being razed in 1951, a parishioner purchased the chandelier for Trinity Methodist Church (later renamed the Capitol Hill United Methodist Church). The chandelier was smaller then: it consisted of the six-foot bronze ring, which was ornamented in relief and coarse filigree; a smaller ring that formed the main basket; and a large crystal ball attached to the basket, which terminated the chandelier. The pastor added eight glass arms, hurricane lamps, a brass crown, and Czechoslovakian crystal chains leading to the crown, thus making the fixture eight feet wide and eleven feet high. When it was acquired by the Architect of the Capitol, the chandelier was rewired and lamp sockets were replaced. The eight fragile glass arms on the main ring were replaced with 16 short bronze arms. Each arm terminates in a glass bobeche with a circle of pendent crystal prisms.
The chandelier is estimated to have 14,500 crystals and weighs nearly 2,000 pounds. It is suspended from an electrically driven winch on a steel cable, which allows it to be lowered for cleaning.
General George Washington Resigning His Commission
The painting General George Washington Resigning His Commission by John Trumbull is on display in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. This painting depicts the scene on December 23, 1783, in the Maryland State House in Annapolis when George Washington resigned his commission as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. The action was significant for establishing civilian authority over the military, a fundamental principle of American democracy.
•Artist: John Trumbull
•Medium: Oil on Canvas
•Dimensions: 12' × 18'
•Date: 1824; placed 1826
•Location: Rotunda, U.S. Capitol
Washington, illuminated by the light falling into the room, stands in uniform before the president of the Continental Congress, Thomas Mifflin, and the delegates, among whom is Thomas Jefferson. Behind Washington are his aides-de-camp, Col. Benjamin Walker and Col. David Humphreys, and spectators. The delegates and spectators direct their attention to Washington as he extends his right hand to return his commission. The empty chair draped in a cloak, suggestive of a throne covered with a king’s robe, symbolizes Washington’s act of retiring from his position of power.
General George Washington Resigning His Commission, painted between 1822 and 1824, was the last of the four paintings that John Trumbull created under his 1817 commission from the U.S. Congress. To depict accurately the figures in the painting, Trumbull copied miniatures he had painted previously, studied portraits by fellow artists, and contacted members of Congress for portraits of the delegates. He based the representation of George Washington on one of his own earlier portraits. Some figures not present at the actual event are shown, including James Madison and Martha Washington and her grandchildren, who appear in the gallery. Trumbull visited and sketched the room, the Senate Chamber of the State House, in 1822, but in creating the painting he altered some elements. The Chamber no longer contained the furnishings used at the time of Washington’s resignation. Rather than depict the newer furniture created for the room in 1796, Trumbull copied the chairs he had painted in Declaration of Independence; Washington’s larger chair differs from those in which the delegates are seated, which contributes to the suggestion of a throne. The painting was completed in April 1824, and Trumbull took it on tour during the rest of the year in Boston, Providence, Hartford, Albany, Philadelphia, and New York City.
General George Washington Resigning His Commission balances the first of Trumbull’s Rotunda paintings, Declaration of Independence. The two paintings are similar in composition, with figures seated and standing in the background. The central action in each is the presentation of papers: here, by Washington; in Declaration, by Thomas Jefferson. Both scenes take place in the chambers of a civilian legislature, and Trumbull’s use of similar chairs subtly reinforces the relationship between the two paintings. A smaller version of Washington Resigning that Trumbull completed in 1828 is part of the collection of Yale University Art Gallery.
Trumbull performed the first cleaning and restoration of his Rotunda paintings in 1828, applying wax to their backs to protect them from dampness and cleaning and re-varnishing their surfaces. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries the painting was cleaned, restored, varnished, and relined. All of the Rotunda paintings were most recently cleaned in 2008.
Surrender of General Burgoyne
The event shown in this painting is the surrender of British General John Burgoyne at Saratoga, New York on October 17, 1777. Burgoyne’s surrender followed battles with American General Horatio Gates near Saratoga in September and October 1777. With the British losing men and defenses during both engagements, Burgoyne retreated with a weakened army to Saratoga, where he surrendered to General Gates. This turning point in the American Revolution prevented the British from dividing New England from the rest of the colonies, and it was the deciding factor in bringing active French support to the American cause.
•Artist: John Trumbull
•Medium: Oil on Canvas
•Dimensions: 12' × 18'
•Date: 1821; Placed 1826
•Location: Rotunda, U.S. Capitol
This painting depicts General Burgoyne prepared to surrender his sword to General Gates. Gates, showing respect for Burgoyne, refuses to take the sword and instead offers hospitality by directing Burgoyne to the tent to take refreshment; the American flag flies in the wind at the top of the tent. American officers gather at the sides to witness the event; their varied dress reflects their different units. In the center of the painting, and extending into the background, is Burgoyne’s army along with its German reinforcements. They were directed to the camp by American Colonel Lewis, Quartermaster-General, who rides on horseback in the far distance. The scene suggests peace rather than combat or hostility: beneath blue sky and white clouds, officers wear their dress uniforms, weapons are sheathed or slung, and cannons stand silent.
Burgoyne’s surrender was among the subjects John Trumbull selected for a series of history paintings when he began to “meditate seriously the subjects of national history, of events of the Revolution,” in 1785. In September of that year, Trumbull wrote his brother that he was thinking of scenes related to battles of Bunker’s Hill, Trenton, Saratoga, and Yorktown. In 1791, he sketched a landscape study for the surrender site at Saratoga. In creating the painting for the Capitol, he included the same large tree in the left foreground and many other topographical features but added more trees and autumnal leaves. Trumbull based most of the figures on portraits he painted from life in the early 1790s. The Surrender of General Burgoyne was completed in December 1821 and was exhibited in New York City from January to March of the following year.
Trumbull performed the first cleaning and restoration of his Rotunda paintings in 1828, applying wax to their backs to protect them from dampness and cleaning and re-varnishing their surfaces. At the time, Trumbull also repaired damage to the right foot of Colonel Daniel Morgan (dressed in white and standing at the head of the officers gathered at the tent), which was cut out with a sharp instrument, most likely a penknife. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries the painting was cleaned, restored, varnished, and relined. All of the Rotunda paintings were most recently cleaned in 2008.
Between 1822 and 1832, Trumbull created a smaller version of this painting that is now part of the collection of Yale University Art Gallery. The painting in the Capitol and the later version are similar in composition but differ in details. In the later version Trumbull made changes to the facial features and expressions of figures, the direction the flag blows, and the topography of the landscape. It was Trumbull’s version for the U.S. Capitol that appeared on a $1.00 stamp in 1994.
This flag draped protester was among the crowd at the "Justice for J6" rally in Washington, DC on 9/18/21.
Doric Columns
Doric columns typically have a simple, rounded capital at the top; a heavy, fluted or smooth column shaft; and no base. Flutes are vertical, parallel channels that run the length of a column. Columns in this style can be found throughout Capitol Hill, including the U.S. Capitol, the Supreme Court Building, the Russell Senate Office Building and the Cannon House Office Building.
The Crypt in the U.S. Capitol Building contains forty smooth Doric columns of sandstone, which support the arches holding up the floor of the Rotunda. Also in the Capitol, Doric columns can be found in the Old Supreme Court Chamber, designed by Benjamin Latrobe. These columns are modeled on the Temple of Poseidon, which were the shortest and the strongest columns that survive from classical Greece.
The Supreme Court Building’s main corridor is known as the Great Hall, a grand rectangular vestibule that is thirty feet high and lined on both sides with double rows of fluted Doric columns. The columns rise to a coffered ceiling.
The Cannon House Office Building and Russell Senate Office Building, which are nearly identical, contain thirty-four fluted Doric columns each along their colonnades, facing the United States Capitol. Pilasters continue the Doric order along secondary elevations.