#: locale=en ## Hotspot ### Text HotspotPanoramaOverlayTextImage_3AB7077A_242E_81BD_41B6_A32BFAB66F15.text = Aides-de-Camp HotspotPanoramaOverlayTextImage_58E3D573_0D9E_85CD_4195_CD501817EFBC.text = Artistic License HotspotPanoramaOverlayTextImage_C0B3ABCD_D20D_2C16_41AB_D295D9B233A6.text = Authors of the Declaration HotspotPanoramaOverlayTextImage_48858CA9_6DCB_9539_41DA_B0754CA9EB8F.text = Baron von Steuben HotspotPanoramaOverlayTextImage_EBA85E61_C29D_E0EB_41D6_9C18CA783F46.text = Battle of Saratoga HotspotPanoramaOverlayTextImage_EBAD8E6D_C29D_E0FB_41C7_DC6A74445A1B.text = British Commanders HotspotPanoramaOverlayTextImage_4583F7E8_5986_29CB_41C0_F3700E490958.text = British Troops HotspotPanoramaOverlayTextImage_C4F2C19F_D215_DC14_41BA_FA044BB4035D.text = Charles Thomson, Secretary HotspotPanoramaOverlayTextImage_EBAAEE78_C29D_E0D9_41DF_32679A26230E.text = Colonel Daniel Morgan HotspotPanoramaOverlayTextImage_42CD4C54_0D9A_8BCB_4197_C8893F614435.text = Depicting the Event HotspotPanoramaOverlayTextImage_C77AD76F_E23B_2D98_41D2_B59FDB15B2A3.text = Depicting the Founders HotspotPanoramaOverlayTextImage_457CB0BC_5982_264A_41C1_3B814866A946.text = General George Washington \ HotspotPanoramaOverlayTextImage_EBAD8E75_C29D_E0EB_41DE_48C6DCF4AFD0.text = General Horatio Gates HotspotPanoramaOverlayTextImage_4346949E_599D_EE43_41D5_24108AF3B359.text = General Lincoln HotspotPanoramaOverlayTextImage_3B7949F0_2419_80B1_41B6_2854929D2428.text = George Washington HotspotPanoramaOverlayTextImage_3B7B35FE_243A_80B6_41C2_12B2B9D88D94.text = James Monroe HotspotPanoramaOverlayTextImage_C78465E0_D20B_2400_41E1_E9C7C68FD909.text = John Hancock HotspotPanoramaOverlayTextImage_42AD6D7A_0D8A_85AB_4176_758BD7A22262.text = John Trumbull, Artist HotspotPanoramaOverlayTextImage_2E88AC68_04A3_5B17_418E_88A3EB995796.text = Look left to view the Martin Luther King, Jr. Bust HotspotPanoramaOverlayTextImage_2B9DBC43_0365_FB24_4184_4DDA7F94BE59.text = Look left to view the Martin Luther King, Jr. Bust HotspotPanoramaOverlayTextImage_2219D63D_1F11_C5C1_41B0_7149F71F02E3.text = Look this way to view the Dwight D. Eisenhower Statue HotspotPanoramaOverlayTextImage_2218563C_1F11_C5C6_41B1_C0FC3A1A6C9E.text = Look this way to view the Dwight D. Eisenhower Statue HotspotPanoramaOverlayTextImage_5E37CB03_1F3F_43C5_41A7_6B3692CCA96D.text = Look up to view the Apotheosis of Washington HotspotPanoramaOverlayTextImage_22C7AAC9_1F30_C246_41B9_15F6DD7DFB37.text = Look up to view the Apotheosis of Washington HotspotPanoramaOverlayTextImage_4C6704A3_6DCE_9528_41C0_AD7C1AA70BAC.text = Marquis de Lafayette HotspotPanoramaOverlayTextImage_058C0488_242A_875F_41BF_FD98FEDC8B87.text = Martha Washington HotspotPanoramaOverlayTextImage_EBA94E5C_C29D_E0DA_41C9_040F312C4E3C.text = Picturing the Scene HotspotPanoramaOverlayTextImage_49CF0610_0C7A_8795_4192_FCDE5F0D5F5A.text = Siege of Yorktown HotspotPanoramaOverlayTextImage_CD98D611_D215_67AC_419B_CF70C1F04EF7.text = Signers of the Declaration HotspotPanoramaOverlayTextImage_5FDCD7BA_0D9D_84BF_4176_6B4D7C117F50.text = Significance of the Event HotspotPanoramaOverlayTextImage_C4719E42_E23D_1F88_41E7_7F66851CAC79.text = The Drafting Committee HotspotPanoramaOverlayTextImage_C77BD870_E23D_2388_41E2_B640BED4242B.text = The Second Continental Congress HotspotPanoramaOverlayTextImage_4A3D2DD4_0C75_8493_4193_93ADAA5C954C.text = The Surrender HotspotPanoramaOverlayTextImage_3A6F010D_2429_8155_41C2_74B5D6466758.text = Thomas Mifflin and Charles Thomson HotspotPanoramaOverlayTextImage_EBA92E5B_C29D_E0DE_41DE_61319FC4F17C.text = Trumbull as a Miniaturist ## 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Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery. photo_6F652398_0D9E_BD5D_4195_F213DFB9A8D4.description = Daniel Morgan (center), Elnathan Haskell (upper right), and Philip Schuyler (lower right) are featured in this grouping. Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery. album_ABFC1BC8_B4E8_2FF5_41E5_873160D39B27_6.description = In this photograph, the civil rights leaders are, from left to right: Lester Granger, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., E. Frederic Morrow, Dwight D. Eisenhower, A. Philip Randolph, William Rogers, Rocco Siciliano, and Roy Wilkins. “Photograph of President Dwight D. Eisenhower Receiving a Group of Prominent Civil Rights Leaders,” June 23, 1958. Records of the National Park Service, National Archives – Dwight D. Eisenhower Library. album_809EE8E5_B598_2833_41E1_CB0B28254172_6.description = Left: “State Statuary; A View of the Gerald R. Ford Statue in the Rotunda.” Right: “State Statuary; A View of the Harry S. Truman Statue in the Rotunda.” January 5, 2023. Architect of the Capitol. album_809EE8E5_B598_2833_41E1_CB0B28254172_4.description = Left: “State Statuary; A View of the James Garfield Statue in the Rotunda.” Right: “State Statuary; A View of the Andrew Jackson Statue in the Rotunda.” January 5, 2023. Architect of the Capitol. album_809EE8E5_B598_2833_41E1_CB0B28254172_5.description = Left: “State Statuary; A View of the Ronald Reagan Statue in the Rotunda.” Right: “State Statuary; A View of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Statue in the Rotunda.” January 5, 2023. Architect of the Capitol. album_809EE8E5_B598_2833_41E1_CB0B28254172_2.description = Left: “State Statuary; A View of the Thomas Jefferson Statue in the Rotunda.” Right: “State Statuary; A View of the George Washington Statue in the Rotunda.” January 5, 2023. Architect of the Capitol. album_809EE8E5_B598_2833_41E1_CB0B28254172_7.description = The statues of Martin Luther King Jr. and the Portrait Monument are not part of the National Statuary Hall Collection, but are displayed in the Capitol Rotunda. Left: “State Statuary; A View of the Martin Luther King Jr. Statue in the Rotunda.” Right: “State Statuary; A View of the Portrait Monument in the Rotunda.” January 5, 2023. Architect of the Capitol. album_809EE8E5_B598_2833_41E1_CB0B28254172_3.description = The statues of Ulysses S. Grant and Abraham Lincoln are not part of the National Statuary Hall Collection, but are displayed in the Rotunda. Left: “U.S. Capitol Building; A Detail View of the Ulysses S. Grant Statue,” June 30, 2023. Right: “State Statuary; A View of the Abraham Lincoln Statue in the Rotunda,” January 5, 2023. Architect of the Capitol. photo_6F657EBC_0D9E_8754_4195_6C7504A54214.description = Thomas Seymour (lower left), Ebenezer Stevens (center), William Hull (upper right), and John Brooks (lower right) are featured in this grouping. Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery. photo_6F657EBC_0D9E_8754_4195_6C7504A54214.description = Thomas Seymour (lower left), Ebenezer Stevens (center), William Hull (upper right), and John Brooks (lower right) are featured in this grouping. Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery. photo_68F6717E_0D9B_FDD8_419B_CFDB081BDC07.description = “24c Declaration of Independence Re-issue Single,” 1875. National Postal Museum, Smithsonian Institution. photo_68F6717E_0D9B_FDD8_419B_CFDB081BDC07.description = “24c Declaration of Independence Re-issue Single,” 1875. National Postal Museum, Smithsonian Institution. album_1C201485_0B95_842F_418B_A2F08C873791_2.description = “A Front View of the State House at Annapolis the Capitol of Maryland,” 1789. Library of Congress. album_1CC2DD2A_0B9A_8478_419E_6145C7770A7B_0.description = “A Plan of the Entrance of Chesapeak Bay, with James and York Rivers; wherein are shewn the respective positions (in the beginning of October). 1. of the British Army Commanded by Lord Cornwallis at Gloucester and York in Virginia; 2. of the American and French forces under General Washington; 3. and of the French Fleet under Count de Grasse” by William Faden, 1781. Library of Congress. album_ABFC1BC8_B4E8_2FF5_41E5_873160D39B27_0.description = “A View of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Bust in the Rotunda by John Wilson.” Architect of the Capitol. album_8DEA1921_B568_E827_41C8_19DC9D9D8CAC_1.description = “Aerial View of Capitol Looking due West,” 1958. Architect of the Capitol. photo_6EEB14CE_0D8A_84C2_417C_F09B0C96C990.description = “American Campaigns” by Matthew Forney Steele, 1909. Library of Congress. photo_6EEB14CE_0D8A_84C2_417C_F09B0C96C990.description = “American Campaigns” by Matthew Forney Steele, 1909. Library of Congress. photo_6EEB7F9C_0D8A_8546_4196_6A4AF37F4855.description = “American Campaigns” by Matthew Forney Steele, 1909. Library of Congress. photo_6EEB7F9C_0D8A_8546_4196_6A4AF37F4855.description = “American Campaigns” by Matthew Forney Steele, 1909. Library of Congress. photo_6EEB3124_0DB5_7D46_41A5_D2B4298FC679.description = “Amerique Septentrionale - Etat de New-York. No. 17, pl. 1. ...The Spot where Gen'al Burgoyne surrendered...” after Jacques Gerard Milbert, 19th century. Mabel Brady Garvan Collection, Yale University. photo_6EEB3124_0DB5_7D46_41A5_D2B4298FC679.description = “Amerique Septentrionale - Etat de New-York. No. 17, pl. 1. ...The Spot where Gen'al Burgoyne surrendered...” after Jacques Gerard Milbert, 19th century. Mabel Brady Garvan Collection, Yale University. album_F5A2485E_BDF8_755B_41E6_F7F1CB3E1736_7.description = “Apotheosis of Washington Restoration in the Rotunda,” July 13, 1987. Architect of the Capitol. album_F5A2485E_BDF8_755B_41E6_F7F1CB3E1736_8.description = “Apotheosis of Washington Restoration – Scaffold Elevator,” July 28, 1987. Architect of the Capitol. album_F5A2485E_BDF8_755B_41E6_F7F1CB3E1736_6.description = “Apotheosis of Washington Restoration – War,” July 13, 1987. Architect of the Capitol. photo_6EE89142_0D8A_9DC3_419E_55EA12D1AE60.description = “Battle of Saratoga” by Robert Hinshelwood, 1850. The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, New York Public Library Digital Collections. photo_6EE89142_0D8A_9DC3_419E_55EA12D1AE60.description = “Battle of Saratoga” by Robert Hinshelwood, 1850. The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, New York Public Library Digital Collections. photo_68F7915D_0D9B_BDD8_41A5_FD9D5ADC3BF3.description = “Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790), M.A. (Hon.) 1763” by John Trumbull, 1778. John Hill Morgan, B.A. 1893, LL.B. 1896, M.A. (Hon.) 1929, Fund, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. photo_68F7915D_0D9B_BDD8_41A5_FD9D5ADC3BF3.description = “Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790), M.A. (Hon.) 1763” by John Trumbull, 1778. John Hill Morgan, B.A. 1893, LL.B. 1896, M.A. (Hon.) 1929, Fund, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. album_6B3FF6CF_0D8A_873E_4190_F0264C4C2FA4_3.description = “Benjamin Franklin” by Joseph Siffred Duplessis, ca. 1785. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Gift of the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation. photo_6F6592E0_0D9E_FCEC_41A7_E2C12709F068.description = “Brigadier General John Glover” by John Trumbull, 1794. Purchased with gifts from Professor Jerome J. Pollitt, B.A. 1957, in memory of his mother, Doris Jordan Pollitt; Peter B. Cooper, B.A. 1960, LL.B. 1964, M.U.S. 1965; Evelyn H. and Robert W. Doran, B.A. 1955; Joseph G. Fogg III, B.A. 1968; Lionel Goldfrank III, B.A. 1965; Mrs. William S. Kilroy; and Ferdinand T. Stent, B.A. 1961; and with the Everett V. Meeks, B.A. 1901, Fund, Yale University Art Gallery. photo_6F6592E0_0D9E_FCEC_41A7_E2C12709F068.description = “Brigadier General John Glover” by John Trumbull, 1794. Purchased with gifts from Professor Jerome J. Pollitt, B.A. 1957, in memory of his mother, Doris Jordan Pollitt; Peter B. Cooper, B.A. 1960, LL.B. 1964, M.U.S. 1965; Evelyn H. and Robert W. Doran, B.A. 1955; Joseph G. Fogg III, B.A. 1968; Lionel Goldfrank III, B.A. 1965; Mrs. William S. Kilroy; and Ferdinand T. Stent, B.A. 1961; and with the Everett V. Meeks, B.A. 1901, Fund, Yale University Art Gallery. album_F5A2485E_BDF8_755B_41E6_F7F1CB3E1736_3.description = “Brumidi Bench Restoration in Rotunda,” August 8, 2019. Architect of the Capitol. album_ABFC1BC8_B4E8_2FF5_41E5_873160D39B27_10.description = “Bust of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by John Wilson.” Architect of the Capitol. photo_15C2779E_3453_1BB7_41A1_A9FFB88C1B0F.description = “Capitol Construction, East Front Looking North, Dome in Progress” by John Wood, 1859. Library of Congress. photo_15C2779E_3453_1BB7_41A1_A9FFB88C1B0F.description = “Capitol Construction, East Front Looking North, Dome in Progress” by John Wood, 1859. Library of Congress. photo_142069B7_3453_17F5_41C2_CAADCA410055.description = “Capitol Dome Construction” by John Wood, May 9, 1861. Library of Congress. photo_142069B7_3453_17F5_41C2_CAADCA410055.description = “Capitol Dome Construction” by John Wood, May 9, 1861. Library of Congress. album_00154D72_2469_81DF_41BE_067789062073_9.description = “Capitol Grounds and Arboretum; United States Capitol; Northwest Facing View of East Front Plaza on a Sunny Summer Late Morning,” 2024. Architect of the Capitol. album_809EE8E5_B598_2833_41E1_CB0B28254172_10.description = “Capitol Rotunda Interior Room View with New Statue of Harry S. Truman in Place; Composite Image,” November 9, 2022. Architect of the Capitol. album_00154D72_2469_81DF_41BE_067789062073_7.description = “Capitol Visitor Center Project – Excavation Progress, Looking West,” 2003. Architect of the Capitol. album_00154D72_2469_81DF_41BE_067789062073_8.description = “Capitol Visitor Center Project – Northeast Grounds, CVC Entrance. Note Landscape Fill Dirt on Left,” 2007. Architect of the Capitol. album_8DEA1921_B568_E827_41C8_19DC9D9D8CAC_3.description = “Capitol at Night,” 1917. Bain News Service. Library of Congress. photo_14225E91_3453_2D8D_4195_D02F3791B980.description = “Capitol, Washington, D.C., east front. Statue of Washington in foreground” by Andrew J. Russell, 1863. Library of Congress. photo_14225E91_3453_2D8D_4195_D02F3791B980.description = “Capitol, Washington, D.C., east front. Statue of Washington in foreground” by Andrew J. Russell, 1863. Library of Congress. photo_6EAA7FE4_632C_4855_41CE_96F7B198EFE9.description = “Capitol, Washington, D.C., north-east view. Dome and front unfinished” by Andrew J. Russell, 1863. Library of Congress. photo_6EAA7FE4_632C_4855_41CE_96F7B198EFE9.description = “Capitol, Washington, D.C., north-east view. Dome and front unfinished” by Andrew J. Russell, 1863. Library of Congress. album_6B3FF6CF_0D8A_873E_4190_F0264C4C2FA4_1.description = “Chancellor Robert R. Livingston” by Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin after Thomas Bluget de Valdenuit, 1796. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon. album_6B3FF6CF_0D8A_873E_4190_F0264C4C2FA4_6.description = “Charles Thomson” by B. B. Ellis after Pierre Eugène Du Simitière, 1783. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. album_ABFC1BC8_B4E8_2FF5_41E5_873160D39B27_3.description = “Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mathew Ahmann in a crowd” by Rowland Scherman, August 28, 1963. Records of the U.S. Information Agency, National Archives at College Park – Still Pictures. album_ABFC1BC8_B4E8_2FF5_41E5_873160D39B27_4.description = “Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. Leaders of the march posing in front of the statue of Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln Memorial” by Rowland Scherman, August 28, 1963. Records of the U.S. Information Agency, National Archives at College Park – Still Pictures. album_ABFC1BC8_B4E8_2FF5_41E5_873160D39B27_2.description = “Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking” by Rowland Scherman, August 28, 1963. Records of the U.S. Information Agency, National Archives at College Park – Still Pictures. album_ABFC1BC8_B4E8_2FF5_41E5_873160D39B27_7.description = “Civil rights leaders meet with President John F. Kennedy in the oval office of the White House after the March on Washington, D.C.” by Warren Leffler, 1963. Library of Congress. album_F5A2485E_BDF8_755B_41E6_F7F1CB3E1736_2.description = “Conservation of Portion of the Declaration of Independence by John Trumbull,” July 6, 2017. Architect of the Capitol. album_F5A2485E_BDF8_755B_41E6_F7F1CB3E1736_1.description = “Conservation of Portion of the Declaration of Independence by John Trumbull,” July 6, 2017. Architect of the Capitol. album_F5A2485E_BDF8_755B_41E6_F7F1CB3E1736_0.description = “Conservation of the Frame for the Landing of Columbus in the Rotunda Showing Scaffolding and Work Area. Note – East Rotunda Door Blocked for Construction of the Capitol Visitor Center,” February 23, 2005. Architect of the Capitol. photo_1422908D_3453_3595_41C0_9A3A498FFD30.description = “Construction of Capitol dome” by John Wood, ca. 1860–1863. Library of Congress. photo_1422908D_3453_3595_41C0_9A3A498FFD30.description = “Construction of Capitol dome” by John Wood, ca. 1860–1863. Library of Congress. album_1CD8F070_0B95_9CE6_419B_4369319BB6AC_2.description = “Continental Congress to George Washington, December 23, 1783, Answer to George Washington's Resignation Address.” George Washington Papers, Series 3, Varick Transcripts, 1775–1785, Subseries 3A, Continental and State Military Personnel, 1775–1783, Letterbook 7: Jan. 3, 1783–Dec. 23, 1783, pages 164–166, by George Washington, 1783. Library of Congress. album_1C201485_0B95_842F_418B_A2F08C873791_0.description = “Continental Congress to George Washington, June 19, 1775, Commission as Commander in Chief.” George Washington Papers. Manuscript Division, Library of Congress. album_1D57372B_0B9F_8478_419B_E39A81660333_0.description = “Cornwallis” by Benjamin Smith after John Singleton Copley, 1798. Gift of Mrs. Francis. P. Garvan, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. album_00154D72_2469_81DF_41BE_067789062073_2.description = “Dome Restoration – Phase 2 – Dome Scaffold –New Prime Paint Application,” 2015. Architect of the Capitol. album_F5A2485E_BDF8_755B_41E6_F7F1CB3E1736_10.description = “Dome Restoration – Phase 2 – Rotunda After Installation of Protective Netting, Art Protection Removed,” May 10, 2014. Architect of the Capitol. album_F5A2485E_BDF8_755B_41E6_F7F1CB3E1736_9.description = “Dome Restoration – Phase 2 – Rotunda, After Re-Opening, with Protective Netting in Place,” May 7, 2014. Architect of the Capitol. album_00154D72_2469_81DF_41BE_067789062073_3.description = “Dome Restoration,” 2015. Architect of the Capitol. photo_65EC0DC7_0D97_852B_4170_CE914F296C0B.description = “Dunlap Broadside; Declaration of Independence,” printed by John Dunlap, July 4, 1776. Records of the Continental and Confederation Congresses and the Constitutional Convention, National Archives at Washington, DC. photo_65EC0DC7_0D97_852B_4170_CE914F296C0B.description = “Dunlap Broadside; Declaration of Independence,” printed by John Dunlap, July 4, 1776. Records of the Continental and Confederation Congresses and the Constitutional Convention, National Archives at Washington, DC. album_00154D72_2469_81DF_41BE_067789062073_0.description = “East Front Extension Dome Repairs; Capitol Dome During Paint Stripping and Priming with Red Lead Primer Prior to Painting,” November 19, 1959. Architect of the Capitol. album_00154D72_2469_81DF_41BE_067789062073_1.description = “East Front Extension Dome Repairs; Dome Coated with Red Lead Primer Prior to Painting,” May 24, 1960. Architect of the Capitol. album_8DEA1921_B568_E827_41C8_19DC9D9D8CAC_0.description = “East Front of Capitol with Large Flag on Dome for G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic) Reunion,” 1915. Architect of the Capitol. photo_142252A0_3453_358C_41A8_CC48E322A934.description = “East front from grounds. Progressive views of dome, no. iii. Columns of peristyle in position” by John Wood, 1858. Library of Congress. photo_142252A0_3453_358C_41A8_CC48E322A934.description = “East front from grounds. Progressive views of dome, no. iii. Columns of peristyle in position” by John Wood, 1858. Library of Congress. photo_68BCBCCB_0D97_8B3B_41A5_2E344CFF29D9.description = “Engrossed Declaration of Independence,” August 2, 1776. Records of the Continental and Confederation Congresses and the Constitutional Convention, National Archives at Washington, DC. photo_68BCBCCB_0D97_8B3B_41A5_2E344CFF29D9.description = “Engrossed Declaration of Independence,” August 2, 1776. Records of the Continental and Confederation Congresses and the Constitutional Convention, National Archives at Washington, DC. photo_68BA83B3_0D97_9D6B_41A4_F64093C27191.description = “Facsimile of the Declaration of Independence,” 1974. Records of the National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives at College Park – Still Pictures. photo_68BA83B3_0D97_9D6B_41A4_F64093C27191.description = “Facsimile of the Declaration of Independence,” 1974. Records of the National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives at College Park – Still Pictures. photo_68F7A6A3_0D9B_8768_4194_40287050E8C2.description = “First Idea of Declaration of Independence, Paris, Sept. 1786” by John Trumbull, 1786. Gift of Mr. Ernest A. Bigelow, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. photo_68F7A6A3_0D9B_8768_4194_40287050E8C2.description = “First Idea of Declaration of Independence, Paris, Sept. 1786” by John Trumbull, 1786. Gift of Mr. Ernest A. Bigelow, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. photo_1422651D_3453_3CB4_41C9_702E18A277E1.description = “From north west. Progressive view of dome, no. 1” by John Wood, ca. 1856. Library of Congress. photo_1422651D_3453_3CB4_41C9_702E18A277E1.description = “From north west. Progressive view of dome, no. 1” by John Wood, ca. 1856. Library of Congress. album_1D57372B_0B9F_8478_419B_E39A81660333_2.description = “Gen. Charles O'Hara,” ca. 1777–1890. The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. album_1D57372B_0B9F_8478_419B_E39A81660333_1.description = “General Benjamin Lincoln” by John Rubens Smith after Henry Sargent, 1811. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. album_1CBDC216_0B9A_9C2B_4195_C5419822AF84_3.description = “General George Washington at Trenton” by John Trumbull, 1792. Gift of the Society of the Cincinnati in Connecticut, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. album_8DEA1921_B568_E827_41C8_19DC9D9D8CAC_4.description = “General of the Armies John J. Pershing 1860 to 1948 Lies in State in the Capitol, Sunday,...a portion of the long que [i.e. queue] of people standing four and five abreast from First Street to the Capitol steps, waiting to pay their respects to the great soldier,” 1948. Library of Congress. album_1CD8F070_0B95_9CE6_419B_4369319BB6AC_1.description = “George Washington, December 23, 1783, Resignation Address.” George Washington Papers, Series 3, Varick Transcripts, 1775–1785, Subseries 3A, Continental and State Military Personnel, 1775–1783, Letterbook 7: Jan. 3, 1783–Dec. 23, 1783, pages 162–163, by George Washington, 1783. Library of Congress. album_13DDBA4F_0B97_8C3A_4195_3BB4AC7D2C84_2.description = “George Washington” by John Trumbull, ca. 1793. National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. album_6B3FF6CF_0D8A_873E_4190_F0264C4C2FA4_8.description = “In Congress, July 4. The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America,” printed by Mary Katharine Goddard, 1777. Goddard, M. K. & Continental Congress Broadside Collection, Library of Congress. album_1D57372B_0B9F_8478_419B_E39A81660333_3.description = “Jean Baptiste de Rochambeau” by Joseph Desire Court. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; transfer from the National Gallery of Art; Gift of the A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, 1942. photo_68F65C87_0D9B_8B28_4170_3405C1C81C08.description = “John Adams (1735–1826), LL.D. 1788” by John Trumbull, 1793. Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. photo_68F65C87_0D9B_8B28_4170_3405C1C81C08.description = “John Adams (1735–1826), LL.D. 1788” by John Trumbull, 1793. Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. album_6B3FF6CF_0D8A_873E_4190_F0264C4C2FA4_2.description = “John Adams” by Gilbert Stuart, ca. 1800/1815. Gift of Mrs. Robert Homans, National Gallery of Art. album_6B3FF6CF_0D8A_873E_4190_F0264C4C2FA4_5.description = “John Hancock” by William Smith after John Singleton Copley, 1775. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. album_1CBDC216_0B9A_9C2B_4195_C5419822AF84_1.description = “John Trumbull” by Robert Ball Hughes, ca. 1834–after 1840s. University Purchase, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. album_1CBDC216_0B9A_9C2B_4195_C5419822AF84_4.description = “Jonathan Trumbull, Jr. (1740–1809), LL.D. 1797” by John Trumbull, 1792. Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. album_6459DA58_0D8A_8FD5_4183_CF5C1A481DB4_0.description = “Landscape Study for The Surrender of General Burgoyne at Saratoga, New York” by John Trumbull, 1791. Charles Allen Munn Collection, Fordham University Library, Bronx, New York. album_1CD8F070_0B95_9CE6_419B_4369319BB6AC_0.description = “Letter from General George Washington to the President of Congress Regarding the Resignation of His Commission,” December 20, 1783. Records of the Continental and Confederation Congresses and the Constitutional Convention, National Archives at Washington, DC. photo_6F59ACCC_0D9E_8B34_419F_5933D20F7617.description = “Major Lithgow” by John Trumbull, ca. 1791. Gift of Mrs. Winchester Bennett, Yale University Art Gallery. photo_6F59ACCC_0D9E_8B34_419F_5933D20F7617.description = “Major Lithgow” by John Trumbull, ca. 1791. Gift of Mrs. Winchester Bennett, Yale University Art Gallery. album_13DDBA4F_0B97_8C3A_4195_3BB4AC7D2C84_3.description = “Martha Washington (née Martha Dandridge, formerly Martha Parke Custis, 1731–1802)” by John Trumbull, 1792. Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. album_ABFC1BC8_B4E8_2FF5_41E5_873160D39B27_1.description = “Martin Luther King Press Conference” by Warren K. Leffler, March 2, 1965. Library of Congress. album_ABFC1BC8_B4E8_2FF5_41E5_873160D39B27_9.description = “Martin Luther King, Jr., half-length portrait, facing left, speaking at microphones, during anti-war demonstration, New York City / World Journal Tribune” by Don Rice, 1967. Library of Congress. photo_6F65F8B3_0D9E_8B53_41A5_E5D41D8106B9.description = “Philip John Schuyler (1733–1804)” by John Trumbull, 1792. Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery. photo_6F65F8B3_0D9E_8B53_41A5_E5D41D8106B9.description = “Philip John Schuyler (1733–1804)” by John Trumbull, 1792. Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery. album_ABFC1BC8_B4E8_2FF5_41E5_873160D39B27_5.description = “Photograph of Leaders at the Head of the Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C.,” August 28, 1963. Records of the U.S. Information Agency, National Archives at College Park – Still Pictures. album_1C201485_0B95_842F_418B_A2F08C873791_1.description = “Pictures from the Life of George Washington,” Harper’s Weekly, v. 8, February 27, 1864. Digitized by University of Michigan. Retrieved from HathiTrust. album_1CC2DD2A_0B9A_8478_419E_6145C7770A7B_1.description = “Plan de l'Armée de Cornwallis Attaquée et Faitte Prisonière dans York Town, le 19 8bre par l'Armée Combinée Francaise et Americaine” by Georges-Louis Le Rouge, 1781. Library of Congress. photo_6EEFD813_0DB5_8B41_41A9_439556EFF9E9.description = “Plan of the position taken by Genl. Burgoyne on the 10̂th of Octr. 1777” by Isaac Chapman (drafter) and Gideon Fairman (engraver), 1818. Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, New York Public Library Digital Collections. photo_6EEFD813_0DB5_8B41_41A9_439556EFF9E9.description = “Plan of the position taken by Genl. Burgoyne on the 10̂th of Octr. 1777” by Isaac Chapman (drafter) and Gideon Fairman (engraver), 1818. Lionel Pincus and Princess Firyal Map Division, New York Public Library Digital Collections. album_ABFC1BC8_B4E8_2FF5_41E5_873160D39B27_8.description = “President Lyndon B. Johnson Signs the Voting Rights Act as Martin Luther King Jr. and Other Civil Rights Leaders Look on, President's Room, U.S. Capitol, Washington, DC,” August 6, 1965. White House Photo Office Collection, National Archives – Lyndon Baines Johnson Library. album_1CC2DD2A_0B9A_8478_419E_6145C7770A7B_4.description = “Prise de Yorktown = The Taking of Yorktown / Lith. de Turgis à Paris,” ca. 1840. Library of Congress. photo_14225722_3453_3C8F_41C3_4C255755229B.description = “Progressive view of dome, first column on roof, 2; east front from Senate north wing roof, looking south” by John Wood, 1857. Library of Congress. photo_14225722_3453_3C8F_41C3_4C255755229B.description = “Progressive view of dome, first column on roof, 2; east front from Senate north wing roof, looking south” by John Wood, 1857. Library of Congress. album_1CC2DD2A_0B9A_8478_419E_6145C7770A7B_3.description = “Reddition de l'Armée Angoloise Commandée par[BK2.1]...Cornwallis... (Surrender),” 1781. Mabel Brady Garvan Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. photo_6F65C6D0_0D9E_872C_4179_EECDCC774B34.description = “Rev. W. Hitchcock” by John Trumbull, 1791. Gift of Mrs. Winchester Bennett, Yale University Art Gallery. photo_6F65C6D0_0D9E_872C_4179_EECDCC774B34.description = “Rev. W. Hitchcock” by John Trumbull, 1791. Gift of Mrs. Winchester Bennett, Yale University Art Gallery. photo_68F678D9_0D9B_8CD8_419C_EF10110CA055.description = “Reverse of 2 U.S. Dollar Banknote.” Ruslan – stock.adobe.com. photo_68F678D9_0D9B_8CD8_419C_EF10110CA055.description = “Reverse of 2 U.S. Dollar Banknote.” Ruslan – stock.adobe.com. album_6B3FF6CF_0D8A_873E_4190_F0264C4C2FA4_0.description = “Roger Sherman” by unidentified artist after Ralph Earl, ca. mid–late 19th century. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Gift of Mr. Bradley B. Gilman. album_F5A2485E_BDF8_755B_41E6_F7F1CB3E1736_11.description = “Rotunda Restoration – Rotunda Showing Completion of the Scaffold Below the Netting, Prior to Reopening to Public,” September 5, 2015. Architect of the Capitol. photo_6F65CEA4_0D9E_8774_4180_B4F55718285E.description = “Rufus Putnam (1738–1824)” by John Trumbull, 1790. Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery. photo_6F65CEA4_0D9E_8774_4180_B4F55718285E.description = “Rufus Putnam (1738–1824)” by John Trumbull, 1790. Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery. album_6459DA58_0D8A_8FD5_4183_CF5C1A481DB4_2.description = “Sarratoga [i.e. Saratoga] : le 17 octobre le général Burgoine [i.e. Burgoyne] avec 6040 soldats bien disciplinés met bas les armes devant les milices Americaines nouvellement tirées de l'agricluture et conduite[s] par Horatio Gates” by François Godefroy, ca. 1784. The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, New York Public Library Digital Collections. album_1CBDC216_0B9A_9C2B_4195_C5419822AF84_0.description = “Self-Portrait” by John Trumbull, ca. 1802. Gift of Marshall H. Clyde, Jr., Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. album_13DDBA4F_0B97_8C3A_4195_3BB4AC7D2C84_0.description = “Sketch for the Interior of the Maryland State House, Annapolis” by John Trumbull, 1783. Gift of the Associates in Fine Arts, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. album_6459DA58_0D8A_8FD5_4183_CF5C1A481DB4_1.description = “Sketch of General Gates Marquee” by John Trumbull, 1791. Charles Allen Munn Collection, Fordham University Library, Bronx, New York. album_13DDBA4F_0B97_8C3A_4195_3BB4AC7D2C84_1.description = “Sketch of a Column for the Maryland State House, Annapolis” by John Trumbull, 1783. Gift of the Associates in Fine Arts, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. album_809EE8E5_B598_2833_41E1_CB0B28254172_0.description = “State Statuary; A View of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Statue in the Rotunda,” January 5, 2023. Architect of the Capitol. album_00154D72_2469_81DF_41BE_067789062073_4.description = “Statue of Freedom Restoration – Statue Removal – Helicopter with Statue of Freedom Lifted from Dome,” 1993. Architect of the Capitol. album_00154D72_2469_81DF_41BE_067789062073_5.description = “Statue of Freedom Restoration – Statue Removal – view from East Plaza showing Statue of Freedom on Restoration Platform after being removed from Capitol Dome,” 1993. Architect of the Capitol. album_00154D72_2469_81DF_41BE_067789062073_6.description = “Statue of Freedom Restoration – Statue from Front, East Plaza, after Conservation,” 1993. Architect of the Capitol. album_1CBDC216_0B9A_9C2B_4195_C5419822AF84_2.description = “Study for the Figure of Count Deuxponts of the French Infantry from the Surrender of Lord Cornwallis (with notes on uniform, colours)” by John Trumbull. Gift of the Associates in Fine Arts, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. album_6459DA58_0D8A_8FD5_4183_CF5C1A481DB4_3.description = “Surrender at Saratoga” by François Godefroy, ca. 1784. Library of Congress. album_1CBDC216_0B9A_9C2B_4195_C5419822AF84_5.description = “The Battle of Bunker's Hill, June 17, 1775” by John Trumbull, 1786. Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. photo_14226918_3453_34BB_41C4_7E5D8468D994.description = “The Capitol a barrack, "National Guard" D.C. Militia, Capt. Tate” by John Wood, 1861. Library of Congress. photo_14226918_3453_34BB_41C4_7E5D8468D994.description = “The Capitol a barrack, "National Guard" D.C. Militia, Capt. Tate” by John Wood, 1861. Library of Congress. photo_69621F96_0D9B_8528_41A9_9BA84B5789B4.description = “The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America” by Asher Brown Durand after John Trumbull, 1820. Gift of Waleska Evans James, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. photo_69621F96_0D9B_8528_41A9_9BA84B5789B4.description = “The Declaration of Independence of the United States of America” by Asher Brown Durand after John Trumbull, 1820. Gift of Waleska Evans James, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. album_6B3FF6CF_0D8A_873E_4190_F0264C4C2FA4_7.description = “The Manner in which the American Colonies Declared Themselves Independent of the King of England, throughout the Different Provinces, on July 4, 1776” by Noble after Hugh Douglas Hamilton, 1783. Library Transfer, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. album_1D57372B_0B9F_8478_419B_E39A81660333_4.description = “The Surrender of Earl Cornwallis (Lieutenant General of the British Army in North America) to General Washington & Count De Rochambeau, on the 19th of October, 1781, from Barnard's New, Complete and Authentic History of England” by T. Thornton after William Hamilton, ca. 1781–83, or 1791. Bequest of Charles Allen Munn, 1924, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. album_6459DA58_0D8A_8FD5_4183_CF5C1A481DB4_4.description = “The Yanke's Triumph, or B----e beat” by Henry Bryan Hall and James Barton Longacre (printmakers), ca. 1777–1871. The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, New York Public Library Digital Collections. photo_6A193B33_0DB5_8D41_416E_5617812F3F8B.description = “The encampment & position of the army under His Excy. Lt. Gl: Burgoyne at Swords's and Freeman's Farms on Hudsons River near Stillwater” by William Cumberland Wilkinson, 1777. Library of Congress. photo_6A193B33_0DB5_8D41_416E_5617812F3F8B.description = “The encampment & position of the army under His Excy. Lt. Gl: Burgoyne at Swords's and Freeman's Farms on Hudsons River near Stillwater” by William Cumberland Wilkinson, 1777. Library of Congress. photo_68BA91B3_0D97_FD6B_4186_89814CB41DBE.description = “Thomas Jefferson Statue by David d’Angers; Close-Up of Declaration of Independence,” 2020. Architect of the Capitol. photo_68BA91B3_0D97_FD6B_4186_89814CB41DBE.description = “Thomas Jefferson Statue by David d’Angers; Close-Up of Declaration of Independence,” 2020. Architect of the Capitol. album_6B3FF6CF_0D8A_873E_4190_F0264C4C2FA4_4.description = “Thomas Jefferson” by Gilbert Stuart, ca. 1821. Gift of Thomas Jefferson Coolidge IV in memory of his great-grandfather, Thomas Jefferson Coolidge; his grandfather, Thomas Jefferson Coolidge II; and his father, Thomas Jefferson Coolidge III, National Gallery of Art. photo_68F66486_0D9B_9B28_41A3_157EE45C0A91.description = “Thomas Jefferson” by John Trumbull, 1788. Bequest of Cornelia Cruger, 1923, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. photo_68F66486_0D9B_9B28_41A3_157EE45C0A91.description = “Thomas Jefferson” by John Trumbull, 1788. Bequest of Cornelia Cruger, 1923, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. album_13DDBA4F_0B97_8C3A_4195_3BB4AC7D2C84_4.description = “Thomas Mifflin” by John Trumbull, 1790. Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. photo_6A42C770_0D9E_85ED_418B_57474B9037D0.description = “Thomas Youngs Seymour (1757–1811), B.A. 1777” by John Trumbull, 1793. Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery. photo_6A42C770_0D9E_85ED_418B_57474B9037D0.description = “Thomas Youngs Seymour (1757–1811), B.A. 1777” by John Trumbull, 1793. Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery. album_1CC2DD2A_0B9A_8478_419E_6145C7770A7B_2.description = “To His Excellency Genl. Washington, Commander in Chief of the Armies of the United States of America. This plan of the investment of York and Gloucester has been surveyed and laid down” by Sebastian Bauman and Robert Scot, 1782. Library of Congress. photo_781E2A29_2F8A_55A1_41C6_41913FC87368.description = “Treaty of Paris,” pages 1 and 16, September 3, 1783. General Records of the United States Government, National Archives at Washington, DC. photo_781E2A29_2F8A_55A1_41C6_41913FC87368.description = “Treaty of Paris,” pages 1 and 16, September 3, 1783. General Records of the United States Government, National Archives at Washington, DC. album_F5A2485E_BDF8_755B_41E6_F7F1CB3E1736_5.description = “U.S. Capitol Building; Rotunda; A View of the Benches Along the West Side of the Rotunda During Upholstery Repairs,” August 8, 2025. Architect of the Capitol. album_809EE8E5_B598_2833_41E1_CB0B28254172_8.description = “U.S. Capitol Building; Rotunda; A View of the Martin Luther King Jr. Bust Showing It in Context to Other Statuary,” March 25, 2024. Architect of the Capitol. album_F5A2485E_BDF8_755B_41E6_F7F1CB3E1736_4.description = “U.S. Capitol Building; Rotunda; Architectural Details in the Rotunda and East and West Vestibules – Rotunda Images – Composite Image,” October 6, 2023. Architect of the Capitol. album_8DEA1921_B568_E827_41C8_19DC9D9D8CAC_5.description = “U.S. Capitol Exteriors. U.S. Capitol during Blackout I” by Theodor Horydczak, 1942. Library of Congress. album_809EE8E5_B598_2833_41E1_CB0B28254172_9.description = “U.S. Capitol Rotunda; West Facing Summer Morning View of Statues of Ulysses S. Grant and Abraham Lincoln at Either Side of the Doorway to Stairs to Crypt,” June 14, 2021. Architect of the Capitol. album_400087FE_5223_06CD_41CA_B369674CAB78_2.description = “United States Capitol, East Front Elevation” by John Plumbe, ca. 1846. Library of Congress. album_6E8D30DF_632C_5873_41B7_1BD504C3DC9F.description = “United States Capitol” by John Plumbe, 1846. The J. Paul Getty Museum Collection. album_809EE8E5_B598_2833_41E1_CB0B28254172_1.description = “Unveiling Ceremony for the Statue of General Dwight D. Eisenhower” Image of Artist Jim Brothers, June 4, 2003. Architect of the Capitol. album_8DEA1921_B568_E827_41C8_19DC9D9D8CAC_2.description = “View from Center of Plaza Drive and Its Intersection with the Plaza,” 1979. Architect of the Capitol. photo_6EEBFC9E_0DB5_8B42_4192_F2920AC99687.description = “View of the West Bank of the Hudson's River, 3 Miles above Still Water, Upon which is the Army under the Command of Lt. Gen. Burgoyne (Showing General Frazer's Funeral)” after Francis Barlow, 1789. Mabel Brady Garvan Collection, Yale University. photo_6EEBFC9E_0DB5_8B42_4192_F2920AC99687.description = “View of the West Bank of the Hudson's River, 3 Miles above Still Water, Upon which is the Army under the Command of Lt. Gen. Burgoyne (Showing General Frazer's Funeral)” after Francis Barlow, 1789. Mabel Brady Garvan Collection, Yale University. album_00154D72_2469_81DF_41BE_067789062073_10.description = “Visitor Guide Leads an Outdoor Tour of the Capitol Grounds,” 2025. Architect of the Capitol. album_400087FE_5223_06CD_41CA_B369674CAB78_3.description = “Washington – Capitol (East View)” by August Köllner, lithograph by Isidore Laurent Deroy, 1848. Smithsonian American Art Museum, gift of International Business Machines Corporation. album_400087FE_5223_06CD_41CA_B369674CAB78_0.description = “Washington, Capitol” by August Köllner, lithograph by Isidore Laurent Deroy, 1848. The George Washington University Museum, Washington, D.C., AS 69, The Albert H. Small Washingtoniana Collection. Photography by Breton Littlehales. photo_14225B19_3453_34BD_41BE_7F0BC8307B8B.description = “West facade from Botanical Gardens” by John Wood, November 16, 1860. Library of Congress. photo_14225B19_3453_34BD_41BE_7F0BC8307B8B.description = “West facade from Botanical Gardens” by John Wood, November 16, 1860. Library of Congress. photo_6E8BB92E_632C_49D5_41D8_345B02A507D6.description = “West front of the U.S. Capitol at Washington, D.C., as it appeared the moment the statue was completed, and placed in position by Charles F. Thomas,” December 2, 1863. Library of Congress. photo_6E8BB92E_632C_49D5_41D8_345B02A507D6.description = “West front of the U.S. Capitol at Washington, D.C., as it appeared the moment the statue was completed, and placed in position by Charles F. Thomas,” December 2, 1863. Library of Congress. album_8DEA1921_B568_E827_41C8_19DC9D9D8CAC_6.description = “Women’s Army Corps Take Oath on Capitol Steps,” 1943. Harris & Ewing. Library of Congress. photo_6EEBBA6A_0DB5_8FC2_41A4_EBEAE139B54B.description = “Zehn Karten und Ansichten den Schlachtfelden des amerikanischen Unabhängigkeitskreiges in den Staaten Pennsylvanien und New York” by Johann Martin Will, ca. 1777. Library of Congress. photo_6EEBBA6A_0DB5_8FC2_41A4_EBEAE139B54B.description = “Zehn Karten und Ansichten den Schlachtfelden des amerikanischen Unabhängigkeitskreiges in den Staaten Pennsylvanien und New York” by Johann Martin Will, ca. 1777. 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[BL1.1]of the British Army Commanded by Lord Cornwallis at Gloucester and York in Virginia; 2. of the American and French forces under General Washington; 3. and of the French Fleet under Count de Grasse” by William Faden, 1781. 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Detail of the repair Trumbull made to the right foot of Colonel Daniel Morgan in the “Surrender of General Burgoyne” painting. Architect of the Capitol.
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Examples of miniatures and portrait studies that Trumbull used to compose this painting. Miniatures and sketches courtesy of the Trumbull Collection at Yale University Art Gallery.
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These five miniatures were done in preparation for The Treaty of Peace, an unexecuted painting commemorating the 1783 accord signed in Paris that ended the Revolutionary War. John Trumbull, Artist, 1793. Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
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These five miniatures were done in preparation for The Treaty of Peace, an unexecuted painting commemorating the 1783 accord signed in Paris that ended the Revolutionary War. John Trumbull, Artist, 1793. Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
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These five miniatures were done in preparation for The Treaty of Peace, an unexecuted painting commemorating the 1783 accord signed in Paris that ended the Revolutionary War. John Trumbull, Artist, 1793. Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
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“The Surrender of General Burgoyne at Saratoga, October 16, 1777” by John Trumbull, ca. 1822–32. Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
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“General George Washington at Trenton” by John Trumbull, 1792. Gift of the Society of the Cincinnati in Connecticut, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
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“General George Washington at Trenton” by John Trumbull, 1792. Gift of the Society of the Cincinnati in Connecticut, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
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“General George Washington at Trenton” by John Trumbull, 1792. Gift of the Society of the Cincinnati in Connecticut, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
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“General George Washington at Trenton” by John Trumbull, 1792. Gift of the Society of the Cincinnati in Connecticut, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
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“Self-Portrait” by John Trumbull, ca. 1802. Gift of Marshall H. Clyde, Jr., Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut..
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“Self-Portrait” by John Trumbull, ca. 1802. Gift of Marshall H. Clyde, Jr., Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut..
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“Self-Portrait” by John Trumbull, ca. 1802. Gift of Marshall H. Clyde, Jr., Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut..
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“Self-Portrait” by John Trumbull, ca. 1802. Gift of Marshall H. Clyde, Jr., Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut..
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“First Idea of Declaration of Independence, Paris, Sept. 1786” by John Trumbull, 1786. Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut. Collection, Fordham University Library. Bronx, New York.
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“Sketch of a Column for the Maryland State House, Annapolis” by John Trumbull, 1783. Gift of the Associates in Fine Arts, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
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“The Battle of Bunker's Hill, June 17, 1775” by John Trumbull, 1786. Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
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“The Battle of Bunker's Hill, June 17, 1775” by John Trumbull, 1786. Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
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“The Battle of Bunker's Hill, June 17, 1775” by John Trumbull, 1786. Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
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“The Battle of Bunker's Hill, June 17, 1775” by John Trumbull, 1786. Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
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“The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776” by John Trumbull, 1786–1820. Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
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“Sketch of a Column for the Maryland State House, Annapolis” by John Trumbull, 1783. Gift of the Associates in Fine Arts, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
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“The Surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, October 19, 1781” by John Trumbull, 1787–ca. 1828. Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
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“Landscape Study for The Surrender of General Burgoyne at Saratoga, New York” by John Trumbull, 1791. Charles Allen Munn Collection, Fordham University Library. Bronx, New York.
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“Edward the Black Prince Receiving King John of France After the Battle of Poitiers” by Benjamin West, 1788. Royal Collection Trust.
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“Design for Capitol Rotunda,” drawing by Charles Bulfinch, ca. 1860. Architect of the Capitol.
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Detail of the repair Trumbull made to the right foot of Colonel Daniel Morgan in the “Surrender of General Burgoyne” painting. Architect of the Capitol.
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Examples of miniatures and portrait studies that Trumbull used to compose this painting. Miniatures and sketches courtesy of the Trumbull Collection at Yale University Art Gallery.
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“General George Washington at Trenton” by John Trumbull, 1792. Gift of the Society of the Cincinnati in Connecticut, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
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“General George Washington at Trenton” by John Trumbull, 1792. Gift of the Society of the Cincinnati in Connecticut, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
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“General George Washington at Trenton” by John Trumbull, 1792. Gift of the Society of the Cincinnati in Connecticut, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
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“General George Washington at Trenton” by John Trumbull, 1792. Gift of the Society of the Cincinnati in Connecticut, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
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“Self-Portrait” by John Trumbull, ca. 1802. Gift of Marshall H. Clyde, Jr., Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
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“Self-Portrait” by John Trumbull, ca. 1802. Gift of Marshall H. Clyde, Jr., Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
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“Self-Portrait” by John Trumbull, ca. 1802. Gift of Marshall H. Clyde, Jr., Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
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“Self-Portrait” by John Trumbull, ca. 1802. Gift of Marshall H. Clyde, Jr., Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
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“First Idea of Declaration of Independence, Paris, Sept. 1786” by John Trumbull, 1786. Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
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“Sketch for the Interior of the Maryland State House, Annapolis” by John Trumbull, 1783. Gift of the Associates in Fine Arts, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
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“The Battle of Bunker's Hill, June 17, 1775” by John Trumbull, 1786. Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
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“The Battle of Bunker's Hill, June 17, 1775” by John Trumbull, 1786. Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
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“The Battle of Bunker's Hill, June 17, 1775” by John Trumbull, 1786. Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
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“The Battle of Bunker's Hill, June 17, 1775” by John Trumbull, 1786. Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
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“The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776” by John Trumbull, 1786–1820. Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
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“Sketch of a Column for the Maryland State House, Annapolis” by John Trumbull, 1783. Gift of the Associates in Fine Arts, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
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“The Surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, October 19, 1781” by John Trumbull, 1787–ca. 1828. Trumbull Collection, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
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“Landscape Study for The Surrender of General Burgoyne at Saratoga, New York” by John Trumbull, 1791. Charles Allen Munn Collection, Fordham University Library. Bronx, New York.
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“Edward the Black Prince Receiving King John of France After the Battle of Poitiers” by Benjamin West, 1788. Royal Collection Trust.
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“Design for Capitol Rotunda,” drawing by Charles Bulfinch, ca. 1860. Architect of the Capitol.
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Portrait Monument
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JUMP TO:
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20th Century (1953-1997)
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Bulfinch Dome (1824 -1855)
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Walter Construction (1863-1952)
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From the outset of the commission, Trumbull faced technical challenges in creating such large paintings. He chose for his canvas a durable linen used for top gallant sails of a warship and specified a wooden support panel of seasoned mahogany or cedar. When he arrived at the Capitol in 1824 and saw the opening in the Rotunda floor, he realized that the outside damp air rising into the space would damage his canvases, which were installed in 1826.


The floor aperture was closed in 1828, and Congress hired Trumbull to make major repairs to all four paintings. The canvases were removed from their frames and laid out to dry. Based on research on Egyptian mummification, Trumbull specified that to prevent mold from reoccurring on the reverse of the canvases they should be impregnated with a mixture of wax and turpentine. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries the paintings were cleaned, restored, varnished, and relined numerous times.


If you look closely at the right foot of Colonel Daniel Morgan (dressed in white and standing at the head of the officers gathered at the tent), you can see a repair that Trumbull made. He had to patch this missing piece of painted canvas, which was cut out with a sharp instrument, most likely a penknife.
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General Burgoyne’s surrender was among the subjects John Trumbull selected for a series of history paintings when in 1785 he began to “meditate seriously the subjects of national history, of events of the Revolution.” In September of that year, Trumbull wrote his brother that he was thinking of scenes related to the 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. Today the scene looks very different from Trumbull’s drawing.
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He excelled as a miniaturist, possibly because he was left blind in one eye after a childhood accident.
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He excelled as a miniaturist, possibly because he was left blind in one eye after a childhood accident.
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He excelled as a miniaturist, possibly because he was left blind in one eye after a childhood accident.
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He excelled as a miniaturist, possibly because he was left blind in one eye after a childhood accident.
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In 1817, Congress commissioned John Trumbull to undertake four paintings for the Capitol Rotunda, the first such commission made to an American artist for a space that was not yet built, and the first instance when Congress was a patron of the arts. Trumbull viewed himself as a Patriot-Artist and a pictorial historian. As early as 1785 at the age of 29, Trumbull wrote in a letter to his brother, “The great object of my wishes…is to take up the History of Our country, and paint the principal events particularly of the late War.” Trumbull dedicated himself to a modern form of history painting—real American heroes in contemporary dress. The artworks he created for the Capitol Rotunda came to be known as “national paintings.”


The idea for the series came from artist Benjamin West, Trumbull’s mentor and court painter to King George III. Given his association with King George III, West encouraged Trumbull to pursue the project instead. Trumbull’s access to revolutionary leaders made him uniquely positioned as an artist, and he had numerous drawings and miniatures to use as source material. Trumbull originally planned to do 14 paintings in his history of the American Revolution series. He only completed eight; four are in the Capitol Rotunda.


The House and Senate approved funding for four paintings in 1817, a year after Trumbull was elected president of the American Academy of Fine Arts. The aging artist signed a contract for $32,000.


To finalize the subjects for the paintings, Trumbull consulted with President James Madison, who requested that the figures be life-size. Together they chose from among the subjects that Trumbull had suggested to Congress, settling on two military and two civil scenes. Trumbull envisioned his four paintings for the Capitol Rotunda, dubbed by him the “Hall of the Revolution,” as a set, both visually and conceptually, and he carefully arranged them in a unified installation. The two indoor civil scenes, depicting the presentation of the Declaration of Independence and Washington resigning his commission, serve as “book-ends,” flanking the two outdoor military scenes, which mark the conclusion of the war’s most decisive battles.
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In 1817, Congress commissioned John Trumbull to undertake four paintings for the Capitol Rotunda, the first such commission made to an American artist for a space that was not yet built, and the first instance when Congress was a patron of the arts. Trumbull viewed himself as a Patriot-Artist and a pictorial historian. As early as 1785 at the age of 29, Trumbull wrote in a letter to his brother, “The great object of my wishes…is to take up the History of Our country, and paint the principal events particularly of the late War.” Trumbull dedicated himself to a modern form of history painting—real American heroes in contemporary dress. The artworks he created for the Capitol Rotunda came to be known as “national paintings.”


The idea for the series came from artist Benjamin West, Trumbull’s mentor and court painter to King George III. Given his association with King George III, West encouraged Trumbull to pursue the project instead. Trumbull’s access to revolutionary leaders made him uniquely positioned as an artist, and he had numerous drawings and miniatures to use as source material. Trumbull originally planned to do 14 paintings in his history of the American Revolution series. He only completed eight; four are in the Capitol Rotunda.


The House and Senate approved funding for four paintings in 1817, a year after Trumbull was elected president of the American Academy of Fine Arts. The aging artist signed a contract for $32,000.


To finalize the subjects for the paintings, Trumbull consulted with President James Madison, who requested that the figures be life-size. Together they chose from among the subjects that Trumbull had suggested to Congress, settling on two military and two civil scenes. Trumbull envisioned his four paintings for the Capitol Rotunda, dubbed by him the “Hall of the Revolution,” as a set, both visually and conceptually, and he carefully arranged them in a unified installation. The two indoor civil scenes, depicting the presentation of the Declaration of Independence and Washington resigning his commission, serve as “book-ends,” flanking the two outdoor military scenes, which mark the conclusion of the war’s most decisive battles.
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In 1817, Congress commissioned John Trumbull to undertake four paintings for the Capitol Rotunda, the first such commission made to an American artist for a space that was not yet built, and the first instance when Congress was a patron of the arts. Trumbull viewed himself as a Patriot-Artist and a pictorial historian. As early as 1785 at the age of 29, Trumbull wrote in a letter to his brother, “The great object of my wishes…is to take up the History of Our country, and paint the principal events particularly of the late War.” Trumbull dedicated himself to a modern form of history painting—real American heroes in contemporary dress. The artworks he created for the Capitol Rotunda came to be known as “national paintings.”


The idea for the series came from artist Benjamin West, Trumbull’s mentor and court painter to King George III. Given his association with King George III, West encouraged Trumbull to pursue the project instead. Trumbull’s access to revolutionary leaders made him uniquely positioned as an artist, and he had numerous drawings and miniatures to use as source material. Trumbull originally planned to do 14 paintings in his history of the American Revolution series. He only completed eight; four are in the Capitol Rotunda.


The House and Senate approved funding for four paintings in 1817, a year after Trumbull was elected president of the American Academy of Fine Arts. The aging artist signed a contract for $32,000.


To finalize the subjects for the paintings, Trumbull consulted with President James Madison, who requested that the figures be life-size. Together they chose from among the subjects that Trumbull had suggested to Congress, settling on two military and two civil scenes. Trumbull envisioned his four paintings for the Capitol Rotunda, dubbed by him the “Hall of the Revolution,” as a set, both visually and conceptually, and he carefully arranged them in a unified installation. The two indoor civil scenes, depicting the presentation of the Declaration of Independence and Washington resigning his commission, serve as “book-ends,” flanking the two outdoor military scenes, which mark the conclusion of the war’s most decisive battles.
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In 1817, Congress commissioned John Trumbull to undertake four paintings for the Capitol Rotunda, the first such commission made to an American artist for a space that was not yet built, and the first instance when Congress was a patron of the arts. Trumbull viewed himself as a Patriot-Artist and a pictorial historian. As early as 1785 at the age of 29, Trumbull wrote in a letter to his brother, “The great object of my wishes…is to take up the History of Our country, and paint the principal events particularly of the late War.” Trumbull dedicated himself to a modern form of history painting—real American heroes in contemporary dress. The artworks he created for the Capitol Rotunda came to be known as “national paintings.”


The idea for the series came from artist Benjamin West, Trumbull’s mentor and court painter to King George III. Given his association with King George III, West encouraged Trumbull to pursue the project instead. Trumbull’s access to revolutionary leaders made him uniquely positioned as an artist, and he had numerous drawings and miniatures to use as source material. Trumbull originally planned to do 14 paintings in his history of the American Revolution series. He only completed eight; four are in the Capitol Rotunda.


The House and Senate approved funding for four paintings in 1817, a year after Trumbull was elected president of the American Academy of Fine Arts. The aging artist signed a contract for $32,000.


To finalize the subjects for the paintings, Trumbull consulted with President James Madison, who requested that the figures be life-size. Together they chose from among the subjects that Trumbull had suggested to Congress, settling on two military and two civil scenes. Trumbull envisioned his four paintings for the Capitol Rotunda, dubbed by him the “Hall of the Revolution,” as a set, both visually and conceptually, and he carefully arranged them in a unified installation. The two indoor civil scenes, depicting the presentation of the Declaration of Independence and Washington resigning his commission, serve as “book-ends,” flanking the two outdoor military scenes, which mark the conclusion of the war’s most decisive battles.
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In his autobiography, Trumbull recounted:
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In his “Reminiscences,” he recalled struggling with the overall composition: “…the scene was altogether one of utter formality—the ground was level—military etiquette was to be scrupulously observed, and yet the portraits of the principal officers of three proud nations must be preserved, without intercepting the general regularity of the scene.” Adding the portraits gradually, he began with the French officers, painted from life when he was a guest of Thomas Jefferson in Paris in 1787. He regarded these “as the best of my small portraits.” By 1794, he had completed portraits of most of the American officers. He supplemented these careful renderings of the officers themselves with sketches made of the Yorktown surrender site.


Washington dictated that the terms of the capitulation, both in substance and ceremony, were to mirror those granted by the British to the Americans after their defeat at Charleston. Trumbull sought to document those proceedings in paint, which specified: “The garrison at York will march out to a place to be appointed in front of the posts, at two o’clock precisely with shouldered arms, colours cased, and drums beating a British or German march. They are then to ground their arms, and return to their encampments.”


When the painting was first publicly unveiled, Trumbull misidentified the central British officer relinquishing his sword as Lord Cornwallis, although it was known that he did not participate in the ceremonial surrender. The actual soldier who stood in for him was General Charles O’Hara. Trumbull later explained that his intent was to capture the “spirit or feeling” of the incident, acknowledged that not all details were historically accurate, and described the British soldiers as “principal officers of the British army,” rather than naming specific individuals.
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In that same year, 1787, Trumbull also painted Jefferson and Franklin from life. He added most of the Members of Congress later, basing them on pencil sketches or oil studies. If no life image could be obtained, Trumbull copied an existing portrait or painted the son as a substitute. In the Yale version, he finished the last portraits in 1820, 34 years after he began.


Trumbull completed a third version of the “Declaration of Independence” in 1832, aiming to correct inaccuracies in the architectural setting.
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John Trumbull (1756–1843), along with American artists Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley, helped forge a modern school of history painting that featured contemporary figures in contemporary dress. He is best known for his artworks documenting the scenes and participants of the American Revolution. Trumbull also had the distinction of being the first American artist to receive a governmental commission, of founding the first university art museum, and of writing the first published autobiography of an American artist.


Trumbull was born in Lebanon, Connecticut, in 1756, the youngest of six children. His father, Jonathan Trumbull, served as governor of Connecticut during the years preceding and following the Revolutionary War. Although Trumbull wanted to pursue art, he complied with his father’s wishes and graduated from Harvard College in 1773. Soon after, Trumbull served as an officer and General George Washington’s aide-de-camp during the early part of the Revolutionary War, witnessing the Battle of Bunker Hill while stationed in Roxbury in 1775. Two years later he resigned his commission as colonel.
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John Trumbull (1756–1843), along with American artists Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley, helped forge a modern school of history painting that featured contemporary figures in contemporary dress. He is best known for his artworks documenting the scenes and participants of the American Revolution. Trumbull also had the distinction of being the first American artist to receive a governmental commission, of founding the first university art museum, and of writing the first published autobiography of an American artist.


Trumbull was born in Lebanon, Connecticut, in 1756, the youngest of six children. His father, Jonathan Trumbull, served as governor of Connecticut during the years preceding and following the Revolutionary War. Although Trumbull wanted to pursue art, he complied with his father’s wishes and graduated from Harvard College in 1773. Soon after, Trumbull served as an officer and General George Washington’s aide-de-camp during the early part of the Revolutionary War, witnessing the Battle of Bunker Hill while stationed in Roxbury in 1775. Two years later he resigned his commission as colonel.
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John Trumbull (1756–1843), along with American artists Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley, helped forge a modern school of history painting that featured contemporary figures in contemporary dress. He is best known for his artworks documenting the scenes and participants of the American Revolution. Trumbull also had the distinction of being the first American artist to receive a governmental commission, of founding the first university art museum, and of writing the first published autobiography of an American artist.


Trumbull was born in Lebanon, Connecticut, in 1756, the youngest of six children. His father, Jonathan Trumbull, served as governor of Connecticut during the years preceding and following the Revolutionary War. Although Trumbull wanted to pursue art, he complied with his father’s wishes and graduated from Harvard College in 1773. Soon after, Trumbull served as an officer and General George Washington’s aide-de-camp during the early part of the Revolutionary War, witnessing the Battle of Bunker Hill while stationed in Roxbury in 1775. Two years later he resigned his commission as colonel.
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John Trumbull (1756–1843), along with American artists Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley, helped forge a modern school of history painting that featured contemporary figures in contemporary dress. He is best known for his artworks documenting the scenes and participants of the American Revolution. Trumbull also had the distinction of being the first American artist to receive a governmental commission, of founding the first university art museum, and of writing the first published autobiography of an American artist.


Trumbull was born in Lebanon, Connecticut, in 1756, the youngest of six children. His father, Jonathan Trumbull, served as governor of Connecticut during the years preceding and following the Revolutionary War. Although Trumbull wanted to pursue art, he complied with his father’s wishes and graduated from Harvard College in 1773. Soon after, Trumbull served as an officer and General George Washington’s aide-de-camp during the early part of the Revolutionary War, witnessing the Battle of Bunker Hill while stationed in Roxbury in 1775. Two years later he resigned his commission as colonel.
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The composition of the “Declaration,” painted decades earlier, dictated Trumbull’s approach to the “Resignation,” which mirrors its overall arrangement. Both scenes take place in the chambers of a civilian legislature, one in Philadelphia and the other in Annapolis. In the “Declaration,” the central figures face right. In the “Resignation,” the central figures face left. The two paintings are similar in composition, with figures seated and standing in the background, arrayed to observe the central action, the presentation of papers by Jefferson in the “Declaration” and by Washington in the “Resignation.” However, what Trumbull could not depict were the actual words spoken by Washington and the response by Confederation Congress President Thomas Mifflin, words that were included in explanatory signage when the painting was first exhibited.


Trumbull based the representation of George Washington on one of his own earlier portraits and relied on miniatures he did around 1790 for several other likenesses. He also studied portraits by fellow artists and contacted Members of Congress for portraits of the delegates. In keeping with his penchant to be truthful to the spirit of the scene but not always accurate in every detail, Trumbull included several figures who were not present at the actual event. Martha Washington and her grandchildren, who appear in the gallery, and the two daughters of Charles Carroll, standing next to him on the floor of the chamber, are the only female figures depicted in any of the four paintings. Trumbull may have added them to suggest a more egalitarian future society. Trumbull also included James Madison, likely because he was president when Trumbull was awarded the commission. 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.


To convincingly render the setting, Trumbull visited and sketched the room, the Senate Chamber of the State House, but he changes the position of the windows and other architectural features. In an early compositional sketch for the painting, Trumbull shows Mifflin seated in the chair on a more prominent rostrum. Washington is positioned closer to him. Trumbull also altered some other 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 the “Declaration of Independence,” which also helped to link the two paintings.
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The frames and architectural context of Trumbull’s paintings enhance their impact. The design for the installation in the Rotunda evolved and reflects the contributions of two architects and the artist. An early idea put forth by Benjamin Henry Latrobe was to mount the paintings from hooks further up the wall, but the paintings would have tilted forward. After some discussion, Latrobe suggested placing the paintings in shallow recesses in the walls with curved frames, but he resigned before the details could be fleshed out.


With the arrival of Latrobe’s successor, Architect Charles Bulfinch, Trumbull had another battle to fight. He had to persuade Bulfinch to keep the Rotunda as a space for the paintings, rather than carve it up for committee rooms. Bulfinch had toyed with the idea of creating a floating staircase and a separate picture gallery for the paintings, but Trumbull prevailed. Bulfinch then designed the gilded curved frames to create a transition from the flat canvases placed in the recesses to the curved walls. The top part of the frames curve and widen at the edges to convey the illusion of a concave image, seamlessly wedding the paintings to their architectural surroundings.
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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 Capitol that appeared on a $1.00 stamp in 1994.
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The “Surrender of General Burgoyne” was completed in December 1821 and was exhibited in New York City from January to March 1822 before being permanently installed in the Rotunda in 1826.


Between 1822 and 1832, Trumbull created a smaller version of this painting that is now part of the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery.
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Throughout his life, Trumbull balanced artistic pursuits with diplomatic assignments and business ventures. His time studying in Benjamin West’s studio in London and as a guest of Thomas Jefferson in Paris in the mid-1780s gave him access to the leading statesmen and artistic circles of the day. Some of his best works date to that period, characterized by freshness and spontaneity, evident in both brushwork and palette.
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Throughout his life, Trumbull balanced artistic pursuits with diplomatic assignments and business ventures. His time studying in Benjamin West’s studio in London and as a guest of Thomas Jefferson in Paris in the mid-1780s gave him access to the leading statesmen and artistic circles of the day. Some of his best works date to that period, characterized by freshness and spontaneity, evident in both brushwork and palette.
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Throughout his life, Trumbull balanced artistic pursuits with diplomatic assignments and business ventures. His time studying in Benjamin West’s studio in London and as a guest of Thomas Jefferson in Paris in the mid-1780s gave him access to the leading statesmen and artistic circles of the day. Some of his best works date to that period, characterized by freshness and spontaneity, evident in both brushwork and palette.
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Throughout his life, Trumbull balanced artistic pursuits with diplomatic assignments and business ventures. His time studying in Benjamin West’s studio in London and as a guest of Thomas Jefferson in Paris in the mid-1780s gave him access to the leading statesmen and artistic circles of the day. Some of his best works date to that period, characterized by freshness and spontaneity, evident in both brushwork and palette.
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Trumbull also added the banners, possibly upon Jefferson’s suggestion as they appear in the earliest pencil sketch. Other changes included a formal Doric cornice rather than Ionic and windows covered with heavy red drapes rather than Venetian blinds. Trumbull also substituted formal mahogany chairs for the simple Windsor chairs and gave John Hancock a particularly ornate chair.


The Capitol’s painting is based on Trumbull’s smaller Yale version, which Trumbull began decades before he won the Congressional commission. In the earlier version, the palette is brighter and the brushstrokes livelier. He painted three of the portraits directly on the canvas: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.
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Trumbull based his Rotunda painting on an earlier smaller version that he began in the mid-1780s while a student of Benjamin West in London.
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Trumbull based most of the figures on portraits he painted from life in the early 1790s.
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Trumbull began working on the “Declaration of Independence” when he was Thomas Jefferson’s guest in Paris in the fall of 1786. Trumbull recalled, “I began the composition of the Declaration of Independence, with the assistance of [Jefferson’s] information and advice.” Trumbull based the arrangement of the room on Jefferson’s floor plan, which was incorrect, particularly in the placement of the doors.
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Trumbull’s career, largely dedicated to leaving a visual record of the nation’s founders, culminated in this government commission for the United States Capitol Rotunda.


After completing the Rotunda paintings, Trumbull returned to the religious subjects of his earlier career but fell on hard times. In 1831 he deeded many of his works to Yale College in exchange for an annuity. Trumbull died in New York City on November 10, 1843, and was interred beneath the art gallery at Yale that he designed. Some decades later, his paintings and his remains were moved to a new art gallery at Yale, including the earlier versions of two of his Capitol paintings, along with an extensive collection of drawings and miniatures.
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Trumbull’s career, largely dedicated to leaving a visual record of the nation’s founders, culminated in this government commission for the United States Capitol Rotunda.


After completing the Rotunda paintings, Trumbull returned to the religious subjects of his earlier career but fell on hard times. In 1831 he deeded many of his works to Yale College in exchange for an annuity. Trumbull died in New York City on November 10, 1843, and was interred beneath the art gallery at Yale that he designed. Some decades later, his paintings and his remains were moved to a new art gallery at Yale, including the earlier versions of two of his Capitol paintings, along with an extensive collection of drawings and miniatures.
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Trumbull’s career, largely dedicated to leaving a visual record of the nation’s founders, culminated in this government commission for the United States Capitol Rotunda.


After completing the Rotunda paintings, Trumbull returned to the religious subjects of his earlier career but fell on hard times. In 1831 he deeded many of his works to Yale College in exchange for an annuity. Trumbull died in New York City on November 10, 1843, and was interred beneath the art gallery at Yale that he designed. Some decades later, his paintings and his remains were moved to a new art gallery at Yale, including the earlier versions of two of his Capitol paintings, along with an extensive collection of drawings and miniatures.
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Trumbull’s career, largely dedicated to leaving a visual record of the nation’s founders, culminated in this government commission for the United States Capitol Rotunda.


After completing the Rotunda paintings, Trumbull returned to the religious subjects of his earlier career but fell on hard times. In 1831 he deeded many of his works to Yale College in exchange for an annuity. Trumbull died in New York City on November 10, 1843, and was interred beneath the art gallery at Yale that he designed. Some decades later, his paintings and his remains were moved to a new art gallery at Yale, including the earlier versions of two of his Capitol paintings, along with an extensive collection of drawings and miniatures.
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Unlike his paintings the “Declaration of Independence” and the “Surrender of Lord Cornwallis,” Trumbull did not base this work on an earlier painting. He was possibly influenced by Benjamin West’s painting, “Edward the Black Prince Receiving King John of France After the Battle of Poitiers.”
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“In November 1786 I returned to London…went on with my studies of the other subjects of the history of the Revolution, arranged carefully the composition for the Declaration of Independence, and prepared it for receiving the portraits, as I might meet with the distinguished men, who were present at the illustrious scene. In the course of the summer of 1787, Mr. Adams took leave of the court of St. James, and preparatory to his voyage to America, had the powder combed out of his hair. Its color and natural curl were beautiful, and I took that opportunity to paint his portrait in the small Declaration of Independence.”
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Eric Schnitzer: The Saratoga National Historical Park is the place where the two battles of Saratoga were fought. The first battle, the Battle of Freeman's Farm, it's called, was fought on the 19th of September 1777. The second battle was fought two and a half weeks later, on the 7th of October 1777. Same armies were fighting.


Basically what happens is the two armies met in battle on the 19th of September. The British won, so our forces fall back to Bemis Heights, where our camp had been. Two and a half weeks later, the British, or rather an element of that British army, advances south in a direction toward our forces and we're thinking that they're coming out to attack us, so we attack in kind.


After the second of the two battles, the British were defeated but not yet surrendered, so they retreated. They tried to escape back to the safety of the north. They got as far as what is now called the Village of Schuylerville, back then it was called Saratoga, and that's where the British ended up surrendering.


When the British surrendered on the 17th of October 1777, General Burgoyne, the British commander, rode with his entourage of general staff officers south and General Gates, commander of the northern army, the American army, rode from his headquarters north, and the two generals met on the main road between Saratoga and Albany.


So they met. They shook hands. They exchanged pleasantries, perhaps unpleasantries, and then the two generals and their respective military families met up here on this very hilltop. And I think, I'm only guessing, that he chose to portray the surrender because that quickly was recognized as such a momentous event. It was the first time in world history that a British army had ever surrendered before. A British army had never surrendered, and so they saw this victory as a phenomenal moment.
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Eric Schnitzer: What we do know from narratives written at the time and afterwards by participants who were here. We know that they kind of had to set up a bit of a ramshackle dining facility for the generals and their respective staffs. So they talk about chairs and tables, and they talk about an awning. An awning in the 18th century, and today, would have been some kind of canvas cover without walls, right. So it's not a marquee of the type that you actually see in the painting of the surrender.


We know that John Trumbull, when he came up here to visit this location in 1791, he made some sketches. And one of the sketches he made was of Horatio Gates's headquarters tent. And it should not have been in the painting, frankly, because we know that this event—the tendering of the sword, the dining of the officers—that absolutely did not take place at Horatio Gates' headquarters. That took place between the two armies. So they had an awning up here. They had canvas, but they definitely did not have any kind of marquee headquarters marquee a la Horatio Gates.


As for the flag, we can look at the Congressional resolution of 14 June 1777 and see that's the date that what we would call the Stars and Stripes flag was adopted. But we also know throughout the American war for independence that that flag was not universally adhered to. You can see many examples, even post-war examples, in which representative flags of the United States were not in line with the Congressional resolution. So we have to ask ourselves, all right, so what is the most likely flag that was here? Was there a flag here?


The answer is, in short, we don't know if there was a flag here. We have no reference to it. Nobody mentioned it if there was, doesn't mean there wasn't, but we just don't know if there was one or not.


As for the design, the design is perfectly in line with the Congressional resolution passed in June of 1777, but is it plausible that such a thing would have been created in time during the chaotic retreat from the north, from Ticonderoga, that summer? We can't say no. We can't say that. We can't say it's impossible. No. However, I would say that there are a couple of other earlier contemporaneous, in fact, depictions of what was supposedly flown in the American camp representing the national flag in 1777, specifically at Saratoga. And it was what was typically called the continental stripes. What the British called the rebel stripes, and it was simply a flag with no canton, with just red and white stripes, 13 in number. That was the unofficial go to flag of the new United States after we declared independence from Great Britain. So you find that popping up in 1776, this flag, and certainly it was carried at other times during the course of the war.
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Michele Cohen: In the “Resignation,” in keeping with his approach to his three earlier history paintings, Trumbull exercised artistic license to enhance the scene’s dramatic effect. He modified the furnishings and added figures who did not attend—most prominently Martha Washington in the balcony with her grandchildren. By including these figures, Trumbull wedded Washington’s public and private lives.


He also omitted some crucial details. In the carefully choreographed ceremony, Washington was to bow to Congress before and after making his remarks, but delegates were instructed not to bow in return. Rather, they would remove their hats in acknowledgement. There were to be no royal trappings in this unprecedented transfer of power. Eschewing historical accuracy, Trumbull painted Congressional figures without hats, undoubtedly to avoid obscuring the likenesses he had so painstakingly recorded.


In the painting, Trumbull positions Washington in the center of the composition, and President of Congress Thomas Mifflin plays more of a supporting role on the side, although an earlier sketch places the figures much closer together. Congress carefully staged the act of Washington’s resignation for a national and international audience. Washington’s words and Mifflin’s reply spread across the globe. Trumbull, in London at the time, read about the event in newspaper accounts, which left a lasting impression.
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James Benson: The moment in history is the Committee of Five turning in the draft of the Declaration of Independence on June 28, 1776. The committee consisted of Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Robert Livingston of New York, John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, and the primary writer, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia.


Well the historical reality is that delegates would not have been present on June 28; they were scheduled to convene on the first of July. According to the Journal of the Continental Congress, in volume five, 1776, the committee brought in their draft; it was read and placed on the table. According to the journal, some changes in the wording were made then, but the majority of edits would have taken place between the third and Fourth of July.


There were two signers on the Fourth of July: John Hancock and Charles Thomson, the secretary. And then the Dunlap Broadside was printed and circulated on the fifth. Public readings of the Declaration took place starting on the eighth of July, and all throughout the colonies thereafter—or should I say, independent states.


The idea to have a formal signing was presented on the 19th of July, and the signing process began, starting on the second of August, and it took time for all the signers to sign the document.


Lastly, it was printed in January of 1777 by Mary Katherine Goddard to circulate the document with the signers’ names to help promote the patriotic effort. Because what is this document? While yes, it is a proclamation for the patriotic cause to separate from England and become an independent nation with a list of grievances to reinforce that call, but in the document are two concepts from enlightenment thought that truly make this document special and have it impact the entire world. The argument for the right of people to govern themselves with representative government and the argument that all people are born with natural rights. These two core concepts are at the heart of what makes this document special, and our nation special, because it changed the world.
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Lauren Krupinski: The most striking inaccuracy in Trumbull’s painting is its title, “The Surrender of Lord Cornwallis.” Cornwallis is not depicted in this painting. Claiming illness, Cornwallis was the most notable absence from the surrender ceremony. General Charles O'Hara, Cornwallis’ second in command, was sent in his place. Riding out from Yorktown on horseback, General O'Hara approached the awaiting American and French armies and asked for French General Rochambeau.


O'Hara knew that George Washington, not Rochambeau, was the overall commander of the two allied armies, so asking for the French general was likely a British attempt to avoid surrendering directly to the Americans. Rochambeau, recognizing this slight to the American Army, motioned for O'Hara to be directed over to Washington. O'Hara apologized to Washington for Cornwallis’ absence. He extended an arm towards Washington to surrender Cornwallis’ sword, but Washington remained still. “Never from such a good hand,” he remarked, and directed O'Hara over to his second in command, General Benjamin Lincoln. If Cornwallis was going to send out his second in command, then his sword would be surrendered to Washington's second in command.


Lincoln accepted the sword from the British general's outstretched arm, held it for a symbolic moment, and then returned it to O'Hara. Therefore, it is General Benjamin Lincoln, not George Washington, who serves as the central figure in Trumbull's painting.
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Lauren Krupinski: Trumbull is depicting the British surrender to the allied American and French armies at Yorktown. Three weeks into the siege, with his soldiers trapped within Yorktown, suffering from the spread of illness and heavy allied artillery fire, British General Charles Cornwallis signaled his desire to discuss terms of surrender with the wave of an officer's white handkerchief. Two days later, on the afternoon of October 19, 1781, the British marched out to Surrender Field and laid down their arms.


The Siege of Yorktown became the last major engagement of the Revolutionary War. When news of the surrender reached King George III's government, the Prime Minister reportedly cried out, “Oh God, it's over!” The surrender of thousands of British and German soldiers, approximately one quarter of all British forces in North America, was a decisive blow, and the months-long campaign to subdue the southern colonies came to an end.


Back in London, the British government, now tangled in a global war against the French, the Spanish and the Dutch, no longer had the will to keep pouring money and soldiers into North America. Within a year, an American delegation sat with their British counterparts to negotiate a peace treaty, The Treaty of Paris.


The British surrender at Yorktown cleared the path for securing American independence, a course of action taken more than six years prior in 1776. It was time to shift the focus away from war and towards building a new nation—a free and independent republic.
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Michele Cohen: John Trumbull (1756–1843), along with American artists Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley, helped forge a modern school of history painting that featured contemporary figures in contemporary dress. He is best known for his artworks documenting scenes and participants of the American Revolution. Trumbull also had the distinction of being the first American artist to receive a governmental commission, of founding the first university art museum, and writing the first published autobiography of an American artist.


Trumbull was born in Lebanon, Connecticut, in 1756, the youngest of six children. His father, Jonathan Trumbull, served as governor of Connecticut during the years preceding and following the Revolutionary War. Although Trumbull wanted to pursue art, he complied with his father’s wishes and graduated from Harvard College in 1773. Soon after, Trumbull served as an officer and General George Washington’s aide-de-camp during the early part of the Revolutionary War, witnessing the Battle of Bunker Hill while stationed in Roxbury in 1775. Two years later he resigned his commission as colonel.


Throughout his life, Trumbull balanced artistic pursuits with diplomatic assignments and business ventures. His time studying in Benjamin West’s studio in London and as a guest of Thomas Jefferson’s in Paris in the mid-1780s gave him access to the leading statesmen and artistic circles of the day. Some of his best works date to that period, characterized by lively brushwork and vivid color. He excelled as a miniaturist, possibly because he was left blind in one eye after a childhood accident. Trumbull’s career, largely dedicated to leaving a visual record of the nation’s founders, culminated in this government commission for the United States Capitol Rotunda.


After completing the Rotunda paintings, Trumbull returned to the religious subjects of his earlier career but fell on hard times. In 1831, he deeded many of his works to Yale College in exchange for an annuity. Trumbull died in New York City on November 10, 1843, and was interred beneath the art gallery at Yale that he designed. Some decades later, his paintings and his remains were moved to a new art gallery at Yale, including the earlier versions of two of his Capitol paintings, along with an extensive collection of drawings and miniatures.
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Michele Cohen: Trumbull was at his best as a miniaturist. Yale University Art Gallery has about 60 miniatures. At the time, Trumbull won the Congressional Commission in 1817, he was the only American artist who had the documentary portraits that were the basis for the paintings, so it did give him an edge on his competitors. His work as a miniaturist constitutes some of his strongest work, and I think the key to understanding his approach to history paintings and the premium he put on portraiture.


The idea for the series of these Revolutionary War paintings came from fellow artist Benjamin West, the American artist who had moved to England to be court painter to King George the Third, but because West was the court painter to King George the Third, he really wasn't in a position to take on this project, and he encouraged Trumbull to take up the challenge instead. Trumbull's access to revolutionary leaders made him uniquely positioned as an artist.
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Michele Cohen: Trumbull’s “Declaration of Independence” is one of the nation’s most recognizable images. Like the Capitol Dome itself, it has come to symbolize American democracy. Even before Trumbull completed it, he hired artist Asher B. Durand to engrave it. Durand’s 1820 print disseminated the image widely. It is pictured on the reverse of the $2 bill and has appeared on U.S. postage stamps.


Trumbull’s real motivation in painting the Declaration, as well as other paintings in the series, was to record the likenesses of participants rather than provide an historically accurate depiction of the event itself. From a distance, the spectator cannot make out the individual portraits that constitute the mosaic of faces Trumbull painted into each scene. It is only when we get close that we can discern the facial features of young and old, farmers, merchants, and soldiers. One could conclude that in some ways Trumbull sacrificed the whole for the parts, driven as he was by a notion of authenticity rooted in painstaking realism—that is, the realism of individual portraits. But because Trumbull’s mission was to convey the values he viewed as fundamental to American democracy as he understood it—honor on the battlefield, self-restraint, rational and orderly debate—he had to memorialize the actors central to the events he depicted. Today, two centuries later, the actions of the people Trumbull portrayed, rather than their faces, may resonate more for viewers.
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Robin Gower: Trumbull is depicting the moment on December 23, 1783, at noon, when General George Washington resigned his commission as commander in chief of the Continental Army in the Old Senate Chamber of the Maryland State House.


This painting is different from the actual event in a few ways. Interestingly, while Trumbull did visit the Maryland State House and the Old Senate Chamber before completing his painting and captured many of the architectural details accurately, the actual orientation of the room is slightly different. In his painting, the wall with the fireplace and two doors is depicted in the background, with the rostrum on the left and the balcony on the right. However, that wall is on the opposite side of the room. The correct orientation would have depicted the wall with two windows and no fireplace.


Also, the original furnishings of the room were no longer present when Trumbull visited. Instead, he copied the chairs he had painted in the “Declaration of Independence.” The chairs on display here today are based on later archival research.


Another inaccuracy can be found in the people present in the room. Some people depicted here in the painting were not present on December 23, 1783, including James Madison and Martha Washington and her grandchildren, among others. Though Charles Carroll of Carrollton is depicted, there's no surviving archival evidence that confirms he was there, and his daughters certainly would not have been on the Senate floor.


Women were present during the resignation and watched the events from the balcony. We know women were there from several firsthand accounts of the event, including one from Molly Ridout, who described the balcony where she stood was “full of ladies.”


We know from the published rules of the ceremony that, “The President and Members are to be seated and covered,” meaning that the Members of Congress should be wearing hats on their heads. This is one aspect of the protocol meant to emphasize the power of Congress.
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William diGiacomantonio: This painting shows the commander in chief of the Continental Army, George Washington, surrendering his commission, that had been given to him in June of 1775.


This painting depicts an event that happened in December 1783. Most of the Army is already disbanded. There is a small army left on the frontier and in a couple of the armories that the national government kept. But for the most part, the need for a commander in chief with Washington's powers is gone, so he is giving back the commission that was given to him eight years earlier.


It's taking place in the Assembly Room of the Maryland state government in Annapolis. For our comparison purposes, this is the Maryland version of the Assembly Room in Philadelphia, which is the setting for the Declaration painting.


There is again a showing of delegates to the Confederation Congress. There's Charles Thomson in this painting. Again, he is the sole representative of the stability of the national government at this point. I even hesitate to call it a national government. It was a government that claimed certain jurisdiction over areas of common interests among the 13 states.


This event being portrayed, and the general idea of Washington giving up his commission and the powers that it conveyed, would have struck almost any audience, particularly a European audience, as one of the most important events of the Revolutionary War.


I think the really important thing to bear in mind about this act of giving up his commission is that it shows the proper relationship between military leaders, even successful ones like George Washington, and civic leaders, even unsuccessful ones like the Confederation Congress. George Washington isn't giving up his commission [be]cause he's sure that the government is in good hands with the Congress. He had no reason to think that Congress would succeed at the challenges it was facing at the time. George Washington had no reason to think that he was passing over his powers to Congress because Congress would know what to do with them. He was passing them back to Congress because they came from Congress in the first place, and he was simply returning them to Congress as he was supposed to do as military leader. So for George Washington, although the moment might have been fraught with anxiety, there would have been no question in his mind—for someone of George Washington's character—there would’ve been no question in his mind that this is what he had to do.


And indeed, you look at the painting and no one looks particularly anxious in the painting. Again, it's a bureaucratic moment. It's focusing on a piece of paper. Isn't that funny? I mean in a government that as John Adams said, “a government of laws and not of men;” men are just the agents of the ideas and significance conveyed generally in words on a piece of paper, which is how they recorded words back then. That's the significance of this moment.
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William diGiacomantonio: Trumbull's presentation of this moment is really not a moment in history. He's not reporting a moment. He's memorializing a moment, which gives him the artistic license that is rife in this painting.


The gathering of people here in the painting is the Second Continental Congress. There was a first, held two years before the time of this painting. Both First and Second Continental Congresses were called by the colonial provincial legislatures, which sent representatives. They were called delegates. They were called together to convey the ideas of the respective colonies and provinces to the wider gathering. The fact that the gathering exists in the first place was a small r and capital R revolutionary innovation. It had only happened a couple times before in British colonial history. The times that it’s happening here rightly sent a tidal wave of concern across the Atlantic to Great Britain. They were terrified of the idea of the American colonies getting together.


The Second Continental Congress depicted here was into its second year. The Congress was composed of state delegations that could have any number of members, but the states voting in Congress voted by state, so each state only had one vote.


The five men that are presenting the Declaration—by the way, it would not have looked like this. Typically, the chairperson of a committee reporting to one of the Continental Congresses simply rose at his seat at the table. Each delegation had a table. In this case, Thomas Jefferson would have risen from his seat at the Virginia delegation's table and presented the Declaration. They wouldn't have all walked up together to the president's desk, but with a piece of paper, you need to have some sort of critical mass, because a piece of paper is, excepting the ideas it contains, a very flimsy thing. And so he needed to have this critical mass of personalities. And by God, you had quite a few personalities in that committee.


The actual Declaration is the document in the hand of Thomas Jefferson that we see here, standing in front of the rest of his Declaration Committee. The place where they're presenting it is at a table where the president of Congress, John Hancock of Massachusetts, sits. And right next to him, you'll note the guy on the right who shares top billing, at least in terms of height and prominence, is the secretary of the Congress, Charles Thomson. And I think that's important. Charles Thomson's presence magnifies the fact that we're dealing here with a document.


The Members of Congress represented here were not there at the moment being memorialized in this painting. Many of them were signers, but they didn't appear until after the moment this painting presumably signifies. So, it's really important to focus not on the men here, but on the document. And I think that's Trumbull's point. The men who signed this document are just attesting to the fact that they support it, but Trumbull's painting goes beyond that. He's really focusing on the document as an articulation, a manifesto of ideas upon which the country will be based.


You see in the far back wall those flags and the drum, all the insignia of warfare. These are things that would have been recognizable instantly to a European audience, because every European nation at the time was established by force of arms or dynastic claims or what have you. This is the first time that a country is claiming its own ownership based on a possession of ideas and concepts, and those have to be articulated in the document that the secretary of Congress will keep in his possession, just like any other bureaucrat keeps track of a document.


So that is the significance, I think, of focusing on the document, which Trumbull does magnificently here. Expressing it as a bureaucratic moment, but more particularly an aspirational manifesto contained in the words of a document and not at the tip of a sword, say.
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Declaration of Independence
By John Trumbull
The first painting that artist John Trumbull completed for the Rotunda, the “Declaration of Independence,” memorializes the presentation of the first draft of the Declaration of Independence to the Second Continental Congress on June 28, 1776. Trumbull’s depiction does not record the actual signing, which took place over a period of months, but highlights the symbolic act that triggered the Revolutionary War leading to American independence.


The painting features Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, placing the document in front of John Hancock, seated next to the standing figure of Charles Thomson, the secretary of the Congress. Flanking Jefferson are the other four members of the drafting committee: John Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, and Benjamin Franklin. Although there were 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, Trumbull portrayed 47 figures, including five who were not signers.


The event took place in the Pennsylvania State House, now Independence Hall, in Philadelphia. The composition is largely imagined, and several prominent architectural details are inaccurate. The vantage point is looking west toward the room’s entrance, so members would be facing the dais opposite it, allowing for a better frontal perspective of faces. In reality, though, the delegates arrayed around the central group would not have been in the room when the committee presented the draft document. Trumbull’s goal was to capture the likenesses of the nation’s founders, rather than recreate the presentation scene with historical accuracy.
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All around the U.S. Capitol and the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center are statues from the National Statuary Hall Collection.


The legislation to create the collection dates to 1864 and invites each state to provide two statues commemorating distinguished citizens.


The law was amended in 2000 to allow the states to replace their statues of notable citizens with new selections.


Kansas was the first to take advantage of the amended law and decided to replace its statue of Governor George Washington Glick with one of Five-Star General and President Dwight D. Eisenhower.


Sculpted in bronze by Jim Brothers, inspiration for the depiction comes from a photo of Eisenhower, in his role as Supreme Allied Commander, addressing the forces involved in Operation Overlord and the invasion of Normandy during World War II.


Since 2003, this statue has stood in the Rotunda with other presidential statues, including George Washington and James Garfield.
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The Architect of the Capitol preserves art and other heritage assets, such as historic benches and frames, so that future generations can experience and learn about them.


In recent years, the gilded frames of the Rotunda’s eight monumental paintings were conserved. Treatments have included cleaning dulled and darkened gold leaf, replacing lost gilding, and addressing other damages.


Under each painting are a pair of benches that date to 1859, fabricated for use in the House of Representatives. Artist Constantino Brumidi designed the cast-iron supports, and Capitol carpenters constructed the rails from American oak. Captain Montgomery C. Meigs supervised their placement in the House chamber. After a detailed study, restoration of the benches was completed in the early 21st century.


The most dramatic conservation project in the Rotunda was the treatment of the Apotheosis. A century of grime had accumulated on the surface and some of the plaster was crumbling. Earlier restorations had used overpaint, or touching up, to camouflage defects. Over time, the repainted joints darkened further, creating disfiguring lines in the composition.


After the fresco was cleaned and restored by professional fine art conservators, the unified effect and soaring illusion of space intended by the artist could once again be seen.
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The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a pivotal leader in the Civil Rights Movement. Known for his powerful oratory and inspirational leadership, his actions were instrumental in passing landmark legislation that helped dismantle racial discrimination and secure civil rights for African Americans.


To honor his legacy, Congress commissioned a bust and held a nationwide competition to select a sculptor.


Officials chose African American artist John Wilson to create a bronze bust of Martin Luther King, the first sculpture of an African American displayed in the Capitol. This tribute commemorates King’s profound impact and represents a significant step toward greater diversity displayed in the nation’s Capitol.
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From the outset of the commission, Trumbull faced technical challenges in creating such large paintings. He chose for his canvas a durable linen used for top gallant sails of a warship and specified a wooden support panel of seasoned mahogany or cedar. When he arrived at the Capitol in 1824 and saw the opening in the Rotunda floor, he realized that the outside damp air rising into the space would damage his canvases, which were installed in 1826.


The floor aperture was closed in 1828, and Congress hired Trumbull to make major repairs to all four paintings. The canvases were removed from their frames and laid out to dry. Based on research on Egyptian mummification, Trumbull specified that to prevent mold from reoccurring on the reverse of the canvases they should be impregnated with a mixture of wax and turpentine. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries the paintings were cleaned, restored, varnished, and relined numerous times.


If you look closely at the right foot of Colonel Daniel Morgan (dressed in white and standing at the head of the officers gathered at the tent), you can see a repair that Trumbull made. He had to patch this missing piece of painted canvas, which was cut out with a sharp instrument, most likely a penknife.
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General Burgoyne’s surrender was among the subjects John Trumbull selected for a series of history paintings when in 1785 he began to “meditate seriously the subjects of national history, of events of the Revolution.” In September of that year, Trumbull wrote his brother that he was thinking of scenes related to the 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. Today the scene looks very different from Trumbull’s drawing.
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He excelled as a miniaturist, possibly because he was left blind in one eye after a childhood accident.
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He excelled as a miniaturist, possibly because he was left blind in one eye after a childhood accident.
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He excelled as a miniaturist, possibly because he was left blind in one eye after a childhood accident.
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He excelled as a miniaturist, possibly because he was left blind in one eye after a childhood accident.
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In 1817, Congress commissioned John Trumbull to undertake four paintings for the Capitol Rotunda, the first such commission made to an American artist for a space that was not yet built, and the first instance when Congress was a patron of the arts. Trumbull viewed himself as a Patriot-Artist and a pictorial historian. As early as 1785 at the age of 29, Trumbull wrote in a letter to his brother, “The great object of my wishes…is to take up the History of Our country, and paint the principal events particularly of the late War.” Trumbull dedicated himself to a modern form of history painting—real American heroes in contemporary dress. The artworks he created for the Capitol Rotunda came to be known as “national paintings.”


The idea for the series came from artist Benjamin West, Trumbull’s mentor and court painter to King George III. Given his association with King George III, West encouraged Trumbull to pursue the project instead. Trumbull’s access to revolutionary leaders made him uniquely positioned as an artist, and he had numerous drawings and miniatures to use as source material. Trumbull originally planned to do 14 paintings in his history of the American Revolution series. He only completed eight; four are in the Capitol Rotunda.


The House and Senate approved funding for four paintings in 1817, a year after Trumbull was elected president of the American Academy of Fine Arts. The aging artist signed a contract for $32,000.


To finalize the subjects for the paintings, Trumbull consulted with President James Madison, who requested that the figures be life-size. Together they chose from among the subjects that Trumbull had suggested to Congress, settling on two military and two civil scenes. Trumbull envisioned his four paintings for the Capitol Rotunda, dubbed by him the “Hall of the Revolution,” as a set, both visually and conceptually, and he carefully arranged them in a unified installation. The two indoor civil scenes, depicting the presentation of the Declaration of Independence and Washington resigning his commission, serve as “book-ends,” flanking the two outdoor military scenes, which mark the conclusion of the war’s most decisive battles.
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In 1817, Congress commissioned John Trumbull to undertake four paintings for the Capitol Rotunda, the first such commission made to an American artist for a space that was not yet built, and the first instance when Congress was a patron of the arts. Trumbull viewed himself as a Patriot-Artist and a pictorial historian. As early as 1785 at the age of 29, Trumbull wrote in a letter to his brother, “The great object of my wishes…is to take up the History of Our country, and paint the principal events particularly of the late War.” Trumbull dedicated himself to a modern form of history painting—real American heroes in contemporary dress. The artworks he created for the Capitol Rotunda came to be known as “national paintings.”


The idea for the series came from artist Benjamin West, Trumbull’s mentor and court painter to King George III. Given his association with King George III, West encouraged Trumbull to pursue the project instead. Trumbull’s access to revolutionary leaders made him uniquely positioned as an artist, and he had numerous drawings and miniatures to use as source material. Trumbull originally planned to do 14 paintings in his history of the American Revolution series. He only completed eight; four are in the Capitol Rotunda.


The House and Senate approved funding for four paintings in 1817, a year after Trumbull was elected president of the American Academy of Fine Arts. The aging artist signed a contract for $32,000.


To finalize the subjects for the paintings, Trumbull consulted with President James Madison, who requested that the figures be life-size. Together they chose from among the subjects that Trumbull had suggested to Congress, settling on two military and two civil scenes. Trumbull envisioned his four paintings for the Capitol Rotunda, dubbed by him the “Hall of the Revolution,” as a set, both visually and conceptually, and he carefully arranged them in a unified installation. The two indoor civil scenes, depicting the presentation of the Declaration of Independence and Washington resigning his commission, serve as “book-ends,” flanking the two outdoor military scenes, which mark the conclusion of the war’s most decisive battles.
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In 1817, Congress commissioned John Trumbull to undertake four paintings for the Capitol Rotunda, the first such commission made to an American artist for a space that was not yet built, and the first instance when Congress was a patron of the arts. Trumbull viewed himself as a Patriot-Artist and a pictorial historian. As early as 1785 at the age of 29, Trumbull wrote in a letter to his brother, “The great object of my wishes…is to take up the History of Our country, and paint the principal events particularly of the late War.” Trumbull dedicated himself to a modern form of history painting—real American heroes in contemporary dress. The artworks he created for the Capitol Rotunda came to be known as “national paintings.”


The idea for the series came from artist Benjamin West, Trumbull’s mentor and court painter to King George III. Given his association with King George III, West encouraged Trumbull to pursue the project instead. Trumbull’s access to revolutionary leaders made him uniquely positioned as an artist, and he had numerous drawings and miniatures to use as source material. Trumbull originally planned to do 14 paintings in his history of the American Revolution series. He only completed eight; four are in the Capitol Rotunda.


The House and Senate approved funding for four paintings in 1817, a year after Trumbull was elected president of the American Academy of Fine Arts. The aging artist signed a contract for $32,000.


To finalize the subjects for the paintings, Trumbull consulted with President James Madison, who requested that the figures be life-size. Together they chose from among the subjects that Trumbull had suggested to Congress, settling on two military and two civil scenes. Trumbull envisioned his four paintings for the Capitol Rotunda, dubbed by him the “Hall of the Revolution,” as a set, both visually and conceptually, and he carefully arranged them in a unified installation. The two indoor civil scenes, depicting the presentation of the Declaration of Independence and Washington resigning his commission, serve as “book-ends,” flanking the two outdoor military scenes, which mark the conclusion of the war’s most decisive battles.
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In 1817, Congress commissioned John Trumbull to undertake four paintings for the Capitol Rotunda, the first such commission made to an American artist for a space that was not yet built, and the first instance when Congress was a patron of the arts. Trumbull viewed himself as a Patriot-Artist and a pictorial historian. As early as 1785 at the age of 29, Trumbull wrote in a letter to his brother, “The great object of my wishes…is to take up the History of Our country, and paint the principal events particularly of the late War.” Trumbull dedicated himself to a modern form of history painting—real American heroes in contemporary dress. The artworks he created for the Capitol Rotunda came to be known as “national paintings.”


The idea for the series came from artist Benjamin West, Trumbull’s mentor and court painter to King George III. Given his association with King George III, West encouraged Trumbull to pursue the project instead. Trumbull’s access to revolutionary leaders made him uniquely positioned as an artist, and he had numerous drawings and miniatures to use as source material. Trumbull originally planned to do 14 paintings in his history of the American Revolution series. He only completed eight; four are in the Capitol Rotunda.


The House and Senate approved funding for four paintings in 1817, a year after Trumbull was elected president of the American Academy of Fine Arts. The aging artist signed a contract for $32,000.


To finalize the subjects for the paintings, Trumbull consulted with President James Madison, who requested that the figures be life-size. Together they chose from among the subjects that Trumbull had suggested to Congress, settling on two military and two civil scenes. Trumbull envisioned his four paintings for the Capitol Rotunda, dubbed by him the “Hall of the Revolution,” as a set, both visually and conceptually, and he carefully arranged them in a unified installation. The two indoor civil scenes, depicting the presentation of the Declaration of Independence and Washington resigning his commission, serve as “book-ends,” flanking the two outdoor military scenes, which mark the conclusion of the war’s most decisive battles.
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In his autobiography, Trumbull recounted:
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In his “Reminiscences,” he recalled struggling with the overall composition: “…the scene was altogether one of utter formality—the ground was level—military etiquette was to be scrupulously observed, and yet the portraits of the principal officers of three proud nations must be preserved, without intercepting the general regularity of the scene.” Adding the portraits gradually, he began with the French officers, painted from life when he was a guest of Thomas Jefferson in Paris in 1787. He regarded these “as the best of my small portraits.” By 1794, he had completed portraits of most of the American officers. He supplemented these careful renderings of the officers themselves with sketches made of the Yorktown surrender site.


Washington dictated that the terms of the capitulation, both in substance and ceremony, were to mirror those granted by the British to the Americans after their defeat at Charleston. Trumbull sought to document those proceedings in paint, which specified: “The garrison at York will march out to a place to be appointed in front of the posts, at two o’clock precisely with shouldered arms, colours cased, and drums beating a British or German march. They are then to ground their arms, and return to their encampments.”


When the painting was first publicly unveiled, Trumbull misidentified the central British officer relinquishing his sword as Lord Cornwallis, although it was known that he did not participate in the ceremonial surrender. The actual soldier who stood in for him was General Charles O’Hara. Trumbull later explained that his intent was to capture the “spirit or feeling” of the incident, acknowledged that not all details were historically accurate, and described the British soldiers as “principal officers of the British army,” rather than naming specific individuals.
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In that same year, 1787, Trumbull also painted Jefferson and Franklin from life. He added most of the Members of Congress later, basing them on pencil sketches or oil studies. If no life image could be obtained, Trumbull copied an existing portrait or painted the son as a substitute. In the Yale version, he finished the last portraits in 1820, 34 years after he began.


Trumbull completed a third version of the “Declaration of Independence” in 1832, aiming to correct inaccuracies in the architectural setting.
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John Trumbull (1756–1843), along with American artists Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley, helped forge a modern school of history painting that featured contemporary figures in contemporary dress. He is best known for his artworks documenting the scenes and participants of the American Revolution. Trumbull also had the distinction of being the first American artist to receive a governmental commission, of founding the first university art museum, and of writing the first published autobiography of an American artist.


Trumbull was born in Lebanon, Connecticut, in 1756, the youngest of six children. His father, Jonathan Trumbull, served as governor of Connecticut during the years preceding and following the Revolutionary War. Although Trumbull wanted to pursue art, he complied with his father’s wishes and graduated from Harvard College in 1773. Soon after, Trumbull served as an officer and General George Washington’s aide-de-camp during the early part of the Revolutionary War, witnessing the Battle of Bunker Hill while stationed in Roxbury in 1775. Two years later he resigned his commission as colonel.
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John Trumbull (1756–1843), along with American artists Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley, helped forge a modern school of history painting that featured contemporary figures in contemporary dress. He is best known for his artworks documenting the scenes and participants of the American Revolution. Trumbull also had the distinction of being the first American artist to receive a governmental commission, of founding the first university art museum, and of writing the first published autobiography of an American artist.


Trumbull was born in Lebanon, Connecticut, in 1756, the youngest of six children. His father, Jonathan Trumbull, served as governor of Connecticut during the years preceding and following the Revolutionary War. Although Trumbull wanted to pursue art, he complied with his father’s wishes and graduated from Harvard College in 1773. Soon after, Trumbull served as an officer and General George Washington’s aide-de-camp during the early part of the Revolutionary War, witnessing the Battle of Bunker Hill while stationed in Roxbury in 1775. Two years later he resigned his commission as colonel.
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John Trumbull (1756–1843), along with American artists Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley, helped forge a modern school of history painting that featured contemporary figures in contemporary dress. He is best known for his artworks documenting the scenes and participants of the American Revolution. Trumbull also had the distinction of being the first American artist to receive a governmental commission, of founding the first university art museum, and of writing the first published autobiography of an American artist.


Trumbull was born in Lebanon, Connecticut, in 1756, the youngest of six children. His father, Jonathan Trumbull, served as governor of Connecticut during the years preceding and following the Revolutionary War. Although Trumbull wanted to pursue art, he complied with his father’s wishes and graduated from Harvard College in 1773. Soon after, Trumbull served as an officer and General George Washington’s aide-de-camp during the early part of the Revolutionary War, witnessing the Battle of Bunker Hill while stationed in Roxbury in 1775. Two years later he resigned his commission as colonel.
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John Trumbull (1756–1843), along with American artists Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley, helped forge a modern school of history painting that featured contemporary figures in contemporary dress. He is best known for his artworks documenting the scenes and participants of the American Revolution. Trumbull also had the distinction of being the first American artist to receive a governmental commission, of founding the first university art museum, and of writing the first published autobiography of an American artist.


Trumbull was born in Lebanon, Connecticut, in 1756, the youngest of six children. His father, Jonathan Trumbull, served as governor of Connecticut during the years preceding and following the Revolutionary War. Although Trumbull wanted to pursue art, he complied with his father’s wishes and graduated from Harvard College in 1773. Soon after, Trumbull served as an officer and General George Washington’s aide-de-camp during the early part of the Revolutionary War, witnessing the Battle of Bunker Hill while stationed in Roxbury in 1775. Two years later he resigned his commission as colonel.
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The composition of the “Declaration,” painted decades earlier, dictated Trumbull’s approach to the “Resignation,” which mirrors its overall arrangement. Both scenes take place in the chambers of a civilian legislature, one in Philadelphia and the other in Annapolis. In the “Declaration,” the central figures face right. In the “Resignation,” the central figures face left. The two paintings are similar in composition, with figures seated and standing in the background, arrayed to observe the central action, the presentation of papers by Jefferson in the “Declaration” and by Washington in the “Resignation.” However, what Trumbull could not depict were the actual words spoken by Washington and the response by Confederation Congress President Thomas Mifflin, words that were included in explanatory signage when the painting was first exhibited.


Trumbull based the representation of George Washington on one of his own earlier portraits and relied on miniatures he did around 1790 for several other likenesses. He also studied portraits by fellow artists and contacted Members of Congress for portraits of the delegates. In keeping with his penchant to be truthful to the spirit of the scene but not always accurate in every detail, Trumbull included several figures who were not present at the actual event. Martha Washington and her grandchildren, who appear in the gallery, and the two daughters of Charles Carroll, standing next to him on the floor of the chamber, are the only female figures depicted in any of the four paintings. Trumbull may have added them to suggest a more egalitarian future society. Trumbull also included James Madison, likely because he was president when Trumbull was awarded the commission. 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.


To convincingly render the setting, Trumbull visited and sketched the room, the Senate Chamber of the State House, but he changes the position of the windows and other architectural features. In an early compositional sketch for the painting, Trumbull shows Mifflin seated in the chair on a more prominent rostrum. Washington is positioned closer to him. Trumbull also altered some other 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 the “Declaration of Independence,” which also helped to link the two paintings.
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The frames and architectural context of Trumbull’s paintings enhance their impact. The design for the installation in the Rotunda evolved and reflects the contributions of two architects and the artist. An early idea put forth by Benjamin Henry Latrobe was to mount the paintings from hooks further up the wall, but the paintings would have tilted forward. After some discussion, Latrobe suggested placing the paintings in shallow recesses in the walls with curved frames, but he resigned before the details could be fleshed out.


With the arrival of Latrobe’s successor, Architect Charles Bulfinch, Trumbull had another battle to fight. He had to persuade Bulfinch to keep the Rotunda as a space for the paintings, rather than carve it up for committee rooms. Bulfinch had toyed with the idea of creating a floating staircase and a separate picture gallery for the paintings, but Trumbull prevailed. Bulfinch then designed the gilded curved frames to create a transition from the flat canvases placed in the recesses to the curved walls. The top part of the frames curve and widen at the edges to convey the illusion of a concave image, seamlessly wedding the paintings to their architectural surroundings.
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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 Capitol that appeared on a $1.00 stamp in 1994.
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The “Surrender of General Burgoyne” was completed in December 1821 and was exhibited in New York City from January to March 1822 before being permanently installed in the Rotunda in 1826.


Between 1822 and 1832, Trumbull created a smaller version of this painting that is now part of the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery.
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Throughout his life, Trumbull balanced artistic pursuits with diplomatic assignments and business ventures. His time studying in Benjamin West’s studio in London and as a guest of Thomas Jefferson in Paris in the mid-1780s gave him access to the leading statesmen and artistic circles of the day. Some of his best works date to that period, characterized by freshness and spontaneity, evident in both brushwork and palette.
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Throughout his life, Trumbull balanced artistic pursuits with diplomatic assignments and business ventures. His time studying in Benjamin West’s studio in London and as a guest of Thomas Jefferson in Paris in the mid-1780s gave him access to the leading statesmen and artistic circles of the day. Some of his best works date to that period, characterized by freshness and spontaneity, evident in both brushwork and palette.
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Throughout his life, Trumbull balanced artistic pursuits with diplomatic assignments and business ventures. His time studying in Benjamin West’s studio in London and as a guest of Thomas Jefferson in Paris in the mid-1780s gave him access to the leading statesmen and artistic circles of the day. Some of his best works date to that period, characterized by freshness and spontaneity, evident in both brushwork and palette.
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Throughout his life, Trumbull balanced artistic pursuits with diplomatic assignments and business ventures. His time studying in Benjamin West’s studio in London and as a guest of Thomas Jefferson in Paris in the mid-1780s gave him access to the leading statesmen and artistic circles of the day. Some of his best works date to that period, characterized by freshness and spontaneity, evident in both brushwork and palette.
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Trumbull also added the banners, possibly upon Jefferson’s suggestion as they appear in the earliest pencil sketch. Other changes included a formal Doric cornice rather than Ionic and windows covered with heavy red drapes rather than Venetian blinds. Trumbull also substituted formal mahogany chairs for the simple Windsor chairs and gave John Hancock a particularly ornate chair.


The Capitol’s painting is based on Trumbull’s smaller Yale version, which Trumbull began decades before he won the Congressional commission. In the earlier version, the palette is brighter and the brushstrokes livelier. He painted three of the portraits directly on the canvas: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.
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Trumbull based his Rotunda painting on an earlier smaller version that he began in the mid-1780s while a student of Benjamin West in London.
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Trumbull based most of the figures on portraits he painted from life in the early 1790s.
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Trumbull began working on the “Declaration of Independence” when he was Thomas Jefferson’s guest in Paris in the fall of 1786. Trumbull recalled, “I began the composition of the Declaration of Independence, with the assistance of [Jefferson’s] information and advice.” Trumbull based the arrangement of the room on Jefferson’s floor plan, which was incorrect, particularly in the placement of the doors.
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Trumbull’s career, largely dedicated to leaving a visual record of the nation’s founders, culminated in this government commission for the United States Capitol Rotunda.


After completing the Rotunda paintings, Trumbull returned to the religious subjects of his earlier career but fell on hard times. In 1831 he deeded many of his works to Yale College in exchange for an annuity. Trumbull died in New York City on November 10, 1843, and was interred beneath the art gallery at Yale that he designed. Some decades later, his paintings and his remains were moved to a new art gallery at Yale, including the earlier versions of two of his Capitol paintings, along with an extensive collection of drawings and miniatures.
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Trumbull’s career, largely dedicated to leaving a visual record of the nation’s founders, culminated in this government commission for the United States Capitol Rotunda.


After completing the Rotunda paintings, Trumbull returned to the religious subjects of his earlier career but fell on hard times. In 1831 he deeded many of his works to Yale College in exchange for an annuity. Trumbull died in New York City on November 10, 1843, and was interred beneath the art gallery at Yale that he designed. Some decades later, his paintings and his remains were moved to a new art gallery at Yale, including the earlier versions of two of his Capitol paintings, along with an extensive collection of drawings and miniatures.
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Trumbull’s career, largely dedicated to leaving a visual record of the nation’s founders, culminated in this government commission for the United States Capitol Rotunda.


After completing the Rotunda paintings, Trumbull returned to the religious subjects of his earlier career but fell on hard times. In 1831 he deeded many of his works to Yale College in exchange for an annuity. Trumbull died in New York City on November 10, 1843, and was interred beneath the art gallery at Yale that he designed. Some decades later, his paintings and his remains were moved to a new art gallery at Yale, including the earlier versions of two of his Capitol paintings, along with an extensive collection of drawings and miniatures.
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Trumbull’s career, largely dedicated to leaving a visual record of the nation’s founders, culminated in this government commission for the United States Capitol Rotunda.


After completing the Rotunda paintings, Trumbull returned to the religious subjects of his earlier career but fell on hard times. In 1831 he deeded many of his works to Yale College in exchange for an annuity. Trumbull died in New York City on November 10, 1843, and was interred beneath the art gallery at Yale that he designed. Some decades later, his paintings and his remains were moved to a new art gallery at Yale, including the earlier versions of two of his Capitol paintings, along with an extensive collection of drawings and miniatures.
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Unlike his paintings the “Declaration of Independence” and the “Surrender of Lord Cornwallis,” Trumbull did not base this work on an earlier painting. He was possibly influenced by Benjamin West’s painting, “Edward the Black Prince Receiving King John of France After the Battle of Poitiers.”
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“In November 1786 I returned to London…went on with my studies of the other subjects of the history of the Revolution, arranged carefully the composition for the Declaration of Independence, and prepared it for receiving the portraits, as I might meet with the distinguished men, who were present at the illustrious scene. In the course of the summer of 1787, Mr. Adams took leave of the court of St. James, and preparatory to his voyage to America, had the powder combed out of his hair. Its color and natural curl were beautiful, and I took that opportunity to paint his portrait in the small Declaration of Independence.”
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Eric Schnitzer: The Saratoga National Historical Park is the place where the two battles of Saratoga were fought. The first battle, the Battle of Freeman's Farm, it's called, was fought on the 19th of September 1777. The second battle was fought two and a half weeks later, on the 7th of October 1777. Same armies were fighting.


Basically what happens is the two armies met in battle on the 19th of September. The British won, so our forces fall back to Bemis Heights, where our camp had been. Two and a half weeks later, the British, or rather an element of that British army, advances south in a direction toward our forces and we're thinking that they're coming out to attack us, so we attack in kind.


After the second of the two battles, the British were defeated but not yet surrendered, so they retreated. They tried to escape back to the safety of the north. They got as far as what is now called the Village of Schuylerville, back then it was called Saratoga, and that's where the British ended up surrendering.


When the British surrendered on the 17th of October 1777, General Burgoyne, the British commander, rode with his entourage of general staff officers south and General Gates, commander of the northern army, the American army, rode from his headquarters north, and the two generals met on the main road between Saratoga and Albany.


So they met. They shook hands. They exchanged pleasantries, perhaps unpleasantries, and then the two generals and their respective military families met up here on this very hilltop. And I think, I'm only guessing, that he chose to portray the surrender because that quickly was recognized as such a momentous event. It was the first time in world history that a British army had ever surrendered before. A British army had never surrendered, and so they saw this victory as a phenomenal moment.
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Eric Schnitzer: What we do know from narratives written at the time and afterwards by participants who were here. We know that they kind of had to set up a bit of a ramshackle dining facility for the generals and their respective staffs. So they talk about chairs and tables, and they talk about an awning. An awning in the 18th century, and today, would have been some kind of canvas cover without walls, right. So it's not a marquee of the type that you actually see in the painting of the surrender.


We know that John Trumbull, when he came up here to visit this location in 1791, he made some sketches. And one of the sketches he made was of Horatio Gates's headquarters tent. And it should not have been in the painting, frankly, because we know that this event—the tendering of the sword, the dining of the officers—that absolutely did not take place at Horatio Gates' headquarters. That took place between the two armies. So they had an awning up here. They had canvas, but they definitely did not have any kind of marquee headquarters marquee a la Horatio Gates.


As for the flag, we can look at the Congressional resolution of 14 June 1777 and see that's the date that what we would call the Stars and Stripes flag was adopted. But we also know throughout the American war for independence that that flag was not universally adhered to. You can see many examples, even post-war examples, in which representative flags of the United States were not in line with the Congressional resolution. So we have to ask ourselves, all right, so what is the most likely flag that was here? Was there a flag here?


The answer is, in short, we don't know if there was a flag here. We have no reference to it. Nobody mentioned it if there was, doesn't mean there wasn't, but we just don't know if there was one or not.


As for the design, the design is perfectly in line with the Congressional resolution passed in June of 1777, but is it plausible that such a thing would have been created in time during the chaotic retreat from the north, from Ticonderoga, that summer? We can't say no. We can't say that. We can't say it's impossible. No. However, I would say that there are a couple of other earlier contemporaneous, in fact, depictions of what was supposedly flown in the American camp representing the national flag in 1777, specifically at Saratoga. And it was what was typically called the continental stripes. What the British called the rebel stripes, and it was simply a flag with no canton, with just red and white stripes, 13 in number. That was the unofficial go to flag of the new United States after we declared independence from Great Britain. So you find that popping up in 1776, this flag, and certainly it was carried at other times during the course of the war.


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James Benson: The moment in history is the Committee of Five turning in the draft of the Declaration of Independence on June 28, 1776. The committee consisted of Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Robert Livingston of New York, John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, and the primary writer, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia.


Well the historical reality is that delegates would not have been present on June 28; they were scheduled to convene on the first of July. According to the Journal of the Continental Congress, in volume five, 1776, the committee brought in their draft; it was read and placed on the table. According to the journal, some changes in the wording were made then, but the majority of edits would have taken place between the third and Fourth of July.


There were two signers on the Fourth of July: John Hancock and Charles Thomson, the secretary. And then the Dunlap Broadside was printed and circulated on the fifth. Public readings of the Declaration took place starting on the eighth of July, and all throughout the colonies thereafter—or should I say, independent states.


The idea to have a formal signing was presented on the 19th of July, and the signing process began, starting on the second of August, and it took time for all the signers to sign the document.


Lastly, it was printed in January of 1777 by Mary Katherine Goddard to circulate the document with the signers’ names to help promote the patriotic effort. Because what is this document? While yes, it is a proclamation for the patriotic cause to separate from England and become an independent nation with a list of grievances to reinforce that call, but in the document are two concepts from enlightenment thought that truly make this document special and have it impact the entire world. The argument for the right of people to govern themselves with representative government and the argument that all people are born with natural rights. These two core concepts are at the heart of what makes this document special, and our nation special, because it changed the world.
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Lauren Krupinski: The most striking inaccuracy in Trumbull’s painting is its title, “The Surrender of Lord Cornwallis.” Cornwallis is not depicted in this painting. Claiming illness, Cornwallis was the most notable absence from the surrender ceremony. General Charles O'Hara, Cornwallis’ second in command, was sent in his place. Riding out from Yorktown on horseback, General O'Hara approached the awaiting American and French armies and asked for French General Rochambeau.


O'Hara knew that George Washington, not Rochambeau, was the overall commander of the two allied armies, so asking for the French general was likely a British attempt to avoid surrendering directly to the Americans. Rochambeau, recognizing this slight to the American Army, motioned for O'Hara to be directed over to Washington. O'Hara apologized to Washington for Cornwallis’ absence. He extended an arm towards Washington to surrender Cornwallis’ sword, but Washington remained still. “Never from such a good hand,” he remarked, and directed O'Hara over to his second in command, General Benjamin Lincoln. If Cornwallis was going to send out his second in command, then his sword would be surrendered to Washington's second in command.


Lincoln accepted the sword from the British general's outstretched arm, held it for a symbolic moment, and then returned it to O'Hara. Therefore, it is General Benjamin Lincoln, not George Washington, who serves as the central figure in Trumbull's painting.
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Lauren Krupinski: Trumbull is depicting the British surrender to the allied American and French armies at Yorktown. Three weeks into the siege, with his soldiers trapped within Yorktown, suffering from the spread of illness and heavy allied artillery fire, British General Charles Cornwallis signaled his desire to discuss terms of surrender with the wave of an officer's white handkerchief. Two days later, on the afternoon of October 19, 1781, the British marched out to Surrender Field and laid down their arms.


The Siege of Yorktown became the last major engagement of the Revolutionary War. When news of the surrender reached King George III's government, the Prime Minister reportedly cried out, “Oh God, it's over!” The surrender of thousands of British and German soldiers, approximately one quarter of all British forces in North America, was a decisive blow, and the months-long campaign to subdue the southern colonies came to an end.


Back in London, the British government, now tangled in a global war against the French, the Spanish and the Dutch, no longer had the will to keep pouring money and soldiers into North America. Within a year, an American delegation sat with their British counterparts to negotiate a peace treaty, The Treaty of Paris.


The British surrender at Yorktown cleared the path for securing American independence, a course of action taken more than six years prior in 1776. It was time to shift the focus away from war and towards building a new nation—a free and independent republic.
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Michele Cohen: In the “Resignation,” in keeping with his approach to his three earlier history paintings, Trumbull exercised artistic license to enhance the scene’s dramatic effect. He modified the furnishings and added figures who did not attend—most prominently Martha Washington in the balcony with her grandchildren. By including these figures, Trumbull wedded Washington’s public and private lives.


He also omitted some crucial details. In the carefully choreographed ceremony, Washington was to bow to Congress before and after making his remarks, but delegates were instructed not to bow in return. Rather, they would remove their hats in acknowledgement. There were to be no royal trappings in this unprecedented transfer of power. Eschewing historical accuracy, Trumbull painted Congressional figures without hats, undoubtedly to avoid obscuring the likenesses he had so painstakingly recorded.


In the painting, Trumbull positions Washington in the center of the composition, and President of Congress Thomas Mifflin plays more of a supporting role on the side, although an earlier sketch places the figures much closer together. Congress carefully staged the act of Washington’s resignation for a national and international audience. Washington’s words and Mifflin’s reply spread across the globe. Trumbull, in London at the time, read about the event in newspaper accounts, which left a lasting impression.
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Michele Cohen: John Trumbull (1756–1843), along with American artists Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley, helped forge a modern school of history painting that featured contemporary figures in contemporary dress. He is best known for his artworks documenting scenes and participants of the American Revolution. Trumbull also had the distinction of being the first American artist to receive a governmental commission, of founding the first university art museum, and writing the first published autobiography of an American artist.


Trumbull was born in Lebanon, Connecticut, in 1756, the youngest of six children. His father, Jonathan Trumbull, served as governor of Connecticut during the years preceding and following the Revolutionary War. Although Trumbull wanted to pursue art, he complied with his father’s wishes and graduated from Harvard College in 1773. Soon after, Trumbull served as an officer and General George Washington’s aide-de-camp during the early part of the Revolutionary War, witnessing the Battle of Bunker Hill while stationed in Roxbury in 1775. Two years later he resigned his commission as colonel.


Throughout his life, Trumbull balanced artistic pursuits with diplomatic assignments and business ventures. His time studying in Benjamin West’s studio in London and as a guest of Thomas Jefferson’s in Paris in the mid-1780s gave him access to the leading statesmen and artistic circles of the day. Some of his best works date to that period, characterized by lively brushwork and vivid color. He excelled as a miniaturist, possibly because he was left blind in one eye after a childhood accident. Trumbull’s career, largely dedicated to leaving a visual record of the nation’s founders, culminated in this government commission for the United States Capitol Rotunda.


After completing the Rotunda paintings, Trumbull returned to the religious subjects of his earlier career but fell on hard times. In 1831, he deeded many of his works to Yale College in exchange for an annuity. Trumbull died in New York City on November 10, 1843, and was interred beneath the art gallery at Yale that he designed. Some decades later, his paintings and his remains were moved to a new art gallery at Yale, including the earlier versions of two of his Capitol paintings, along with an extensive collection of drawings and miniatures.
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Michele Cohen: Trumbull’s “Declaration of Independence” is one of the nation’s most recognizable images. Like the Capitol Dome itself, it has come to symbolize American democracy. Even before Trumbull completed it, he hired artist Asher B. Durand to engrave it. Durand’s 1820 print disseminated the image widely. It is pictured on the reverse of the $2 bill and has appeared on U.S. postage stamps.


Trumbull’s real motivation in painting the Declaration, as well as other paintings in the series, was to record the likenesses of participants rather than provide an historically accurate depiction of the event itself. From a distance, the spectator cannot make out the individual portraits that constitute the mosaic of faces Trumbull painted into each scene. It is only when we get close that we can discern the facial features of young and old, farmers, merchants, and soldiers. One could conclude that in some ways Trumbull sacrificed the whole for the parts, driven as he was by a notion of authenticity rooted in painstaking realism—that is, the realism of individual portraits. But because Trumbull’s mission was to convey the values he viewed as fundamental to American democracy as he understood it—honor on the battlefield, self-restraint, rational and orderly debate—he had to memorialize the actors central to the events he depicted. Today, two centuries later, the actions of the people Trumbull portrayed, rather than their faces, may resonate more for viewers.
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Michele Cohen: Trumbull was at his best as a miniaturist. Yale University Art Gallery has about 60 miniatures. At the time, Trumbull won the Congressional Commission in 1817, he was the only American artist who had the documentary portraits that were the basis for the paintings, so it did give him an edge on his competitors. His work as a miniaturist constitutes some of his strongest work, and I think the key to understanding his approach to history paintings and the premium he put on portraiture.


The idea for the series of these Revolutionary War paintings came from fellow artist Benjamin West, the American artist who had moved to England to be court painter to King George the Third, but because West was the court painter to King George the Third, he really wasn't in a position to take on this project, and he encouraged Trumbull to take up the challenge instead. Trumbull's access to revolutionary leaders made him uniquely positioned as an artist.


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Robin Gower: Trumbull is depicting the moment on December 23, 1783, at noon, when General George Washington resigned his commission as commander in chief of the Continental Army in the Old Senate Chamber of the Maryland State House.


This painting is different from the actual event in a few ways. Interestingly, while Trumbull did visit the Maryland State House and the Old Senate Chamber before completing his painting and captured many of the architectural details accurately, the actual orientation of the room is slightly different. In his painting, the wall with the fireplace and two doors is depicted in the background, with the rostrum on the left and the balcony on the right. However, that wall is on the opposite side of the room. The correct orientation would have depicted the wall with two windows and no fireplace.


Also, the original furnishings of the room were no longer present when Trumbull visited. Instead, he copied the chairs he had painted in the “Declaration of Independence.” The chairs on display here today are based on later archival research.


Another inaccuracy can be found in the people present in the room. Some people depicted here in the painting were not present on December 23, 1783, including James Madison and Martha Washington and her grandchildren, among others. Though Charles Carroll of Carrollton is depicted, there's no surviving archival evidence that confirms he was there, and his daughters certainly would not have been on the Senate floor.


Women were present during the resignation and watched the events from the balcony. We know women were there from several firsthand accounts of the event, including one from Molly Ridout, who described the balcony where she stood was “full of ladies.”


We know from the published rules of the ceremony that, “The President and Members are to be seated and covered,” meaning that the Members of Congress should be wearing hats on their heads. This is one aspect of the protocol meant to emphasize the power of Congress.
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William diGiacomantonio: This painting shows the commander in chief of the Continental Army, George Washington, surrendering his commission, that had been given to him in June of 1775.


This painting depicts an event that happened in December 1783. Most of the Army is already disbanded. There is a small army left on the frontier and in a couple of the armories that the national government kept. But for the most part, the need for a commander in chief with Washington's powers is gone, so he is giving back the commission that was given to him eight years earlier.


It's taking place in the Assembly Room of the Maryland state government in Annapolis. For our comparison purposes, this is the Maryland version of the Assembly Room in Philadelphia, which is the setting for the Declaration painting.


There is again a showing of delegates to the Confederation Congress. There's Charles Thomson in this painting. Again, he is the sole representative of the stability of the national government at this point. I even hesitate to call it a national government. It was a government that claimed certain jurisdiction over areas of common interests among the 13 states.


This event being portrayed, and the general idea of Washington giving up his commission and the powers that it conveyed, would have struck almost any audience, particularly a European audience, as one of the most important events of the Revolutionary War.


I think the really important thing to bear in mind about this act of giving up his commission is that it shows the proper relationship between military leaders, even successful ones like George Washington, and civic leaders, even unsuccessful ones like the Confederation Congress. George Washington isn't giving up his commission [be]cause he's sure that the government is in good hands with the Congress. He had no reason to think that Congress would succeed at the challenges it was facing at the time. George Washington had no reason to think that he was passing over his powers to Congress because Congress would know what to do with them. He was passing them back to Congress because they came from Congress in the first place, and he was simply returning them to Congress as he was supposed to do as military leader. So for George Washington, although the moment might have been fraught with anxiety, there would have been no question in his mind—for someone of George Washington's character—there would’ve been no question in his mind that this is what he had to do.


And indeed, you look at the painting and no one looks particularly anxious in the painting. Again, it's a bureaucratic moment. It's focusing on a piece of paper. Isn't that funny? I mean in a government that as John Adams said, “a government of laws and not of men;” men are just the agents of the ideas and significance conveyed generally in words on a piece of paper, which is how they recorded words back then. That's the significance of this moment.
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William diGiacomantonio: Trumbull's presentation of this moment is really not a moment in history. He's not reporting a moment. He's memorializing a moment, which gives him the artistic license that is rife in this painting.


The gathering of people here in the painting is the Second Continental Congress. There was a first, held two years before the time of this painting. Both First and Second Continental Congresses were called by the colonial provincial legislatures, which sent representatives. They were called delegates. They were called together to convey the ideas of the respective colonies and provinces to the wider gathering. The fact that the gathering exists in the first place was a small r and capital R revolutionary innovation. It had only happened a couple times before in British colonial history. The times that it’s happening here rightly sent a tidal wave of concern across the Atlantic to Great Britain. They were terrified of the idea of the American colonies getting together.


The Second Continental Congress depicted here was into its second year. The Congress was composed of state delegations that could have any number of members, but the states voting in Congress voted by state, so each state only had one vote.


The five men that are presenting the Declaration—by the way, it would not have looked like this. Typically, the chairperson of a committee reporting to one of the Continental Congresses simply rose at his seat at the table. Each delegation had a table. In this case, Thomas Jefferson would have risen from his seat at the Virginia delegation's table and presented the Declaration. They wouldn't have all walked up together to the president's desk, but with a piece of paper, you need to have some sort of critical mass, because a piece of paper is, excepting the ideas it contains, a very flimsy thing. And so he needed to have this critical mass of personalities. And by God, you had quite a few personalities in that committee.


The actual Declaration is the document in the hand of Thomas Jefferson that we see here, standing in front of the rest of his Declaration Committee. The place where they're presenting it is at a table where the president of Congress, John Hancock of Massachusetts, sits. And right next to him, you'll note the guy on the right who shares top billing, at least in terms of height and prominence, is the secretary of the Congress, Charles Thomson. And I think that's important. Charles Thomson's presence magnifies the fact that we're dealing here with a document.


The Members of Congress represented here were not there at the moment being memorialized in this painting. Many of them were signers, but they didn't appear until after the moment this painting presumably signifies. So, it's really important to focus not on the men here, but on the document. And I think that's Trumbull's point. The men who signed this document are just attesting to the fact that they support it, but Trumbull's painting goes beyond that. He's really focusing on the document as an articulation, a manifesto of ideas upon which the country will be based.


You see in the far back wall those flags and the drum, all the insignia of warfare. These are things that would have been recognizable instantly to a European audience, because every European nation at the time was established by force of arms or dynastic claims or what have you. This is the first time that a country is claiming its own ownership based on a possession of ideas and concepts, and those have to be articulated in the document that the secretary of Congress will keep in his possession, just like any other bureaucrat keeps track of a document.


So that is the significance, I think, of focusing on the document, which Trumbull does magnificently here. Expressing it as a bureaucratic moment, but more particularly an aspirational manifesto contained in the words of a document and not at the tip of a sword, say.
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Trumbull Painting - General George Washington Resigning His Commission
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Trumbull Painting - Surrender of General Burgoyne
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Trumbull Painting - Surrender of Lord Cornwallis
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20th Century (1953 - 1997)


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Trumbull Painting - General George Washington Resigning His Commission
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Trumbull Painting - Surrender of General Burgoyne
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Trumbull Painting - Surrender of Lord Cornwallis
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Depicting the Event
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Depicting the Founders
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John Trumbull, Artist
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Siege of Yorktown
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Significance of the Event
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The Drafting Committee
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The Second Continental Congress
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The Surrender
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Declaration of Independence
By John Trumbull



The first painting that artist John Trumbull completed for the Rotunda, the “Declaration of Independence,” memorializes the presentation of the first draft of the Declaration of Independence to the Second Continental Congress on June 28, 1776. Trumbull’s depiction does not record the actual signing, which took place over a period of months, but highlights the symbolic act that triggered the Revolutionary War leading to American independence.


The painting features Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, placing the document in front of John Hancock, seated next to the standing figure of Charles Thomson, the secretary of the Congress. Flanking Jefferson are the other four members of the drafting committee: John Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, and Benjamin Franklin. Although there were 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, Trumbull portrayed 47 figures, including five who were not signers.


The event took place in the Pennsylvania State House, now Independence Hall, in Philadelphia. The composition is largely imagined, and several prominent architectural details are inaccurate. The vantage point is looking west toward the room’s entrance, so members would be facing the dais opposite it, allowing for a better frontal perspective of faces. In reality, though, the delegates arrayed around the central group would not have been in the room when the committee presented the draft document. Trumbull’s goal was to capture the likenesses of the nation’s founders, rather than recreate the presentation scene with historical accuracy.
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General George Washington Resigning His Commission
By John Trumbull


The fourth and final painting that Trumbull completed for the Capitol Rotunda was “General George Washington Resigning his Commission.” It depicts the scene on December 23, 1783, in the old Senate Chamber of the Maryland State House in Annapolis, when George Washington resigned his commission as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. Trumbull captures the moment when Washington concludes his remarks to the Confederation Congress, explaining “Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of action, and bidding an affectionate farewell to this august body, under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my commission and take leave of all the employment of public life.” For Trumbull, this act establishing civilian authority over the military, “was one of the highest moral lessons ever given to the world.”


To dramatize this historic event, Trumbull places a statuesque and composed Washington, dressed in regimental yellow and bathed in light, in the center of the canvas. He directs his remarks to Thomas Mifflin, president of the Confederation Congress, positioned toward the left edge of the canvas, surrounded by Congressional delegates. Behind Washington are his aides-de-camp, Colonel Benjamin Walker and Colonel David Humphreys, and spectators, including Martha Washington and her grandchildren in the balcony, whom Trumbull added for dramatic effect. The delegates and spectators direct their attention to Washington as he extends his right hand to return his commission along with a copy of his remarks. 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. As viewers, we join the painted spectators to bear witness to a pivotal historic moment foundational to American democracy.






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Surrender of General Burgoyne
By John Trumbull


The third painting that artist John Trumbull completed for the Rotunda, the “Surrender of General Burgoyne” depicts the British surrender at Saratoga, New York, on October 17, 1777.


American General Horatio Gates (in the blue jacket) is in the painting’s center. He refuses British General John Burgoyne’s sword and instead offers hospitality by directing Burgoyne to the nearby tent. An American flag flies in the wind at the top of the tent.


To Burgoyne’s left is William Phillips, a British Major General. American officers gather at the sides to witness the event; their varied dress reflects their different units. Although Trumbull depicts them here, they did not witness the actual ceremony. Most would have been near the river in the distance with their troops. The painting omits one of the key participants in the battle—General Benedict Arnold who led the Continental Army to victory. He was wounded and bedridden.


In the painting completed in 1821, Trumbull takes artistic license with the landscape, the assembled group of figures, the tent, which would have been a tarp on poles, and even the flag itself may not have been the one that was flown. However, the cannon depicted was one of 47 artillery pieces surrendered to the American Army at Saratoga.


Trumbull’s real objective in creating the painting 44 years after the surrender was to capture for posterity the likenesses of the officers involved, not to accurately depict the event.






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Surrender of Lord Cornwallis
By John Trumbull


The second painting that Trumbull completed for his Revolutionary War series for the United States Capitol was “The Surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown.” It depicts the formal surrender ceremony that took place at Yorktown, Virginia, on October 19, 1781, terminating the siege and ending the last major battle of the Revolutionary War.


In the center of the scene, American Major General Benjamin Lincoln appears mounted on a white horse. He extends his right hand toward the sword carried by the surrendering British officer, who heads the long line of British troops receding into the background. To the left, French officers arranged behind General Jean-Baptiste Rochambeau appear standing and mounted beneath the white banner of the royal Bourbon family. On the right a column of American soldiers that extended over a mile line up behind officers beneath the Stars and Stripes; among them are the Marquis de Lafayette and Colonel Jonathan Trumbull, the brother of the painter. General George Washington, riding a brown horse, stayed in the background because Lord Cornwallis himself was not present for the surrender.


To place the scene in Yorktown, Trumbull provides a glimpse of the York River and the entrance to the Chesapeake. Dominating the horizon line in the distance is the Nelson House, which functioned as Cornwallis’ headquarters during the siege leading up to the surrender. Located about one mile from the site of the actual surrender, this impressive Georgian home would not have been visible to observers at the scene.


Gaps in the dark voluminous clouds reveal a blue sky spotlighting the victorious flags of the French and American armies. Trumbull emphasizes the ritualized solemnity of the event by using symmetry and positioning the viewer between the flanking armies and neat formations of soldiers.






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Assembly Room
Independence National Historical Park, Pennsylvania


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Old Senate Chamber
Maryland State House, Maryland
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Surrender Field
Yorktown Battlefield, Colonial National Historical Park, Virginia
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Saratoga Surrender Site
Saratoga National Historical Park, New York
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About the Artist
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About the Artist
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About the Artist
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About the Artist
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Artistic Process and Other Versions
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Artistic Process and Other Versions
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Artistic Process and Other Versions
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Artistic Process
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Conservation
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Framing the Paintings
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History of the Commission
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History of the Commission
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History of the Commission
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History of the Commission
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Key


1. Count Deuxponts, Colonel of French Infantry
2. Duke de Laval Montmorency, Colonel of French Infantry
3. Count Custine, Colonel of French Infantry
4. Duke de Lauzun, Colonel of French Cavalry
5. General Choizy
6. Viscount Viomenil
7. Marquis de St. Simon
8. Count Fersen, Aide-de-camp of Count Rochambeau
9. Count Charles Damas, Aide-de-camp of Count Rochambeau
10. Marquis Chastellux
11. Baron Viomenil
12. Count de Barras, Admiral
13. Count de Grasse, Admiral
14. Count Rochambeau, General en Chef des Francais
15. General Lincoln
16. E. Stevens, Colonel of American Artillery
17. General Washington, Commander in Chief
18. Thomas Nelson, Governor of Virginia
19. Marquis Lafayette
20. Baron Steuben
21. Colonel Cobb, Aide-de-camp to General Washington
22. Colonel Trumbull, Secretary to General Washington
23. Maj. Gen. James Clinton, N.Y.
24. General Gist, Md.
25. Gen. Anthony Wayne, Pa.
26. General Hand, Pa., Adjutant General
27. Gen. Peter Muhlenberg, Pa.
28. Maj. Gen. Henry Knox, Commander of Artillery
29. Lieut. Col. E. Huntington, Acting Aide-de-camp of General Lincoln
30. Col. Timothy Pickering, Quartermaster General
31. Col. Alexander Hamilton, commanding Light Infantry
32. Col. John Laurens, S.C.
33. Col. Walter Stuart, Philadelphia
34. Col. Nicholas Fish, N.Y.
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Key


1. Thomas Mifflin, Pa., President Delegate
2. Charles Thomson, Pa., Secretary
3. Elbridge Gerry, Mass., Delegate
4. Hugh Williamson, N.C., Delegate
5. Samuel Osgood, Mass., Delegate
6. Eleazer McComb, Del., Delegate
7. George Partridge, Mass., Delegate
8. Edward Lloyd, Md., Delegate
9. Richard D. Spaight, N.C., Delegate
10. Benjamin Hawkins, N.C., Delegate
11. Abiel Foster, N.H., Delegate
12. Thomas Jefferson, Va., Delegate
13. Arthur Lee, Va., Delegate
14. David Howell, R.I., Delegate
15. James Monroe, Va., Delegate
16. Jacob Read, S.C., Delegate
17. James Madison, Va., Spectator
18. William Ellergy, R.I., Delegate
19. J. Townley Chase, Md., Delegate
20. Samuel Hardy, Va., Delegate
21. Charles Morris, Pa., Delegate
22. General Washington
23. Col. Benjamin Walker, Aide-de-camp
24. Col. David Humphreys, Aide-de-camp
25. General Smallwood, Md., Spectator
26. Gen. Otho Holland Williams, Md., Spectator
27. Col. Samuel Smith, Md., Spectator
28. Col. John E. Howard, Md., Spectator
29. Charles Carroll and two daughters, Md.
30. Mrs. Washington and her three grandchildren
31. Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, Md., Spectator
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Battle of Saratoga
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Picturing the Scene
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Trumbull as a Miniaturist
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Aides-de-Camp


Colonel David Humphreys and Colonel Benjamin Walker traveled with Washington to Annapolis. Their duties included copying and managing Washington’s correspondence and military orders. They also drafted his reports to Congress. Humphreys had served as aide-de-camp for several generals and had been with Washington since 1780. Walker had been with Washington since 1782 and previously served as Baron von Steuben’s aide-de-camp, relying on his fluent French to translate Steuben's letters and directives.



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Baron von Steuben


Baron Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin von Steuben greatly contributed to turning the Continental Army into a formidable fighting force against the British. He arrived during the army’s encampment at Valley Forge in February 1778. Steuben was a twice-wounded captain who had served in the Prussian Army. Washington valued his combat experience and appointed him inspector general. Steuben aggressively trained and drilled the American officers and soldiers together on troop movement, rules of engagement, munitions, and tactical retreat. Often, he gave instructions in a mixture of German, French, and limited English sprinkled with profanities, which Alexander Hamilton, John Laurens, and the Marquis de Lafayette enjoyed translating.



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British Commanders


British Lieutenant General John Burgoyne (1722-1792) spent the winter of 1776-77 in London proposing a new campaign to end the war. His plan had troops traveling south from Montreal to Albany and meeting up with British forces traveling north from New York City—thereby seizing control of the Hudson River Valley. In June 1777, Burgoyne’s army, including troops, artillery pieces, officers’ families and more, left Montreal for Fort Ticonderoga and succeeded in capturing the fort. Continuing south towards Albany, Burgoyne and his forces traveled through Saratoga where General Gates and the Northern Army defeated them. On October 17, 1777, Burgoyne and his troops surrendered their weapons and supplies to the American forces.


Major General William Phillips (1731-1781) was Burgoyne’s second in command and a veteran artillery officer. Phillips led several troops, including the Royal Artillery and the Corps of Engineers, and he oversaw the quartermaster, commissary and hospital departments.


Major General Friedrich Riedesel (1738-1800) was a Hessian baron who commanded German soldiers under Burgoyne. His forces also included British soldiers, loyalists and Native American allies. In this painting, Trumbull emphasizes the role of the British officers by making these figures more prominent.
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British Troops


Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess and 2nd Earl Cornwallis, was a veteran of the French and Indian War, and in 1780, he took command of the British soldiers in the South. He had defeated American troops in South Carolina and believed that he could end the war in Great Britain’s favor if he could win at Yorktown. He disagreed with General Henry Clinton, and reinforcements from New York were either delayed or blocked by French naval forces in the Chesapeake Bay. Cornwallis’ troops, consisting of British, Hessian, and loyalist forces, were outnumbered by Washington’s and Rochambeau’s. The siege lasted from September 28 until October 19. Cornwallis sent a drummer boy and an officer with a white flag to signal the request to negotiate the cessation of hostilities. On October 19, Cornwallis claimed illness and therefore did not attend the surrender ceremony.



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Colonel Daniel Morgan


American Colonel Daniel Morgan (1736-1802) raised a corps of Virginia riflemen following the Battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775. At the Battles of Saratoga, Morgan’s riflemen fought alongside a number of state militias including two regiments from Connecticut, two from New Hampshire, three from Massachusetts and one from Canada. Though often lumped together, there were two distinct battles of Saratoga that occurred several weeks apart—the Battle of Freeman’s Farm on September 19, 1777, and the Battle of Bemis Heights on October 7, 1777. While all of the men depicted in this painting were present at the surrender of General Burgoyne, they were not necessarily on the hilltop where the surrender took place. The vast majority of the officer corps and militia were lined up along the roadside as the Northern Army/American troops marched the British forces into captivity.
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General George Washington


General George Washington was determined to liberate New York City from British occupation while Lord Cornwallis’ troops dug defensive lines at Yorktown. After learning that French naval commander Comte de Grasse was sailing with 27 ships from the West Indies, French General Jean-Baptiste Rochambeau convinced Washington to face Cornwallis. Washington left a small contingent of soldiers behind so that British General Henry Clinton was unaware of the Americans’ shift in strategy and troop movements south. Washington had 5,700 soldiers and 3,200 militiamen joined by 7,800 Frenchmen, outnumbering Cornwallis’ 9,000 troops. He ordered the shelling of the British lines and the digging of battlefield forts called redoubts to parallel those of the enemy. Washington’s aides, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Hamilton and Lieutenant Colonel John Laurens, led a surprise attack on British redoubts #9 and #10 with fixed bayonets. After the battle, Washington repaid the embarrassment for Charles Town by forcing the defeated British troops to lay down their arms and furl their flags as they marched past the American and French victors.



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General Horatio Gates


General Horatio Gates (1727-1806) took command of the Northern Army in 1777 after petitioning Congress to relieve General Philip Schuyler following the fall of Fort Ticonderoga. Born in England, Gates had previously served in the British army before resigning his commission and becoming a farmer in Virginia. He took up arms for the American Revolution in 1775 and initially served as General Washington’s adjutant. Gates commanded his army at Saratoga alongside General Benedict Arnold. Injured during the Battle of Bemis Heights, Arnold was not at the surrender of Saratoga and is therefore not pictured in the painting. Gates’ victory and the subsequent surrender of Lieutenant General John Burgoyne marked an indisputable turning point in the war, cementing French support for the American cause.


Gates continued to serve in the Continental Army throughout the Revolutionary War, but he never repeated his success at Saratoga. Gates suffered a resounding defeat at the Battle of Camden in August 1780 and was subsequently relieved of command. He continued to serve as a senior officer through 1783 and briefly served in the New York State Legislature in 1800.


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General Lincoln


Major General Benjamin Lincoln of Hingham, Massachusetts, fought battles in the north and was injured at Saratoga before being appointed commander of the Continental Army’s Southern Army. Lincoln defended Charles Town (Charleston), South Carolina, from British forces for six weeks until he and 5,000 American troops surrendered to British General Henry Clinton. After a prisoner exchange, Lincoln returned to the Continental Army and became General Geoge Washington’s second-in-command. At the formal British surrender at Yorktown, General Charles Cornwallis was absent. In his stead, General Charles O'Hara, at Washington's direction, presented his sword to Lincoln. Lincoln accepted and returned the sword.



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George Washington


General Washington maintained command of the Continental Army after the Siege of Yorktown in 1781 ended the war until peace with Great Britain was declared in the Treaty of Paris in September 1783. Washington requested an audience with the Confederation Congress, then meeting in the state house in Annapolis, Maryland. On December 23, 1783, Washington addressed Congress. Those present recalled a visibly emotional Washington as he bid them farewell and tendered his resignation as commander-in-chief to retire from public life. He then bowed reverently and departed to return to his home at Mount Vernon in Virginia.
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James Monroe


Lieutenant James Monroe was one of the newest and youngest members of the Confederation Congress. He left his studies at the College of William and Mary at the start of the war, participated in the siege of the arsenal in Williamsburg, joined the 3rd Virginia Infantry Regiment, and was wounded at the Battle of Trenton. Mentored by fellow Virginian Thomas Jefferson, Monroe studied law and served in the Virginia House of Delegates. Monroe was elected to the Confederation Congress a month before Washington’s resignation.



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Marquis de Lafayette


Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, was born to a noble family in France in 1757. His immense wealth and admiration for the American cause led him to defy a royal decree that forbade French officers from joining the war. In April 1777, he landed in South Carolina and was commissioned a major general by the Continental Congress. Lafayette became one of Washington’s closest aides and survived some of the war’s harshest fighting as well as the Continental Army’s worst winters, including at Valley Forge. He risked arrest by King Louis XVI when he returned to France to rally support and returned with 6,000 troops. In 1781, Lafayette was in Virginia fighting the turncoat General Benedict Arnold. Ahead of the Continentals’ and French arrival in September, he was ordered to surround Cornwallis at Yorktown to prevent his retreat to North Carolina. On October 14, 1781, Lafayette participated in the successful surprise attack on the British redoubts.



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Martha Washington


Martha Washington was not present in Annapolis when her husband resigned his commission; however, she did spend every winter from 1776 to 1783 with George Washington wherever the Continental Army was encamped. In 1776, she was inoculated against smallpox for protection as she moved with other officers’ wives among the camps, attending to sick, injured, and distressed soldiers. Martha also assisted Washington with his written correspondence and was vital in comforting the general through the darkest days of the war.



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Thomas Mifflin and Charles Thomson


Major General Thomas Mifflin (seated) tendered his resignation as a quartermaster for the Continental Army after disagreeing with Washington’s leadership. He advocated replacing Washington as commander in chief with General Horatio Gates, which proved unsuccessful. He went on to serve as a delegate from Pennsylvania and president of the Continental Congress.


Charles Thomson, an Irish immigrant and scholar, served as a tutor of Latin and Greek at the Academy of Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania). Thomson published a paper decrying the treatment of the Delaware and Shawnee Indians by the British, and for his fervent resistance to the 1765 Stamp Act, he earned the moniker “The Sam Adams of Philadelphia.” On September 5, 1774, Thomson was unanimously elected secretary of the Continental Congress, a post he held for the duration of the war.



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Authors of the Declaration


John Adams of Massachusetts, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, Robert Livingston of New York, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, and Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania served as delegates to the Second Continental Congress. The Congress selected them to form the Committee of Five to draft the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson was the principal author of the document, with significant input from Adams and Franklin. The process began on June 11, 1776, and Congress voted to declare independence on July 2. Two days later—July 4—the ratified document was printed by John Dunlap of Philadelphia and distributed to the American people.
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Charles Thomson, Secretary


Charles Thomson, an Irish immigrant and scholar, served as a tutor of Latin and Greek at the Academy of Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania). Thomson published a paper decrying the treatment of the Delaware and Shawnee Indians by the British, and for his fervent resistance to the 1765 Stamp Act, he earned the moniker “The Sam Adams of Philadelphia.” On September 5, 1774, Thomson was unanimously elected secretary of the Continental Congress, a post he held for the duration of the war. Thomson, as secretary, did not sign the document, nor did three other delegates: Robert R. Livingston called for the independence vote to be postponed until he received direction from New York, and Pennsylvanians John Dickinson and Thomas Willing believed America was not ready to break from Great Britain.
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Curator Notes
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Curator Notes
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Curator Notes
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Curator Notes
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John Hancock


John Hancock inherited a lucrative shipping business from his wealthy uncle in Boston. Hancock chafed at the numerous taxes imposed by the British Parliament on the American colonists. In 1768, British customs officials seized Hancock’s merchant ship, the Liberty, claiming he had not paid taxes on the cargo. This outrage led to protests, and Hancock joined the cries for independence. He represented Massachusetts in the Second Continental Congress and, in 1775, became its president, despite being wanted by the British government. In one of the boldest moves in American history, Hancock prominently signed his name first to the Declaration of Independence.
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Signers of the Declaration


The signers came from different walks of colonial American life. Selected by committees and colonial legislatures, they were lawyers, merchants, farmers, doctors, printers, and a music composer. The number of signers per state:
• Massachusetts: 5
• Georgia: 3
• North Carolina: 3
• South Carolina: 4
• Maryland: 4
• Virginia: 7
• Pennsylvania: 9
• Delaware: 3
• New York: 4
• New Jersey: 5
• New Hampshire: 3
• Rhode Island: 2
• Connecticut: 4
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Key


1. Count Deuxponts, Colonel of French Infantry
2. Duke de Laval Montmorency, Colonel of French Infantry
3. Count Custine, Colonel of French Infantry
4. Duke de Lauzun, Colonel of French Cavalry
5. General Choizy
6. Viscount Viomenil
7. Marquis de St. Simon
8. Count Fersen, Aide-de-camp of Count Rochambeau
9. Count Charles Damas, Aide-de-camp of Count Rochambeau
10. Marquis Chastellux
11. Baron Viomenil
12. Count de Barras, Admiral
13. Count de Grasse, Admiral
14. Count Rochambeau, General en Chef des Francais
15. General Lincoln
16. E. Stevens, Colonel of American Artillery
17. General Washington, Commander in Chief
18. Thomas Nelson, Governor of Virginia
19. Marquis Lafayette
20. Baron Steuben
21. Colonel Cobb, Aide-de-camp to General Washington
22. Colonel Trumbull, Secretary to General Washington
23. Maj. Gen. James Clinton, N.Y.
24. General Gist, Md.
25. Gen. Anthony Wayne, Pa.
26. General Hand, Pa., Adjutant General
27. Gen. Peter Muhlenberg, Pa.
28. Maj. Gen. Henry Knox, Commander of Artillery
29. Lieut. Col. E. Huntington, Acting Aide-de-camp of General Lincoln
30. Col. Timothy Pickering, Quartermaster General
31. Col. Alexander Hamilton, commanding Light Infantry
32. Col. John Laurens, S.C.
33. Col. Walter Stuart, Philadelphia
34. Col. Nicholas Fish, N.Y.
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Key


1. George Wythe, Va.
2. William Whipple, N.H.
3. Josiah Bartlett, N.H.
4. Benjamin Harrison, Va.
5. Thomas Lynch, S.C.
6. Richard Henry Lee, Va.
7. Samuel Adams, Mass.
8. Stephen Hopkins, R.I.
9. William Paca, Md.
10. Samuel Chase, Md.
11. Lewis Morris, N.Y.
12. William Floyd, N.Y.
13. Arthur Middleton, S.C.
14. Thomas Heyward, Jr., S.C.
15. Charles Carroll, Md.
16. George Walton, Ga.
17. Robert Morris, Pa.
18. Thomas Willing, Pa.*
19. Benjamin Rush, Pa.
20. Elbridge Gerry, Mass.
21. Robert Treat Paine, Mass.
22. Abraham Clark, N.J.
23. John Dickinson, Pa.*
24. William Ellery, R.I.
25. George Clymer, Pa.
26. William Hooper, N.C.
27. Joseph Hewes, N.C.
28. James Wilson, Pa.
29. Francis Hopkinson, N.J.
30. John Adams, Mass.
31. Roger Sherman, Conn.
32. Robert R. Livingston, N.Y.*
33. Thomas Jefferson, Va.
34. Benjamin Franklin, Pa.
35. Richard Stockton, N.J.
36. Francis Lewis, N.Y.
37. John Witherspoon, N.J.
38. Samuel Huntington, Conn.
39. William Williams, Conn.
40. Oliver Wolcott, Conn.
41. John Hancock, Mass.
42. Charles Thomson, Secretary, Pa.*
43. George Read, Del.
44. George Clinton, N.Y.*
45. Edward Rutledge, S.C.
46. Thomas McKean, Del.
47. Philip Livingston, N.Y.


* There were 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence. The painting portrays only 47. The five men whose names are starred were not signers. The portraits of the following 14 signers do not appear in this painting:


Matthew Thornton, N.H.
John Hart, N.J.
John Morton, Pa.
James Smith, Pa.
George Taylor, Pa.
George Ross, Pa.
Caesar Rodney, Del.
Thomas Stone, Md.
Thomas Nelson, Jr., Va.
Francis Lightfoot Lee, Va.
Carter Braxton, Va.
John Penn, N.C.
Button Gwinnett, Ga.
Lyman Hall, Ga.



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Key


1. Major Lithcow, Mass.
2. Colonel Cilly, N.H.
3. General Stark, N.H.
4. Captain Seymour, of Shelton's Horse
5. Major Hull, Mass.
6. Colonel Greaton, Mass.
7. Major Dearborne, N.H.
8. Colonel Scammell, N.H.
9. Colonel Lewis Quartermaster General, N.H.
10. Major General Phillips, British
11. Lieutenant General Burgoyne, British
12. General Baron Riedesel, German
13. Colonel Wilkinson, Deputy Adjutant General, American
14. General Gates
15. Colonel Prescott, Massachusetts Volunteers
16. Colonel Morgan, Virginia Rifleman
17. Brig. Gen. Rufus Putnam, Mass.
18. Liet. Col. John Brooks, late Governor of Massachusetts
19. Rev. Mr. Hitchcock, chaplain, R.I.
20. Maj. Rob Troup, Aide-de-camp, N.Y.
21. Major Haskell
22. Major Armstrong
23. Maj. Gen. Philip Schuyler, Albany
24. Brigadier General Glover, Mass.
25. Brigadier General Whipple, New Hampshire Militia
26. Maj. M. Clarkson Aide-de-camp, N.Y.
27. Maj. Ebenezer Stevens, Mass., commanding the artillery
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Key


1. Thomas Mifflin, Pa., President Delegate
2. Charles Thomson, Pa., Secretary
3. Elbridge Gerry, Mass., Delegate
4. Hugh Williamson, N.C., Delegate
5. Samuel Osgood, Mass., Delegate
6. Eleazer McComb, Del., Delegate
7. George Partridge, Mass., Delegate
8. Edward Lloyd, Md., Delegate
9. Richard D. Spaight, N.C., Delegate
10. Benjamin Hawkins, N.C., Delegate
11. Abiel Foster, N.H., Delegate
12. Thomas Jefferson, Va., Delegate
13. Arthur Lee, Va., Delegate
14. David Howell, R.I., Delegate
15. James Monroe, Va., Delegate
16. Jacob Read, S.C., Delegate
17. James Madison, Va., Spectator
18. William Ellergy, R.I., Delegate
19. J. Townley Chase, Md., Delegate
20. Samuel Hardy, Va., Delegate
21. Charles Morris, Pa., Delegate
22. General Washington
23. Col. Benjamin Walker, Aide-de-camp
24. Col. David Humphreys, Aide-de-camp
25. General Smallwood, Md., Spectator
26. Gen. Otho Holland Williams, Md., Spectator
27. Col. Samuel Smith, Md., Spectator
28. Col. John E. Howard, Md., Spectator
29. Charles Carroll and two daughters, Md.
30. Mrs. Washington and her three grandchildren
31. Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, Md., Spectator
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20th Century Exterior
The tradition of placing a light at the highest point of the U.S. Capitol can be traced back to the middle of the 19th century, when the top of the Capitol was the highest point in the city. Gas lighting was used until the beginning of the 20th century, when the Capitol switched to electric lighting supplied by the Capitol Power Plant.


For decades, the lighting of the Capitol Dome exterior corresponded with major events and night sessions, such as on March 3 and 4, 1917, the second inauguration of President Woodrow Wilson, and on April 2, 1917, when President Wilson called for the United States to enter World War I during a night session.


In August 1917, however, it was decided that the Dome should be lit every night to inspire the patriotic sentiments of visitors and troops passing through the city. This practice continued through and after the war, interrupted only by a coal strike in 1919.


In 1923, improved floodlights were installed, and in 1929, the Dome was lit to be visible at night to small airplanes. During World War II, the Dome was “blacked out” from December 9, 1941, through May 1945. After the war, the Dome was once again illuminated until midnight. Beginning in 1964, the lights have been kept on until sunrise except for a brief period during the 1973 energy crisis.


Today, the interior of the Tholos at the top of the Capitol Dome is lit by four 500-watt bulbs when the Senate or the House of Representatives is in session at night. The Tholos, the painted cast-iron structure below the Statue of Freedom, was designed as part of the Dome by Thomas U. Walter. It is a round structure, more than 50 feet high, with 12 Corinthian columns and 12 windows, modeled on a type of Greek temple. Its illumination during night sessions has been continued as a tradition rather than through legislation.
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Bulfinch Dome Exterior
The Capitol’s first dome, finished in 1824, was designed by Charles Bulfinch, a Boston architect who brought the building to completion after more than 30 years of sporadic construction. In Bulfinch’s original design the dome was lower, but President James Monroe requested that it be more prominent. Bulfinch’s Dome was constructed of wood covered by copper and raised the Rotunda’s height to 96 feet. Light entered through an oculus, a round window at the top of the Dome. By the 1850s, Bulfinch’s Dome appeared too small and out of proportion for the vastly enlarged Capitol. It was removed in the fall of 1856 and replaced with the Dome visitors can still see today.


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Modern Day Exterior
Since the completion of the Capitol Dome in 1865, the Architect of the Capitol has continually preserved the structural integrity of this great American symbol.


From 1959-1960, the Capitol Dome underwent a restoration that included removing its 19th-century paint and applying a reddish primer before a coating of lead-based white paint. During the same period, the East Front of the Capitol was extended 32 ½ feet, which provided a visual base for the Dome that appeared more stable. The most recent restoration began in 2014 to repair more than 1,300 cracks to the cast-iron, replace damaged ornamentation, and apply new exterior paint to protect the Dome from corrosion. Scaffolding was placed around the exterior of the Dome for three years while various techniques were used to seal the cracks, and 1,215 gallons of paint were applied to give the Dome its pristine marble-like appearance. This restoration was completed ahead of the 2017 Presidential Inauguration.


The Statue of Freedom has also been conserved, with a major restoration happening in the 1990s. Following advice from the Smithsonian Institution Conservation Analytical Laboratory, the Freer Gallery of Art, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Statue of Freedom was lifted from its pedestal atop the Dome by a helicopter on May 9, 1993. Placed in an enclosure on the East Front Plaza, the statue underwent a comprehensive restoration process that included removal of corrosion, caulk, and interior paint; repairs and repatination of the bronze; and application of protective coatings. Approximately 700 pits in the bronze were plugged and larger areas repaired with bronze plates. Patina tests concluded the statue’s repatination color should be close to the “bronze green” noted in early records, and bronze alloy was applied to different parts to achieve a uniform color. After repatination, protective coatings of lacquer and wax were applied. Four months later, the surrounding enclosure was removed, and the fully restored statue was on full public view before it was returned by helicopter to its pedestal atop the Dome on October 23, 1993. Since then, the Statue of Freedom continues to undergo regular inspections for signs of corrosion or other damage, caulking is renewed, and protective coatings are reapplied periodically.


Another change to the East Front of the Capitol in the 21st century was the construction of the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center. To coincide with the anniversary of the completion of the Statue of Freedom, the Capitol Visitor Center opened its doors on December 2, 2008. More than 2 million visitors per year come through the main entrance to enjoy tours, amenities and educational programs. In the center of the Capitol Visitor Center’s Emancipation Hall is the 19 ½-foot plaster model of the Statue of Freedom, and visitors can admire the statue’s features up close.
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Walter Construction Exterior
Philadelphia architect Thomas U. Walter designed the extensions of the House and Senate wings and the Capitol’s second, and most iconic, Dome. Walter and Captain Montgomery C. Meigs, appointed superintendent of the extension in 1853, were the key figures in the Dome’s construction. Walter’s design called for the replacement of Bulfinch’s smaller 1824 dome for a larger, fireproof cast-iron dome painted to resemble marble. Within 10 weeks of Walter’s hanging his designs in his office in the Capitol, the House of Representatives enthusiastically appropriated $100,000 for the new Dome. The Senate agreed and on March 3, 1855, President Franklin Pierce rushed to sign the legislation. Construction lasted from 1856 to 1866.


Work on the Dome progressed at a rapid pace in 1857. Nearly all of the peristyle’s columns were set on brackets, embedded in 5,214,000 pounds of masonry built atop the Rotunda’s existing walls. In 1858, work slowed dramatically due to conflicts between Walter and Meigs. Walter refused to hand over his architectural drawings because Meigs often changed them without consultation. Meigs retaliated by refusing to approve the pay of Walter’s draftsmen. The dispute did allow time for Walter to revise the original design of the upper parts of the Dome, changes that were necessary because of the evolving design of the statue commissioned for the top of the Dome.


Walter’s original design called for a 16-foot-tall statue. Meigs commissioned American sculptor Thomas Crawford to create the statue. Working in his studio in Rome, Crawford produced several maquettes, or models, for the statue. He deemed the first version too small once he saw a drawing of the proposed Dome. The second design included a taller pedestal and a revised figure wearing a soft freedom cap. After Crawford made modifications requested by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, then overseeing the construction at the Capitol, his final model for a 19-foot, 6-inch statue included a Roman helmet with feathers. Walter was obliged to lower the overall height of the Dome to broaden the platform that would carry the tholos and support the taller statue. The result was a Dome reduced from an overall height of 300 feet to 288 feet. Walter also redesigned the Dome’s interior, devising the double dome scheme based on the Panthéon in Paris, which he had seen in 1838.


In the fall of 1859, Meigs was replaced by William B. Franklin as the superintendent of the extension. A few weeks later, Franklin received a proposal from the New York foundry Janes, Fowler, Kirtland and Company. The firm proposed to finish all remaining work on the Dome for 7 cents per pound to “complete and put up.” The offer was accepted in February 1860, placing the work under a single contract. This arrangement ensured construction of the Dome was uninterrupted by the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. Work stopped on the Capitol extensions for a year, but the Dome continued to rise above the Rotunda.
Crawford’s plaster model for the Statue of Freedom, based on his third and final design, depicted a female figure holding a laurel wreath and a sheathed sword, and wearing a helmet composed of an eagle’s head with stars. The plaster model was shipped to the United States in five crates following Crawford’s death, and an Italian sculptor assembled it but refused to disassemble it for casting without a pay raise. An enslaved foundry worker named Philip Reid used a pulley and tackle to pull on the model’s seams, revealing its sections. Once separated, the model’s pieces were transported to Clark Mills’s bronze foundry outside Washington, D.C.


On December 2, 1863, the final section of the 15,000-pound Statue of Freedom was lifted into place amid a great celebration and military salutes.


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Assembly Room
Independence National Historical Park, Pennsylvania
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Old Senate Chamber
Maryland State House, Maryland
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Saratoga Surrender Site
Saratoga National Historical Park, New York
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Surrender Field
Yorktown Battlefield, Colonial National Historical Park, Virginia
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20th Century Exterior


The tradition of placing a light at the highest point of the U.S. Capitol can be traced back to the middle of the 19th century, when the top of the Capitol was the highest point in the city. Gas lighting was used until the beginning of the 20th century, when the Capitol switched to electric lighting supplied by the Capitol Power Plant.


For decades, the lighting of the Capitol Dome exterior corresponded with major events and night sessions, such as on March 3 and 4, 1917, the second inauguration of President Woodrow Wilson, and on April 2, 1917, when President Wilson called for the United States to enter World War I during a night session.


In August 1917, however, it was decided that the Dome should be lit every night to inspire the patriotic sentiments of visitors and troops passing through the city. This practice continued through and after the war, interrupted only by a coal strike in 1919.


In 1923, improved floodlights were installed, and in 1929, the Dome was lit to be visible at night to small airplanes. During World War II, the Dome was “blacked out” from December 9, 1941, through May 1945. After the war, the Dome was once again illuminated until midnight. Beginning in 1964, the lights have been kept on until sunrise except for a brief period during the 1973 energy crisis.


Today, the interior of the Tholos at the top of the Capitol Dome is lit by four 500-watt bulbs when the Senate or the House of Representatives is in session at night. The Tholos, the painted cast-iron structure below the Statue of Freedom, was designed as part of the Dome by Thomas U. Walter. It is a round structure, more than 50 feet high, with 12 Corinthian columns and 12 windows, modeled on a type of Greek temple. Its illumination during night sessions has been continued as a tradition rather than through legislation.
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Bulfinch Dome Exterior


The Capitol’s first dome, finished in 1824, was designed by Charles Bulfinch, a Boston architect who brought the building to completion after more than 30 years of sporadic construction. In Bulfinch’s original design the dome was lower, but President James Monroe requested that it be more prominent. Bulfinch’s Dome was constructed of wood covered by copper and raised the Rotunda’s height to 96 feet. Light entered through an oculus, a round window at the top of the Dome. By the 1850s, Bulfinch’s Dome appeared too small and out of proportion for the vastly enlarged Capitol. It was removed in the fall of 1856 and replaced with the Dome visitors can still see today.
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Modern Day Exterior


Since the completion of the Capitol Dome in 1865, the Architect of the Capitol has continually preserved the structural integrity of this great American symbol.
From 1959-1960, the Capitol Dome underwent a restoration that included removing its 19th-century paint and applying a reddish primer before a coating of lead-based white paint. During the same period, the East Front of the Capitol was extended 32 ½ feet, which provided a visual base for the Dome that appeared more stable. The most recent restoration began in 2014 to repair more than 1,300 cracks to the cast-iron, replace damaged ornamentation, and apply new exterior paint to protect the Dome from corrosion. Scaffolding was placed around the exterior of the Dome for three years while various techniques were used to seal the cracks, and 1,215 gallons of paint were applied to give the Dome its pristine marble-like appearance. This restoration was completed ahead of the 2017 Presidential Inauguration.


The Statue of Freedom has also been conserved, with a major restoration happening in the 1990s. Following advice from the Smithsonian Institution Conservation Analytical Laboratory, the Freer Gallery of Art, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Statue of Freedom was lifted from its pedestal atop the Dome by a helicopter on May 9, 1993. Placed in an enclosure on the East Front Plaza, the statue underwent a comprehensive restoration process that included removal of corrosion, caulk, and interior paint; repairs and repatination of the bronze; and application of protective coatings. Approximately 700 pits in the bronze were plugged and larger areas repaired with bronze plates. Patina tests concluded the statue’s repatination color should be close to the “bronze green” noted in early records, and bronze alloy was applied to different parts to achieve a uniform color. After repatination, protective coatings of lacquer and wax were applied. Four months later, the surrounding enclosure was removed, and the fully restored statue was on full public view before it was returned by helicopter to its pedestal atop the Dome on October 23, 1993. Since then, the Statue of Freedom continues to undergo regular inspections for signs of corrosion or other damage, caulking is renewed, and protective coatings are reapplied periodically.


Another change to the East Front of the Capitol in the 21st century was the construction of the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center. To coincide with the anniversary of the completion of the Statue of Freedom, the Capitol Visitor Center opened its doors on December 2, 2008. More than 2 million visitors per year come through the main entrance to enjoy tours, amenities and educational programs. In the center of the Capitol Visitor Center’s Emancipation Hall is the 19 ½-foot plaster model of the Statue of Freedom, and visitors can admire the statue’s features up close.
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Walter Construction Exterior


Philadelphia architect Thomas U. Walter designed the extensions of the House and Senate wings and the Capitol’s second, and most iconic, Dome. Walter and Captain Montgomery C. Meigs, appointed superintendent of the extension in 1853, were the key figures in the Dome’s construction. Walter’s design called for the replacement of Bulfinch’s smaller 1824 dome for a larger, fireproof cast-iron dome painted to resemble marble. Within 10 weeks of Walter’s hanging his designs in his office in the Capitol, the House of Representatives enthusiastically appropriated $100,000 for the new Dome. The Senate agreed and on March 3, 1855, President Franklin Pierce rushed to sign the legislation. Construction lasted from 1856 to 1866.


Work on the Dome progressed at a rapid pace in 1857. Nearly all of the peristyle’s columns were set on brackets, embedded in 5,214,000 pounds of masonry built atop the Rotunda’s existing walls. In 1858, work slowed dramatically due to conflicts between Walter and Meigs. Walter refused to hand over his architectural drawings because Meigs often changed them without consultation. Meigs retaliated by refusing to approve the pay of Walter’s draftsmen. The dispute did allow time for Walter to revise the original design of the upper parts of the Dome, changes that were necessary because of the evolving design of the statue commissioned for the top of the Dome.


Walter’s original design called for a 16-foot-tall statue. Meigs commissioned American sculptor Thomas Crawford to create the statue. Working in his studio in Rome, Crawford produced several maquettes, or models, for the statue. He deemed the first version too small once he saw a drawing of the proposed Dome. The second design included a taller pedestal and a revised figure wearing a soft freedom cap. After Crawford made modifications requested by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, then overseeing the construction at the Capitol, his final model for a 19-foot, 6-inch statue included a Roman helmet with feathers. Walter was obliged to lower the overall height of the Dome to broaden the platform that would carry the tholos and support the taller statue. The result was a Dome reduced from an overall height of 300 feet to 288 feet. Walter also redesigned the Dome’s interior, devising the double dome scheme based on the Panthéon in Paris, which he had seen in 1838.


In the fall of 1859, Meigs was replaced by William B. Franklin as the superintendent of the extension. A few weeks later, Franklin received a proposal from the New York foundry Janes, Fowler, Kirtland and Company. The firm proposed to finish all remaining work on the Dome for 7 cents per pound to “complete and put up.” The offer was accepted in February 1860, placing the work under a single contract. This arrangement ensured construction of the Dome was uninterrupted by the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. Work stopped on the Capitol extensions for a year, but the Dome continued to rise above the Rotunda.


Crawford’s plaster model for the Statue of Freedom, based on his third and final design, depicted a female figure holding a laurel wreath and a sheathed sword, and wearing a helmet composed of an eagle’s head with stars. The plaster model was shipped to the United States in five crates following Crawford’s death, and an Italian sculptor assembled it but refused to disassemble it for casting without a pay raise. An enslaved foundry worker named Philip Reid used a pulley and tackle to pull on the model’s seams, revealing its sections. Once separated, the model’s pieces were transported to Clark Mills’s bronze foundry outside Washington, D.C.


On December 2, 1863, the final section of the 15,000-pound Statue of Freedom was lifted into place amid a great celebration and military salutes.
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Aides-de-Camp


Colonel David Humphreys and Colonel Benjamin Walker traveled with Washington to Annapolis. Their duties included copying and managing Washington’s correspondence and military orders. They also drafted his reports to Congress. Humphreys had served as aide-de-camp for several generals and had been with Washington since 1780. Walker had been with Washington since 1782 and previously served as Baron von Steuben’s aide-de-camp, relying on his fluent French to translate Steuben's letters and directives.
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Authors of the Declaration


John Adams of Massachusetts, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, Robert Livingston of New York, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, and Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania served as delegates to the Second Continental Congress. The Congress selected them to form the Committee of Five to draft the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson was the principal author of the document, with significant input from Adams and Franklin. The process began on June 11, 1776, and Congress voted to declare independence on July 2. Two days later—July 4—the ratified document was printed by John Dunlap of Philadelphia and distributed to the American people.
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Baron von Steuben


Baron Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin von Steuben greatly contributed to turning the Continental Army into a formidable fighting force against the British. He arrived during the army’s encampment at Valley Forge in February 1778. Steuben was a twice-wounded captain who had served in the Prussian Army. Washington valued his combat experience and appointed him inspector general. Steuben aggressively trained and drilled the American officers and soldiers together on troop movement, rules of engagement, munitions, and tactical retreat. Often, he gave instructions in a mixture of German, French, and limited English sprinkled with profanities, which Alexander Hamilton, John Laurens, and the Marquis de Lafayette enjoyed translating.
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British Commanders


British Lieutenant General John Burgoyne (1722-1792) spent the winter of 1776-77 in London proposing a new campaign to end the war. His plan had troops traveling south from Montreal to Albany and meeting up with British forces traveling north from New York City—thereby seizing control of the Hudson River Valley. In June 1777, Burgoyne’s army, including troops, artillery pieces, officers’ families and more, left Montreal for Fort Ticonderoga and succeeded in capturing the fort. Continuing south towards Albany, Burgoyne and his forces traveled through Saratoga where General Gates and the Northern Army defeated them. On October 17, 1777, Burgoyne and his troops surrendered their weapons and supplies to the American forces.


Major General William Phillips (1731-1781) was Burgoyne’s second in command and a veteran artillery officer. Phillips led several troops, including the Royal Artillery and the Corps of Engineers, and he oversaw the quartermaster, commissary and hospital departments.


Major General Friedrich Riedesel (1738-1800) was a Hessian baron who commanded German soldiers under Burgoyne. His forces also included British soldiers, loyalists and Native American allies. In this painting, Trumbull emphasizes the role of the British officers by making these figures more prominent.
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British Troops


Lieutenant General Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess and 2nd Earl Cornwallis, was a veteran of the French and Indian War, and in 1780, he took command of the British soldiers in the South. He had defeated American troops in South Carolina and believed that he could end the war in Great Britain’s favor if he could win at Yorktown. He disagreed with General Henry Clinton, and reinforcements from New York were either delayed or blocked by French naval forces in the Chesapeake Bay. Cornwallis’ troops, consisting of British, Hessian, and loyalist forces, were outnumbered by Washington’s and Rochambeau’s. The siege lasted from September 28 until October 19. Cornwallis sent a drummer boy and an officer with a white flag to signal the request to negotiate the cessation of hostilities. On October 19, Cornwallis claimed illness and therefore did not attend the surrender ceremony.
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Charles Thomson, Secretary


Charles Thomson, an Irish immigrant and scholar, served as a tutor of Latin and Greek at the Academy of Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania). Thomson published a paper decrying the treatment of the Delaware and Shawnee Indians by the British, and for his fervent resistance to the 1765 Stamp Act, he earned the moniker “The Sam Adams of Philadelphia.” On September 5, 1774, Thomson was unanimously elected secretary of the Continental Congress, a post he held for the duration of the war. Thomson, as secretary, did not sign the document, nor did three other delegates: Robert R. Livingston called for the independence vote to be postponed until he received direction from New York, and Pennsylvanians John Dickinson and Thomas Willing believed America was not ready to break from Great Britain.
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Colonel Daniel Morgan


American Colonel Daniel Morgan (1736-1802) raised a corps of Virginia riflemen following the Battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775. At the Battles of Saratoga, Morgan’s riflemen fought alongside a number of state militias including two regiments from Connecticut, two from New Hampshire, three from Massachusetts and one from Canada. Though often lumped together, there were two distinct battles of Saratoga that occurred several weeks apart—the Battle of Freeman’s Farm on September 19, 1777, and the Battle of Bemis Heights on October 7, 1777. While all of the men depicted in this painting were present at the surrender of General Burgoyne, they were not necessarily on the hilltop where the surrender took place. The vast majority of the officer corps and militia were lined up along the roadside as the Northern Army/American troops marched the British forces into captivity.
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Curator Notes
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Curator Notes
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Curator Notes
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General Benjamin Lincoln


Major General Benjamin Lincoln of Hingham, Massachusetts, fought battles in the north and was injured at Saratoga before being appointed commander of the Continental Army’s Southern Army. Lincoln defended Charles Town (Charleston), South Carolina, from British forces for six weeks until he and 5,000 American troops surrendered to British General Henry Clinton. After a prisoner exchange, Lincoln returned to the Continental Army and became General Geoge Washington’s second-in-command. At the formal British surrender at Yorktown, General Charles Cornwallis was absent. In his stead, General Charles O'Hara, at Washington's direction, presented his sword to Lincoln. Lincoln accepted and returned the sword.
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General George Washington Resigning His Commission
By John Trumbull
The fourth and final painting that Trumbull completed for the Capitol Rotunda was “General George Washington Resigning his Commission.” It depicts the scene on December 23, 1783, in the old Senate Chamber of the Maryland State House in Annapolis, when George Washington resigned his commission as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. Trumbull captures the moment when Washington concludes his remarks to the Confederation Congress, explaining “Having now finished the work assigned me, I retire from the great theatre of action, and bidding an affectionate farewell to this august body, under whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my commission and take leave of all the employment of public life.” For Trumbull, this act establishing civilian authority over the military, “was one of the highest moral lessons ever given to the world.”


To dramatize this historic event, Trumbull places a statuesque and composed Washington, dressed in regimental yellow and bathed in light, in the center of the canvas. He directs his remarks to Thomas Mifflin, president of the Confederation Congress, positioned toward the left edge of the canvas, surrounded by Congressional delegates. Behind Washington are his aides-de-camp, Colonel Benjamin Walker and Colonel David Humphreys, and spectators, including Martha Washington and her grandchildren in the balcony, whom Trumbull added for dramatic effect. The delegates and spectators direct their attention to Washington as he extends his right hand to return his commission along with a copy of his remarks. 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. As viewers, we join the painted spectators to bear witness to a pivotal historic moment foundational to American democracy.
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General George Washington


General George Washington was determined to liberate New York City from British occupation while Lord Cornwallis’ troops dug defensive lines at Yorktown. After learning that French naval commander Comte de Grasse was sailing with 27 ships from the West Indies, French General Jean-Baptiste Rochambeau convinced Washington to face Cornwallis. Washington left a small contingent of soldiers behind so that British General Henry Clinton was unaware of the Americans’ shift in strategy and troop movements south. Washington had 5,700 soldiers and 3,200 militiamen joined by 7,800 Frenchmen, outnumbering Cornwallis’ 9,000 troops. He ordered the shelling of the British lines and the digging of battlefield forts called redoubts to parallel those of the enemy. Washington’s aides, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Hamilton and Lieutenant Colonel John Laurens, led a surprise attack on British redoubts #9 and #10 with fixed bayonets. After the battle, Washington repaid the embarrassment for Charles Town by forcing the defeated British troops to lay down their arms and furl their flags as they marched past the American and French victors.
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General Horatio Gates


General Horatio Gates (1727-1806) took command of the Northern Army in 1777 after petitioning Congress to relieve General Philip Schuyler following the fall of Fort Ticonderoga. Born in England, Gates had previously served in the British army before resigning his commission and becoming a farmer in Virginia. He took up arms for the American Revolution in 1775 and initially served as General Washington’s adjutant. Gates commanded his army at Saratoga alongside General Benedict Arnold. Injured during the Battle of Bemis Heights, Arnold was not at the surrender of Saratoga and is therefore not pictured in the painting. Gates’ victory and the subsequent surrender of Lieutenant General John Burgoyne marked an indisputable turning point in the war, cementing French support for the American cause.


Gates continued to serve in the Continental Army throughout the Revolutionary War, but he never repeated his success at Saratoga. Gates suffered a resounding defeat at the Battle of Camden in August 1780 and was subsequently relieved of command. He continued to serve as a senior officer through 1783 and briefly served in the New York State Legislature in 1800.
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George Washington


General Washington maintained command of the Continental Army after the Siege of Yorktown in 1781 ended the war until peace with Great Britain was declared in the Treaty of Paris in September 1783. Washington requested an audience with the Confederation Congress, then meeting in the state house in Annapolis, Maryland. On December 23, 1783, Washington addressed Congress. Those present recalled a visibly emotional Washington as he bid them farewell and tendered his resignation as commander-in-chief to retire from public life. He then bowed reverently and departed to return to his home at Mount Vernon in Virginia.
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James Monroe


Lieutenant James Monroe was one of the newest and youngest members of the Confederation Congress. He left his studies at the College of William and Mary at the start of the war, participated in the siege of the arsenal in Williamsburg, joined the 3rd Virginia Infantry Regiment, and was wounded at the Battle of Trenton. Mentored by fellow Virginian Thomas Jefferson, Monroe studied law and served in the Virginia House of Delegates. Monroe was elected to the Confederation Congress a month before Washington’s resignation.
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John Hancock


John Hancock inherited a lucrative shipping business from his wealthy uncle in Boston. Hancock chafed at the numerous taxes imposed by the British Parliament on the American colonists. In 1768, British customs officials seized Hancock’s merchant ship, the Liberty, claiming he had not paid taxes on the cargo. This outrage led to protests, and Hancock joined the cries for independence. He represented Massachusetts in the Second Continental Congress and, in 1775, became its president, despite being wanted by the British government. In one of the boldest moves in American history, Hancock prominently signed his name first to the Declaration of Independence.
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Key
1. George Wythe, Va.
2. William Whipple, N.H.
3. Josiah Bartlett, N.H.
4. Benjamin Harrison, Va.
5. Thomas Lynch, S.C.
6. Richard Henry Lee, Va.
7. Samuel Adams, Mass.
8. Stephen Hopkins, R.I.
9. William Paca, Md.
10. Samuel Chase, Md.
11. Lewis Morris, N.Y.
12. William Floyd, N.Y.
13. Arthur Middleton, S.C.
14. Thomas Heyward, Jr., S.C.
15. Charles Carroll, Md.
16. George Walton, Ga.
17. Robert Morris, Pa.
18. Thomas Willing, Pa.*
19. Benjamin Rush, Pa.
20. Elbridge Gerry, Mass.
21. Robert Treat Paine, Mass.
22. Abraham Clark, N.J.
23. John Dickinson, Pa.*
24. William Ellery, R.I.
25. George Clymer, Pa.
26. William Hooper, N.C.
27. Joseph Hewes, N.C.
28. James Wilson, Pa.
29. Francis Hopkinson, N.J.
30. John Adams, Mass.
31. Roger Sherman, Conn.
32. Robert R. Livingston, N.Y.*
33. Thomas Jefferson, Va.
34. Benjamin Franklin, Pa.
35. Richard Stockton, N.J.
36. Francis Lewis, N.Y.
37. John Witherspoon, N.J.
38. Samuel Huntington, Conn.
39. William Williams, Conn.
40. Oliver Wolcott, Conn.
41. John Hancock, Mass.
42. Charles Thomson, Secretary, Pa.*
43. George Read, Del.
44. George Clinton, N.Y.*
45. Edward Rutledge, S.C.
46. Thomas McKean, Del.
47. Philip Livingston, N.Y.


* There were 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence. The painting portrays only 47. The five men whose names are starred were not signers. The portraits of he following 14 signers do not appear in this painting:


Matthew Thornton, N.H.
John Hart, N.J.
John Morton, Pa.
James Smith, Pa.
George Taylor, Pa.
George Ross, Pa.
Caesar Rodney, Del.
Thomas Stone, Md.
Thomas Nelson, Jr., Va.
Francis Lightfoot Lee, Va.
Carter Braxton, Va.
John Penn, N.C.
Button Gwinnett, Ga.
Lyman Hall, Ga.
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Key
1. Major Lithcow, Mass.
2. Colonel Cilly, N.H.
3. General Stark, N.H.
4. Captain Seymour, of Shelton's Horse
5. Major Hull, Mass.
6. Colonel Greaton, Mass.
7. Major Dearborne, N.H.
8. Colonel Scammell, N.H.
9. Colonel Lewis Quartermaster General, N.H.
10. Major General Phillips, British
11. Lieutenant General Burgoyne, British
12. General Baron Riedesel, German
13. Colonel Wilkinson, Deputy Adjutant General, American
14. General Gates
15. Colonel Prescott, Massachusetts Volunteers
16. Colonel Morgan, Virginia Rifleman
17. Brig. Gen. Rufus Putnam, Mass.
18. Liet. Col. John Brooks, late Governor of Massachusetts
19. Rev. Mr. Hitchcock, chaplain, R.I.
20. Maj. Rob Troup, Aide-de-camp, N.Y.
21. Major Haskell
22. Major Armstrong
23. Maj. Gen. Philip Schuyler, Albany
24. Brigadier General Glover, Mass.
25. Brigadier General Whipple, New Hampshire Militia
26. Maj. M. Clarkson Aide-de-camp, N.Y.
27. Maj. Ebenezer Stevens, Mass., commanding the artillery
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Marquis de Lafayette


Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, was born to a noble family in France in 1757. His immense wealth and admiration for the American cause led him to defy a royal decree that forbade French officers from joining the war. In April 1777, he landed in South Carolina and was commissioned a major general by the Continental Congress. Lafayette became one of Washington’s closest aides and survived some of the war’s harshest fighting as well as the Continental Army’s worst winters, including at Valley Forge. He risked arrest by King Louis XVI when he returned to France to rally support and returned with 6,000 troops. In 1781, Lafayette was in Virginia fighting the turncoat General Benedict Arnold. Ahead of the Continentals’ and French arrival in September, he was ordered to surround Cornwallis at Yorktown to prevent his retreat to North Carolina. On October 14, 1781, Lafayette participated in the successful surprise attack on the British redoubts.
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Martha Washington


Martha Washington was not present in Annapolis when her husband resigned his commission; however, she did spend every winter from 1776 to 1783 with George Washington wherever the Continental Army was encamped. In 1776, she was inoculated against smallpox for protection as she moved with other officers’ wives among the camps, attending to sick, injured, and distressed soldiers. Martha also assisted Washington with his written correspondence and was vital in comforting the general through the darkest days of the war.
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Signers of the Declaration


The signers came from different walks of colonial American life. Selected by committees and colonial legislatures, they were lawyers, merchants, farmers, doctors, printers, and a music composer. The number of signers per state:
• Massachusetts: 5
• Georgia: 3
• North Carolina: 3
• South Carolina: 4
• Maryland: 4
• Virginia: 7
• Pennsylvania: 9
• Delaware: 3
• New York: 4
• New Jersey: 5
• New Hampshire: 3
• Rhode Island: 2
• Connecticut: 4
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Surrender of General Burgoyne
By John Trumbull
The third painting that artist John Trumbull completed for the Rotunda, the “Surrender of General Burgoyne” depicts the British surrender at Saratoga, New York, on October 17, 1777.


American General Horatio Gates (in the blue jacket) is in the painting’s center. He refuses British General John Burgoyne’s sword and instead offers hospitality by directing Burgoyne to the nearby tent. An American flag flies in the wind at the top of the tent.


To Burgoyne’s left is William Phillips, a British Major General. American officers gather at the sides to witness the event; their varied dress reflects their different units. Although Trumbull depicts them here, they did not witness the actual ceremony. Most would have been near the river in the distance with their troops. The painting omits one of the key participants in the battle—General Benedict Arnold who led the Continental Army to victory. He was wounded and bedridden.


In the painting completed in 1821, Trumbull takes artistic license with the landscape, the assembled group of figures, the tent, which would have been a tarp on poles, and even the flag itself may not have been the one that was flown. However, the cannon depicted was one of 47 artillery pieces surrendered to the American Army at Saratoga.


Trumbull’s real objective in creating the painting 44 years after the surrender was to capture for posterity the likenesses of the officers involved, not to accurately depict the event.
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Surrender of General Cornwallis
By John Trumbull
The second painting that Trumbull completed for his Revolutionary War series for the United States Capitol was “The Surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown.” It depicts the formal surrender ceremony that took place at Yorktown, Virginia, on October 19, 1781, terminating the siege and ending the last major battle of the Revolutionary War.


In the center of the scene, American Major General Benjamin Lincoln appears mounted on a white horse. He extends his right hand toward the sword carried by the surrendering British officer, who heads the long line of British troops receding into the background. To the left, French officers arranged behind General Jean-Baptiste Rochambeau appear standing and mounted beneath the white banner of the royal Bourbon family. On the right a column of American soldiers that extended over a mile line up behind officers beneath the Stars and Stripes; among them are the Marquis de Lafayette and Colonel Jonathan Trumbull, the brother of the painter. General George Washington, riding a brown horse, stayed in the background because Lord Cornwallis himself was not present for the surrender.


To place the scene in Yorktown, Trumbull provides a glimpse of the York River and the entrance to the Chesapeake. Dominating the horizon line in the distance is the Nelson House, which functioned as Cornwallis’ headquarters during the siege leading up to the surrender. Located about one mile from the site of the actual surrender, this impressive Georgian home would not have been visible to observers at the scene.


Gaps in the dark voluminous clouds reveal a blue sky spotlighting the victorious flags of the French and American armies. Trumbull emphasizes the ritualized solemnity of the event by using symmetry and positioning the viewer between the flanking armies and neat formations of soldiers.



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Thomas Mifflin and Charles Thomson


Major General Thomas Mifflin (seated) tendered his resignation as a quartermaster for the Continental Army after disagreeing with Washington’s leadership. He advocated replacing Washington as commander in chief with General Horatio Gates, which proved unsuccessful. He went on to serve as a delegate from Pennsylvania and president of the Continental Congress.


Charles Thomson, an Irish immigrant and scholar, served as a tutor of Latin and Greek at the Academy of Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania). Thomson published a paper decrying the treatment of the Delaware and Shawnee Indians by the British, and for his fervent resistance to the 1765 Stamp Act, he earned the moniker “The Sam Adams of Philadelphia.” On September 5, 1774, Thomson was unanimously elected secretary of the Continental Congress, a post he held for the duration of the war.
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Artistic License
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Battle of Saratoga
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Depicting the Event
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Depicting the Founders
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Dwight D. Eisenhower Statue
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Dwight D. Eisenhower Statue
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John Trumbull, Artist
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Martin Luther King, Jr. Bust
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Martin Luther King, Jr. Bust
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Picturing the Scene
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Restoration and Conservation
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Restoration and Conservation
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Siege of Yorktown
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Significance of the Event
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The Drafting Committee
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The Second Continental Congress
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The Surrender
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Trumbull as a Miniaturist
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