A Landmark Lesson: The United States Capitol Building

• Review each lesson in this unit and select appropriate archival materials to use in class discussions. Bookmark them, if possible; download and print out the selected documents and duplicate copies as necessary for student viewing.
• Prepare the assignments for the student groups in Activity 2. Make sure to include the picture captions and questions with the assignment.
• Establish your student groups with care. Groups of three students, if practical, work well. Try to balance the talents of the students within the group, for example, a strong reader, a computer person, and a good public speaker. If possible, assign roles to the students such as secretary, researcher, and presenter—though every student in the group should contribute to all phases of the assignment, each student can be in charge of a specific area. The Group 5 assignment can be assigned to more than one group by selecting different objects from The Capitol Project of American Studies at the University of Virginia, a link from the EDSITEment resource The Center for Liberal Arts.
• Obtain background information on the U.S. Capitol at Building the Capitol for a New Nation, available via the EDSITEment resource American Memory from The Library of Congress.
• The Educator Resources section of the National Archives website offers a series of worksheets for analyzing primary source documents, including written documents and photographs, that you may wish to use or adapt to help students in reviewing the materials presented in this lesson.
• Recommended reading from the Learning Page of American Memory
  • Brill, Marlene Targ. Building the Capital City. N.Y.: Children's Press, 1996.
  • Fradin, Dennis Brindell. From Sea to Shining Sea: Washington, D.C. Chicago: Children's Press, 1992.
  • Reynolds, Patrick M. A Cartoon History of the District of Columbia. Willow Street, Pa.: The Red Rose Studio, 1995.

Activity 1. Introducing The U.S. Capitol

Share with the class the vintage advertisement Quaker Wheat Berries Advertisement, c. 1900, available via The Library of Congress.

Ask the students to describe the advertisement. What is the ad attempting to communicate about the product? What is the building in the ad? What does it have to do with Quaker Wheat Berries?

What do the students think about the idea of using the U.S. Capitol in an ad for breakfast cereal? The Capitol is, after all, just a building. What is it about this building that makes some people think it should be treated in a special way? Learning more about what makes the Capitol special is the focus of this unit.

Students can explore the Capitol virtually using this resource from the Architect of the Capitol.

Activity 2. What Makes the Capitol So Important?

Divide students into groups and present each group with the challenges below. With the documents, distribute the captions and questions as shown. If some groups finish earlier than others, you may wish to add or subtract questions from the groups' assignments to create better balance in their workloads.

Group 1: What Has Happened In and Around the Capitol?
Explain to the class what the following images of the Capitol have to do with important events in U.S. history. Answer any question(s) accompanying an image. Make clear to the class how these photographs show the Capitol is an important building.

• Mural in U.S. Capitol Building showing the burning of the Capitol in 1814. By Allyn Cox, 1974, available via the National Archives
  Why is the Capitol burning?
• The Army of the Potomac Paraded Down Pennsylvania Avenue. By Matthew Brady, 1865, available via American Memory
  Why are these Union soldiers parading in 1865?
• Impeachment ballot recording votes of senators in the trial of Andrew Johnson, May 1868, available via the National Archives
  This is a tally for a vote that took place in the Senate in 1868. What was the vote about?
• U.S. Capitol during blackout II. Horydczak, Theodor, ca. 1890-1971, photographer. March 1942, available via American Memory
  In this photo, taken after dark, there are no lights on in the Capitol building. Why would all the lights be turned off in an important building in 1942?
• President's family leaves Capitol after ceremony., available via the JFK Library. Shown are Caroline Kennedy, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, Jr. (2nd row) Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, Patricia Kennedy Lawford (hidden) Jean Kennedy Smith (3rd Row) Peter Lawford. U.S. Capitol, East Front, Washington, D.C.
  What is the mood of the people shown in this photo? What do you think was happening at the Capitol when this picture was taken?

Group 2: What Happens in the U.S. Capitol?
Explain to the class what goes on in the U.S. Capitol and what the following images have to do with the work that takes place there. Make clear to the class how these photographs, all from the EDSITEment resource American Memory, demonstrate that the Capitol is an important building.

• Senate chamber in U.S. Capitol
• House chamber in U.S. Capitol, remodeled
• Foreign Relations Committee room in U.S. Capitol II
• Speaker's office in U.S. Capitol

For further information:

• The Virtual Capitol from the Architect of the Capitol
• Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids  (see the pages What is a Law? and How Laws are Made: The Language of the Law)
• Glossary from the United States Senate

Group 3: The U.S. Capitol and Inaugurations
Show the class several of the following images of presidential inaugurations that took place at the Capitol (all available from the EDSITEment resource American Memory unless otherwise noted). What clues can you find in each of the images to indicate that a special event was taking place? What can you tell the class about the use of the Capitol for Presidential inaugurations?

• President Lincoln's inauguration
• Inauguration of President Wilson, second term, March 5, 1917
• President Wilson, with top hat and speech in hand, delivering his inaugural address, March 5, 1917
• President Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivering his inaugural address on the east portico of the U.S. Capitol, January 20, 1941
• Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes administering the oath of office to Franklin Delano Roosevelt on the east portico of the U.S. Capitol, January 20, 1941
• Crowd on Capitol grounds, attending inauguration of Lyndon B. Johnson, January 20, 1965
• Lyndon B. Johnson (left) being sworn in as President of the U.S. by Chief Justice Earl Warren (right) as Lady Bird Johnson and Hubert Humphrey (center) look on, January 20, 1965
• Chief Justice William Rehnquist administering the oath of office to Bill Clinton on the west front of the U.S. Capitol, January 20, 1993.
• Bill Clinton, standing between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton, taking the oath of office of President of the U.S., January 20, 1993.

For further information:

• U.S. Presidential Inaugurations: A Resource Guide from The Library of Congress
• U.S. Presidents from the Miller Center at the University of Virginia

Group 4: The U.S. Capitol and Its Neighbors
Review the following images from the EDSITEment resource American Memory. What other important buildings are in the vicinity of the U.S. Capitol? Tell a little bit about what happens in them. Create a diagram showing the location of the Capitol and its neighbors and share it with the class.

• U.S. Capitol dome through columns of Supreme Court building
• Dome of U.S. Capitol from Folger Library
• U.S. Capitol from Washington Monument, with mask
• View of the U.S. Capitol and beyond, showing the Mall and the Washington Monument
• Dome of U.S. Capitol through window of Library of Congress.

For further information:

• America's Story, available via a link from American Memory
• The Architect of the Capitol
• A Virtual Tour of the National Mall

Group 5: What's Inside the U.S. Capitol?
The U.S. Capitol is said to be one of the greatest museums of American art. Tell the class about some of the art objects found there. Visit The Capitol Project of American Studies at the University of Virginia, available via the EDSITEment-reviewed The Center for the Liberal Arts at the University of Virginia. Use the FIND function in the edit menu of your browser to find an art object from your state.

Show the class the following works of art, identify the subject, and explain why you think each object has been placed in the Capitol. (Note: This assignment offers a representative list of objects found in the Capitol. At The Capitol Project Index, there is an exhaustive list of objects in the Capitol with links to images of those objects. If desired, select objects that more closely match your curriculum.)

• Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the U.S. by Howard Chandler Christy (House wing, east stairway)
  See also the diagram of the painting to identify the individuals depicted.
• Jefferson Davis, Mississippi, statue by Augustus Lukewarm, Sc, 1928, 7'7" (Statuary Hall)
• Sam Houston
• Andrew Jackson
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott, statue by Adelaide Johnson, 1921, (Crypt, first floor).

For further information:

• Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress
• Biographical Dictionary

Activity 3. Presenting the U.S. Capitol

After their investigations, have the student groups present their findings to the class, using the archival materials as audio/visual aids. If practical, allow groups to duplicate sufficient copies of a limited number of images to make them available to class members to peruse. The purpose of the presentations is to establish what makes the Capitol an American landmark. When all the groups have completed their presentations, have the class discuss the U.S. Capitol as a national symbol. What has made it such an important building?

• Do your students know that the first Congress met in New York City in 1789? Some students might want to find out why the capital (and therefore, the Capitol) of the U.S. is now located in Washington, DC. To research this, students can visit Washington, DC Became the Capital, or Locating the U.S. Capital, both available via the The Library of Congress.
• Technically savvy students can create a "kid's guided tour" of the Capitol (or any U.S. landmark) using Power Point, HyperCard or another similar program. Many images of the Capitol are available on the EDSITEment resources listed below.
• A 1792 contest determined the original design of the U.S. Capitol. The winning entry was submitted by William Thornton, an American doctor and amateur architect. Some of the designs entered in the original competition are still in existence. Students can compare the alternate designs to the capital as it now stands, using the following resources available via The Library of Congress.
  • Background Information
  • Notice for the Competition
  • A German Engineer's Entry
  • Modest Capitol Design with Courtyard Based on Renaissance Palace
  • Reconstruction of Winning Design
• This unit began with an image of the Capitol in an advertisement. Have the students ever seen the Capitol represented in an advertisement or used in a TV show or movie? Below are some vintage examples from The Library of Congress. If possible, students should find additional examples. Is such use of the Capitol appropriate? Should those who use the image have to get permission? Should they have to pay for the right?
  • Burning of Capitol Seen as Divine Judgment for Slavery
  • Capitol March -- dedicated to Thaddeus Stevens
  • Durham Plumbing System
  • Hat Box with Capitol
  • The National Soda Cracker
• Classes exploring the use of national symbols in graphics may benefit from the activities in the complementary EDSITEment lesson, The Statue of Liberty: The Meaning and Use of a National Symbol