US Capitol Tour

3 Things to do at the office

1. Offer gallery passes

2. Offer a picture in front of offices

3. Ask if stairs are OK

CVC

Congressional Visitor Center, about 2,000 ppl passing per year established 2008

Number of statues each state has in the Capitol

Two

What are capitol statues made of?

Bronze and marble

Ways statues can be provided to the House

1. Commissioned

2. Gifted

Jack Swigert

Astronaut born in Denver, veteran, astronaut, politician. Ran for Congress in 1980, won, but died from cancer before being seated.

Funny story about Jack Swigert

Swigert was on Apollo 13, which happened during April (Tax Month), and he hadn’t paid his taxes yet, so the IRS actually gave him an “out-of-country” exemption because he was literally out of the Earth

Why Jack Swigert has cards in his hands

Known to be a fun guy who would always play and joke

What happened in 1790

Congress charted this site on the Potomac shore for the Capitol building

Capitol design competition

George Washington held a competition to design the Capitol building, which eventually resulted in a neo-classical design incorporating ancient Roman and Greek design elements

1793

Construction began for the Capitol- would only be completed in 1864, taking 71 years

1800

North Wing (Senate side) opened, Congress convened sharing space with SCOTUS

1807

South Wing (House side) completed

1812

In retaliation for the US sacking of York, the Canadian capital at the time, the British burned the Capitol, which was nearly unguarded

1958-1962

Further renovations added porches/memorial doors, last major renovation that turned the Capitol into the building we know today

1st artifact in the crypt

replica of the Magna Carta, which the King of England signed in the Middle Ages to give rights and liberties to the people. Gifted by UK parliament for bicentennial in 1976

2nd artifact in the crypt

Abe Lincoln statue in 1908 from Gutzon Borglum, who sculpted Mount Rushmore.

Bust depiction of Lincoln

One of the closest renditions of Lincoln’s face despite the fact he was already dead for 43 years- except for the unfinished left year, whines hints towards an unfinished legacy

After Abe Lincoln bust in the Crypt

Walk left towards Hall of Columns on the House side

Shirley Chisholm

First African American women elected to Congress in 1968 from NY, campaigned as unbought and unbossed, and served 7 terms in the House

Patsy Takemoto Mink

First Asian American woman and WOC elected to Congress in 1964, served 24 years and helped pass Title IX into law

Hall of Columns

Part of Thomas Walter’s expansion of the Capitol, adding current House and Senate wings and the dome in 1864

Father Damien

Catholic missionary who worked for leprosy patients in Hawai’i, assisted not only with spiritual but also physical needs, contacted and died leprosy aged 49

Florence Sabin

2nd Colorado Statue, in hall of statues, scientist and anatomist who was elected to National Academy of Sciences in 1925, taught at John’s Hopkins, headed institute at Rockefeller Institute, Prez of US Assn of Anatomists

Despite all her achievements people still called her a female scientists, which she disdained because she considered herself simply a scientist in her own right

Moved back to CO aged 67 but went out of retirement to be chair subcommittee on health, where she actively promoted the Sabin Bills to address a public health crisis in CO to spread knowledge and promote health

Sabin Health Laws still regulate how hospitals run in Colorado today

Cox Corridors

Authorized by Congress in 1970, they Cox Corridors provide an account of America's history from the Mayflower to the 1917 Suffrage parades

3 notable events depicted in the cox corridor murals

Mayflower compact in 1620, First Cont Cong + GW inauguration, Women's suffrage parades of 1917

Corn Columns

Columns constructed by architect Benjamin Lowe, he wanted corn to symbolize a new American style of architecture but unfortunately for him it never caught on. Symbolized agriculture + importance of corn

Old Supreme Court

Built in 1808 as part of the North wing reconstruction, housed SCOTUS for 125 years from 1810 to 1935

Architecture of the Old Supreme Court chamber

Considered an architectural masterpiece, 9 ribs support the room in 2 stories. Deputy architect died due to a roof collapse here, is rumored to haunt Congress

Why is it dim in the Old Supreme Court

It's dim because the room was originally lit only by daylight. There are lights now that actually replicate daylight since new additions have made the chamber internal

Presidents inaugurated in the Old SCOTUS room

Jefferson and Quincy Adams

Statues at back

Lady Justice is the largest one, and she isn't blind as the was pictured in the 1900s to symbolize impartiality. She is looking right at a winged “Fame” representing young America

Birds next to Justitia

Owl representing wisdom and Eagle representing the law

Infamous case argued at old SCOTUS room

Dred Scott

Busts of first 4 chief justices

John Jay, John Rutledge, Oliver Ellsworth, John Marshall, the longest-serving justice in US history

Seats at the SCOTUS room

9 seats for 9 justices the last time the Court sat here. The number of justices has been anywhere from 5 to 10. 4 seats for 2 Petitioners and 2 respondents

Who argued a case here

Abe Lincoln

Capitol Rotunda

Space between the Senate and House sides. Dedicated to be apolitical in use, largely used for bipartisan and/or bicameral ceremonies like important layings in state, awarding Congressional gold medals, unveiling statues

Phases of Rotunda’s construction

1. Constructed originally as a 96-foot wooden dome, giving it a problematic fire risk and it was damaged in the fire set by the British in 1814

2. 1855- Congress approved dome to be reconstructed as a fireproof cast iron dome during the Rotunda expansion, weighs 9 million lbs of cast iron, neoclassical and large enough to fit the statue of liberty there without her pedestal

Fresco on the dome

Apotheosis of George Washington- apotheosis means to raise to the level of a God

Painting of the Apotheosis of GW

1865 by Constantino Brumidi, Italian-American sculptor who incorporated classical Roman styles to the American story of Washington

Took over 11 months, and now covers 4664 square ft 180 feet above rotunda floor

Who painted the apotheosis?

Constantino Brumidi

Apotheosis of GW inner circle

Washington rising to the heavens wearing a blanket witih the Roman triumphal color of purple, flanked by Liberty and Victory/Fame the two female symbols of America seen in other sculptures. Fame is blowing a trumpet and liberty is holding an axe/fasces

Outer loop of Apotheosis fresco (name all 6 goddesses)

War: leading an armed eagle to defeat tyrrany

Science: goddess of wisdom is in the act of teaching Ben Franklin, Robert Fulton, and Samuel FB Morse

Sea: god of the Sea holding a trident and the transatlantic cable, which was being laid at the time of the painting

Commerce: god Mercury holding money to Robert Morris, who largely financed the American Revolution

Mechanics: Vulcan, god of smiths, with an anvil and forge making a cannon and steam engine representing the American railroad/smithing/machinery industries as critical to the economy

Agriculture: Roman god Ceres sits posed with the McCormick reaper, which represents American agriculture and the implement which had recently been invented

Statues in the Rotunda

All are Presidents (Reagan has broken pieces of the Berlin Wall in his), with the exceptions of Martin Luther King, jr., and a dedication to women’s suffrage activists Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Lucretia Mott

Eye-level paintings by John Trumbull in 1817

• Declaration of Independence

• Surrender of General John Burgoyne at Saratoga

• Surrender of General Cornwallis at Yorktown

• George Washington resigning his commission

Eye-level painting by John Vanderlyn in 1847

• Landing of Columbus in Hispaniola

Other paintings in the Rotunda

• De Soto’s Discovery of the Mississippi

• Baptism of Pocahantas

• Pilgrims’ embarkation from Plymouth

• Other relief sculptures are of Native Americans

After being at the Rotunda

Walk LEFT towards Old Senate Chamber

Old Senate Chamber

Ornate room that housed the Senate from 1819-1859 and the Supreme Court from 1960-1935. 64 desks for senators from 32 states by 1859 up to Missouri

Portrait at the top and its painter

George Washington by Rembrandt Peale, who knew and painted Washington when he was still alive

Vice President’s desk

The inner curved desk raised on the dais in the center of the room

Ye old spitoons that used to be there

For spitting chewing tobacco of course

Golden Age of the Senate

1810-1859- an era of great compromises and debate within the Senate over states rights and slavery, with great senators like Henry Clay, Daniel Webster and John C Calhoun

Caning of Charles Sumner

Happened in 1856:

• Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts makes his Crime Against Kansas speech denouncing slavery, demanding Kansas be a free state

• Called out many Southern senators by name in his speech including Andrew Butler of SC

• Rep. Preston Brooks of SC, Andrew Butler’s cousin, went to the Senate floor and caned Sumner for a minute so badly that he was knocked unconscious, ripping his bolted-down desk up from its ferocity

• Brooks and Sumner became heroes in their regions, censure against Brooks failed and Brooks died soon after

National Statuary Hall

Previously the Old house chamber from 1807-1857, designated as Statuary Hall in 1860

Strong echo

Came from ceiling arch, making debates hard to understand and proceedings hard to transcribe

Small dome at the top of the Natl Statuary

Concentrated the sun and made it unbearably hot, leading to the August house recess they still have to this day

Did members like when the Statuary Hall was the house chamber?

NO!!!!! NO SIREE BOB!!! When the new chamber opened up in 1860, each member wasted no time promptly getting their stuff and hauling it

Role of natl stat hall from 1857 to 1860s

Briefly a market and a thoroughfare- historically-passionate members hated it and lobbied for it to be put to better use

When was the national statuary hall designated?

1860s at the request of Senator Justin Morrill of Vermont

Why aren’t all statues on the statuary

the statuary was big enough for all states to have statues when it was designated, but with more states, statues have been distributed across the capitol building. The house passed some resolutions way back making this so

After pointing out the new House Chamber

1. Exit through dome 2. End tour at gallery check-in and give gallery passes