Rotunda During Civil War, 1862

For about six weeks in the fall of 1862 the Rotunda (as well as other chambers and hallways) was used as an emergency hospital. Among the nurses who served here were Dorothea Dix and Clara Barton, later the founder of the American Red Cross.

About the Cox Corridors Murals

The first floor of the U.S. Capitol's House wing is elaborately decorated with wall and ceiling murals by artist Allyn Cox. The eastern north-south corridor has been termed the Hall of Capitols because it features paintings of 16 different buildings that housed the Continental and United States Congresses from 1754 to 1865. Painted in the barrel vaults of the ceilings are eight historic events that occurred during the first 65 years of the Capitol's existence.