Independence Hall
Medium
Classification
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of an anonymous donor in memory of Col. Ralph Wallace White
Accession Number
AD/NPG.93.1
Tags
Art Historical Context
Step into the hallowed halls of American history with John B. Neagle's *Independence Hall* (c. 1855), a evocative print capturing the iconic Philadelphia building where the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution were signed Neagle, a prominent 19th-century portraitist in 1796 and based in Philadelphia, masterfully rendered the building's grand interior, featuring symbolic elements like an eagle, chandelier, chair, window, and sculptures. Created around the mid-1850s—a time of rising national tensions before the Civil War—this print preserves the space's dignified atmosphere for post...