Existing comment:
George Washington (1732-1799)
Artist: StudioEIS, 2014
The bronze statue of George Washington, by StudioEIS (2014), is placed where it is believed that he stood to deliver his address to Congress. Washington is depicted in the emotional moment when he was compelled to steady his handwritten speech with both hands.
Congressman and Maryland Senator James McHenry noted in a letter describing the ceremony that when "he spoke of the officers who had composed his family...he was obliged to support the paper with both hands."
Reproduction 18th Century Armchair
Artist: Harrison Higgins, Inc. , 2014
To prepare for the arrival of Congress, Maryland ordered 60 Windsor chairs from Baltimore. However, frozen harbors delayed the chairs' arrival until April 1784, so local residents loaned chairs for the use of Congress. The two armchairs and 10 matching side chairs displayed in the chamber are copied from one of the original sets of chairs believed to have been lent by Governor William Paca.
The original chair from which these are copied belongs to the Maryland Historical Society and is on loan to Historic Annapolis, where it is displayed in the William Paca House. The other ten side chairs are reproductions of an English chair owned at the time by a prominent Annapolis family and is in a private collection. |