The Art Collection

This painting depicts the moment on June 28, 1776, when the first draft of the Declaration of Independence was presented to the Second Continental Congress.

This idealized depiction shows the principal authors of the Declaration of Independence, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, reading the document to colonists. (1776)

This statue of Dennis Chavez was given to the National Statuary Hall Collection by New Mexico in 1966.

The discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill set off the California gold rush of 1849. In this scene prospectors dig for gold with picks and shovels and pan for the precious metal. In the center three well-dressed men, possibly Sutter and two friends, carefully examine the contents of a prospector's pan. This was the last scene designed by Constantino Brumidi and painted by Filippo Costaggini. (1848)

William Henry Powell’s canvas shows Spanish conquistador and explorer Hernando De Soto riding a white horse and dressed in Renaissance finery arriving at the Mississippi River.

Doric columns typically have a simple, rounded capital at the top; a heavy, fluted or smooth column shaft; and no base. Flutes are vertical, parallel channels that run the length of a column.

Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955) was an educator, civil rights activist, and presidential advisor. This statue was given to the National Statuary Hall Collection by Florida in 2022. Nilda Comas is the first artist of Puerto Rican descent commissioned to sculpt a statue for the National Statuary Hall Collection.

This statue of Dr. Norman E. Borlaug was given to the National Statuary Hall Collection by Iowa in 2014. Borlaug's statue replaced a statue of James Harlan, which Iowa had donated in 1910.