ART Details on Trumbull's Declaration of Independence
Declaration of Independence is a 12-by-18-foot oil-on-canvas painting in the United States
Capitol Rotunda that depicts the presentation of the draft of the Declaration of Independence to
Congress. It was based on a much smaller version of the same scene, presently held by the Yale
University Art Gallery.[1] Trumbull painted many of the figures in the picture from life and
visited Independence Hall as well to depict the chamber where the Second Continental Congress
met. The oil-on-canvas work was commissioned in 1817, purchased in 1819, and placed in the
rotunda in 1826.
The painting is sometimes incorrectly described as the signing of the Declaration of
Independence. In fact, the painting actually shows the five-man drafting committee presenting
their draft of the Declaration to the Congress, an event that took place on June 28, 1776, and not
the signing of the document, which took place later.[2]
The painting shows 42 of the 56 signers of the Declaration; Trumbull originally intended to
include all 56 signers, but was unable to obtain likenesses for all of them. He also decided to
depict several participants in the debate who did not sign the document, including John
Dickinson, who declined to sign. Because the Declaration was debated and signed over a period
of time when membership in Congress changed, the men in the painting had never all been in the
same room at the same time.
Thomas Jefferson seems to be stepping on the foot of John Adams in the painting, which many
think is supposed to symbolize their relationship as political enemies. However, upon closer
examination of the painting, it can be seen that their feet are merely close together. This part of
the image was correctly depicted on the two-dollar bill version.
Unpictured signers
There were 14 signers of the Declaration who did not appear in the painting:
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Matthew Thornton (New Hampshire)
John Hart (New Jersey)
John Morton (Pennsylvania)
James Smith (Pennsylvania)
George Taylor (Pennsylvania)
George Ross (Pennsylvania)
Caesar Rodney (Delaware)
Thomas Stone (Maryland)
Thomas Nelson, Jr. (Virginia)
Francis Lightfoot Lee (Virginia)
Carter Braxton (Virginia)
John Penn (North Carolina)
Button Gwinnett (Georgia)
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Lyman Hall (Georgia)
On the two-dollar bill
Trumbull's painting is the source of the picture on the reverse of the two-dollar bill, which cuts
out the farthest four figures on the left (George Wythe, William Whipple, Josiah Bartlett and
Thomas Lynch, Jr.); the farthest two figures on the right (Thomas McKean and Philip
Livingston); and seated in the left rear, George Walton. The bill features 40 of the 47 figures
from Trumbull's painting. Two other unknown figures are superimposed in the engraving in
between Samuel Chase and Lewis Morris and between James Wilson and Francis Hopkinson,
bringing the total number of figures on the reverse of the two-dollar bill to 42.
Key to historical figures depicted in the painting
Trumbull's Declaration of Independence
Clickable image: Point at a face to identify the person, click to go to the corresponding article.
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U.S government's key to the painting
The following key to the figures in the painting follows the numbering used by the U.S.
government publication "Art of the Capitol" (in the illustration of the key shown in this section)
but provides a different (hopefully clearer) description of which figure is where in the painting,
so numbers are not entirely in order.
Key to figures (in each group, listed from left to right):
Four men seated on the far left:
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1. George Wythe
2. William Whipple
3. Josiah Bartlett
5. Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Seated at the table on the left:
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4. Benjamin Harrison
Seated together to the right of Harrison and in front of the standing figures:
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6. Richard Henry Lee
7. Samuel Adams
8. George Clinton†
Five figures standing together on the left:
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9. William Paca
10. Samuel Chase
11. Lewis Morris
12. William Floyd
13. Arthur Middleton
Three seated figures in the back between the two sets of standing figures:
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14. Thomas Heyward, Jr.
15. Charles Carroll
16. George Walton
Set of three figures standing together in the back:
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23. Stephen Hopkins (wearing a hat)
24. William Ellery
25. George Clymer
Ten figures seated:
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17. Robert Morris (first on the left at the table)
18. Thomas Willing†
19. Benjamin Rush
20. Elbridge Gerry
21. Robert Treat Paine
22. Abraham Clark
26. William Hooper
27. Joseph Hewes
28. James Wilson
29. Francis Hopkinson
Five figures standing in front:
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30. John Adams
31. Roger Sherman
32. Robert R. Livingston†
33. Thomas Jefferson
34. Benjamin Franklin
Four background figures seated together near the right corner of the room:
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35. Richard Stockton
36. Francis Lewis
37. John Witherspoon
38. Samuel Huntington
Two figures standing in the right corner of the room:
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39. William Williams
40. Oliver Wolcott
Two foreground figures at the central table:
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42. Charles Thomson (standing)
41. John Hancock (seated)
Three figures standing at right:
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43. George Read
44. John Dickinson†
45. Edward Rutledge
Two figures seated at far right:
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46. Thomas McKean
47. Philip Livingston
† Not a signer of the (final) Declaration of Independence but depicted in painting.
Similar paintings
Howard Chandler Christy's Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States
Howard Chandler Christy's Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States is a
similar painting depicting members of the Constitutional Convention. Painted in 1940, the work
is also located in the U.S. Capitol.