The dome of the Capitol building

Alabama in the Capitol

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The US Capitol is open Monday – Saturday – 8:30 am – 4:30 pm.Visitors enter through security on the East Side.

All are Welcome. No identification is required. Some items are probited. For details, click here.

Today in History by the Library of Congress

Click here

The Alabama Congressional Delegaton

For the US Senate, click here &
For the US House of Representatives, click here.

Senate and House Gallery Passes must be requested through a Coingressional Office

Passes are Free

National Statuary Hall Collection

Alabama Honors

Joseph Wheeler (Alabama & Georgia*), Confederate and Union General.

Statue by Berthold Nebel (New Jersey & Switzerland*) – 1929

Helen Keller (Alabama*, Connecticut & New York), Author/Advocate for the Blind

Statue by Edward Hlavka (South Dakota) – 2009

Other State Donations with a Connection to Alabama

Arkansas Honors

James Paul Clarke (Alabama, Arkansas & Mississippi*), Statue by Pompeo Coppini (Illinois, Italy*, New York & Texas) – 1921

Note: Arkansas Plans to replace BOTH of its statues with those of Daisy Bates (Arkansas* & Washington, DC) and Johnny Cash (Arkansas*, California & Tennessee), exchange dates TBD.

Oklahoma Honors

The date is the year the Statue was installed in the Collection

Sequoyah (Alabama, Tennessee* & Oklahoma),

Statue by Vinnie Ream (France, Italy, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Wisconsin* & Washington DC) – 1917

Presidents of the Senate Collection with a Connection to Alabama

Vice Presidential Busts are in the Senate Chamber and Senate Corridors

  The date refers to the time the Portrait Bust was installed

Vice Presidential Busts are in the Senate Chamber or the Senate Corridors

  The date refers to the time the Portrait Bust was installed

William R. King (Alabama* & France) as President of the US Senate,

Portrait Bust by William C. McCauslen (Ohio) – 1896

The US Supreme Court was in the US Capitol for 135 Years

Serving the Court during that period with a connection to Alabama

John McKinley (Alabama, Kentucky & Virginia*),

Appointed by President Van Buren – 1837

John Archibald Campbell (Alabama, Georgia* & Louisiana),

Appointed by President Pierce – 1853

William Burnham Woods (Alabama & Ohio*)

Appointed by President Hayes – 1880

  For more more Alabama Art in the Capitol, click here

Amazing Opportunities for Alabama Students

Senate Page Program –

For the high school juniors, and rising and departing high school juniors, there are a limited number of paid student positions. Get details through the Office of your Senator

Congressional Art Competition –

Each Member of the House of Representatives can select one piece of student art to be displayed in the US Capitol. Apply through Office of your Representative

Alabama Additional . . .

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Georgia & Alabama) Statue in the Rotunda sculpted by John Wilson (France, Massachusetts* & Mexico)

The Alabama Claims

How the US attempted to Annex a big portion of Canada  through NEGOTIATIONS

This has little to do with Alabama beyond the name of a ship and the 22-year-old daughter of Congressman Charles Pelham (Alabama, Georgia & North Carolina) who became third wife of 51-year-old, wealthy entrepreneur T. S. Suit (Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland* & New York); however the backstory & the president set, ambitious American expansionist plans unfilled & the role the Suit Mansion played is noteworthy.

Note 1: T. S. Suit’s distillery in Kentucky gave impetus to that industry. Was it a shot in the arm?

Note 2: A community that grew up near his 300-acre estate in Maryland today is known as Suitland.

The US claim was that the British Government (United Kingdom) did not observe neutrality in the US Civil War, allowing the newly completed CSS Alabama to leave the United Kingdom, causing significant damage on US interest as part of the Confederate Navy.

When the United Kingdom would not settle, the US counteroffer was to drop the claim in exchange for US annexation of British Columbia part of Manitoba & Novia Scotia (Canada).

The negotiations took place among six men (Brazil, Italy, United Kingdom, United States & Switzerland) in the Suit Mansion with the signing ceremony in the Geneva Town Hall (Switzerland).

Note 1. The signing room in the Town Hall is now namedsalle de l’Alabama

Note 2: The $15.0 the United Kingdom paid in 1872 would be $317.0 million in 2020

William Wyatt Bibb, MD (Alabama, Georgia & Virginia*)

William Bibb, a US Senator (Georgia) & medial doctor moved to the 1800s ‘frontier’ (Georgia & Alabama), leaving a legacy in both states.

George Troup (Alabama* & Georgia)

Born during the Revolution in a part of the Georgia Colony that that today is in Alabama. Although after finishing his education at the College of New Jersey, now known as Princeton University, he moved to Savannah, he remained close to his cousins of Creek heritage. This allowed Troup to negotiate with his cousin the ceding of much Creek Territory in Alabama & Georgia. Many of Troup’s Creek relatives were removed to the West; however, his Creek cousin was executed by the Creek Nation for having negotiated a treaty without Tribal Council approval. Beyond his role in the remove of Native Americans, George Troup leaves a legacy.

Note: Democrats Franklin Pierce (New Hampshire) and William R. King  (Alabama) and Know Nothing Candidates Daniel Webster (Massachusetts & New Hampshire)& Charles Jones Jenkins (Georgia)out polled Troup in Alabama & Georgia

William Wyatt Bibb, MD (Alabama, Georgia & Virginia*)

In the early 1800s, it was not unusual for ambitious, well-educated young men to move to the ‘frontier.’ For Dr. Bibb that was first to Georgia and then Alabama, leaving a legacy in both states.

  • Elected US Congressman from Georgia
  • Elected US Senator from Georgia
  • Appointed first Governor of Alabama Territory
  • Elected first Governor of Alabama
  • Elected US Senator from Alabama
  • Namesake of Bibb County (Alabama) & Bibb County (Georgia)   

Sojourner Truth (Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio & New York*)

.  .  .  abolitionist, woman’s rights advocate, minister, speaker, famous for her Ain’t I a Woman, speech, & successful author of The Narrative of Sojourner Truth: A Northern Slave. The Sojourner Truth portrait bust, sculpted by Miri Margolin (Poland* & Israel), is the first sculpted image of an African American to be installed in the US Capitol. The Sojourner Truth legacy also includes:

Sculpted by Tina Allen (Alabama, Granada-West Indies & New York)

  • Sojourner Truth Statue (Massachusetts)

Sculpted by Thomas J. Warren (Oregon)

  • Sojourner Truth Statue (University of California – San Diego)

Sculpted by Manuelita Brown (Arizona, California, France & Oregon)

  • Anticipated image on a new design of the $10 Bill
  • USNS Sojourner Truth – Currently under construction

*Birth state/country