Signing of the Declaration of Independence
John Trumbull's 1817
depiction of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The paining is on
display in the Capital Rotunda, where it has been since 1826. Slightly right of
center, in the foreground stand, left to right, John Adams, Roger Sherman,
Robert R. Livingston, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin. These men were the
committee that drafted the document, and its principal writing, Thomas Jefferson
stands ready to hand the document to John Hancock, the President of the
Continental Congress
While the painting is not "first hand", the artist
did seek out and sketch the faces of all the living delegates and the place in
which the document was signed, Independence Hall.