Painting by John Trumbull (1819).

Large (12 by 18 foot) located in the Rotunda of the U. S. Capitol building. Based on a small painting located at the Yale University Art Gallery.

The painting of the first page was painted by John Trumbull and is titled “Declaration of Independence”. It depicts the presentation of the draft of the Declaration to Congress by the five member drafting committee on June 28, 1776, six days before its approval. Trumbull painted many of the figures in the picture from life and visited Independence Hall as well to depict the chamber where the Continental Congress met. The painting was commissioned in 1817, purchased in 1819, and placed in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol building in 1826. The painting also appears on the back of the two dollar bill.

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. Trumbull also had no portrait of Benjamin Harrison V to work with. Son Benjamin Harrison VI was said to have resembled his father, so he was painted instead. 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.

Each Signer had more to lose from signing the Declaration than he had to gain. With few exceptions, these were men with substantial property. All but two had families. Most were men with education and standing in their communities. They had economic security as few men had in the 1700’s. They knew what they risked. The penalty for treason was death by hanging by the British and at the time a large British fleet was already at anchor in New York Harbor. In the end, not one defected or went back on his pledged word.

Nine died from wounds and hardships during the war. Five were captured and imprisoned and brutally treated. All victims of man-hunts and driven from their homes.

Several lost family members. Two wives were brutally treated.

Twelve had their homes completely burned. Many spent heavily of their own wealth to support the American Army during the war. Seventeen lost everything they owned.