The Art Collection

The U.S. Capitol Building and Grounds were first completed by Charles Bulfinch in 1829. This image shows the building's East Front.

The expansion of the nation led to the growth of the Congress, and by 1850 the Capitol Building was much too small. Over a period of 17 years, the present House and Senate wings were added to the old building and the low central dome was replaced with a cast-iron dome better suited to the enlarged Capitol.

The craft is shown as a family operation, with children carding the wool, a young woman spinning it, and an older woman operating a loom.

Emanuel Leutze's mural celebrates the western expansion of the United States. A group of pioneers and their train of covered wagons are pictured at the continental divide, looking towards the sunset and the Pacific Ocean. The border depicts vignettes of exploration and frontier mythology. Beneath the central composition is a panoramic view of their destination"Golden Gate," in San Francisco Bay. The mural's title is a verse from the poem 'On the Prospect of Planting Arts and Learning in America' by Bishop George Berkeley (1685-1753).

This statue of Will Rogers was given to the National Statuary Hall Collection by Oklahoma in 1939.

Nebraska gave this statue of Willa Cather to the National Statuary Hall Collection in 2023. Littleton Alston (1958- ) is the first African American sculptor to be represented in this collection.

This statue of William Edgar Borah was given to the National Statuary Hall Collection by Idaho in 1947.

This statue of William Henry Harrison Beadle was given to the National Statuary Hall Collection by South Dakota in 1938.

This statue of William King was given to the National Statuary Hall Collection by Maine in 1878. King served as the first governor of the state of Maine.

William Penn is shown at center with the Delaware Indians at the time of the Treaty of Shackamaxon. This treaty formalized the purchase of land in Pennsylvania and cemented an amicable relationship between the Quakers and the Indians for almost a hundred years. This scene was that last one on which Constantino Brumidi worked.