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The Great Hall:
Once the largest room in America, the Great Hall was originally conceived to display miniature models required of inventors when the building housed the United States Patent Office. The space also served as the first national museum, and it was here that the Declaration of Independence was publicly displayed between 1841 and 1871. The guests at Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural ball passed through this room to join the receiving line in what is now called the Lincoln Gallery.
Following a disastrous fire in 1877, which severely damaged other portraits of the third floor of the building, this area was redone in the American Victorian Renaissance style to which it has now been restored. |