Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States by Howard Chandler Christy (1940). The original is in the House of Representatives Wing of the U.S. Capitol. 39 of the 55 delegates are pictured — but not the three who did not sign or the 13 who had left the convention. Washington is standing; Franklin seated, turned to face us; Hamilton is directly behind Franklin; Madison is seated to Franklin’s left. The person credited with writing the preamble, Gouverneur Morris, is standing behind and just a little to the left of Hamilton, facing us.
Click image for a much larger version.
It’s funny, we are so used to everyone taking pictures of everything these days that it’s easy to forget that was ever not the norm.
I was kind of blown away by something on Facebook (or Twitter?) the other day. It was a photograph taken in the 1850s of a man who was, at that time, 103.
He had crossed the Delaware with General Washington back in the day.
And I got to see it as a random pic on my computer machine!