The United States Capitol

The United States Capitol is a national cultural icon, and among the most visually recognized seats of government in the world. The past quarter century has witnessed an explosion of scholarly interest in the art and architectural history of the Capitol. The emergence of the historic preservation movement and the maturation of the discipline of art conservation have refocused attention on the Capitol as the American "temple of liberty". Major restoration and conservation projects have made possible a better understanding and appreciation of the building and its decoration.

The United States Capitol: Designing and Decorating a National Icon is a product of this revival of scholarly interest. The book combines the papers from the U.S. Capitol Historical Society's first two conferences dedicated to the visual history and appreciation of this most significant of public buildings in the United States.

The first six papers in the collection focus on the roles of the architects of the Capitol from the contentious and delay-ridden first decade of construction throu

Preface

vii

Donald R. Kennon

I. Design and Construction: Two Centuries of Capitol Architects

``Seat of Broils, Confusion, and Squandered Thousands'': Building the Capitol, 1790-1802

3

(20)

William C. Allen

Forms into Architecture: Reform Ideals and the Gauntlets of the Real in Latrobe's Surveyorships at the U.S. Capitol, 1803-1817

23

(33)

Jeffrey A. Cohen

Charles Bulfinch: Well-Connected, Refined Gentleman Architect

56

(29)

Pamela Scott

Thomas U. Walter and the Search for Propriety

85

(25)

James M. Goode

Right-Hand Men: The Development of the Office of Architect of the Capitol, 1865-1954

110

(24)

William B. Bushong

The Historicization of the U.S. Capitol and the Office of Architect, 1954-1996

134

(37)

Richard Guy Wilson

II. Decoration: Mid-Nineteenth-Century Art in the Capitol

The Artist of the Capitol

171

(25)

Barbara A. Wolanin

A Study of Constantino Brumidi's Painting Technique in the Senate Corridors

196

(14)

Catherine S. Myers

Brumidi and the Case of the Mutant Mantel Clock: National Iconography in Decorative Projects for the House of Representatives Extension, 1855-1858

210

(29)

David Sellin

Emanuel Leutze's Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way: Imagining Manifest Destiny, the ``Stars and Stripes,'' and the Civil War

239

(17)

Daniel Clayton Lewis

Albert Bierstadt: History Painter for the U.S. Capitol

256

(18)

Kimberly A. Jones

``Worthy of National Commemoration'': National Statuary Hall and the Heroic Ideal, 1864-1997

274

(31)

Teresa B. Lachin

Contributors

305

(2)

Index

307

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The United States Capitol

Summary

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials