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• Collection: Drawings (Documentary)

• Title: [U.S. Capitol after burning by the British]
• Creator(s): Munger, George, 1781-1825, artist
• Date Created/Published: [1814]
• Medium: 1 drawing on paper : ink and watercolor ; 59 x 50 cm.
• Summary: Drawing shows the ruins of the U.S. Capitol following British attempts to burn the building; includes fire damage to the Senate and House wings, damaged colonnade in the House of Representatives shored up with firewood to prevent its collapse, and the shell of the rotunda with the facade and roof missing.
• Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-ppmsca-23076 (digital file from original item) LC-DIG-ppmsca-02160 (digital file from original) LC-USZC4-11489 (color film copy transparency)
• Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
  
• Access Advisory: Restricted access. Please use digital image or other reference copy. Original drawing is too fragile to serve.
• Call Number: DRWG/US - Munger, no. 1 (B size) [P&P] Unprocessed in PR 13 CN 2001:064
• Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA
• Notes:
  • Historical context: George Munger's drawing, one of the most significant and compelling images of the early republic, reminds us how short-lived the history of the United States might have been. In the evening hours of August 24, 1814, during the second year of the War of 1812, British expeditionary forces under the command of Vice Admiral Sir Alexander Cockburn and Major General Robert Ross set fire to the unfinished Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. All the public buildings in the developing city, except the Patent Office Building, were put to the torch in retaliation for what the British perceived as excessive destruction by American forces the year before in York, capital of upper Canada. At the time of the British invasion, the unfinished Capitol building comprised two wings connected by a wooden causeway. This exceptional drawing, having descended in the Munger family, was purchased by the Library of Congress at the same time the White House purchased the companion view of the President's House.
  • Title devised by Library staff.
  • See also: William Strickland after George Munger, A view of the Capitol of the United States after the conflagration of the 24th August 1814, PGA - Strickland View of the Capitol (B size).
  • Original frame unprocessed in PR 13 CN 2001:064.
  • Purchase; Sack, Israel, Inc.; 2001; (DLC/PP-2001:064).
  • Exhibited: American Treasures of the Library of Congress, 2002.
• Subjects:
  • United States Capitol (Washington, D.C.)--1810-1820.
  • War damage--Washington (D.C.)--1810-1820.
  • United States--History--War of 1812--Destruction & pillage--British.
• Format:
  • Drawings--American--Color--1810-1820.
  • Watercolors--American--1810-1820.
• Collections:
  • Drawings (Documentary)
• Bookmark This Record:
     http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2004662324/

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• Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication.
• Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-ppmsca-23076 (digital file from original item) LC-DIG-ppmsca-02160 (digital file from original) LC-USZC4-11489 (color film copy transparency)
• Call Number: DRWG/US - Munger, no. 1 (B size) [P&P] Unprocessed in PR 13 CN 2001:064
• Medium: 1 drawing on paper : ink and watercolor ; 59 x 50 cm.

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• Call Number: DRWG/US - Munger, no. 1 (B size) [P&P] Unprocessed in PR 13 CN 2001:064
• Medium: 1 drawing on paper : ink and watercolor ; 59 x 50 cm.
• Access Advisory: Restricted access. Please use digital image or other reference copy. Original drawing is too fragile to serve.

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