The U.S. Congress has met in many different places other than the U.S. Capitol Building. This program intends to highlight the other locations where Congress met, including New York City’s Federal Hall, Philadelphia’s Congress Hall, Blodgett’s Hotel, and the Old Brick Capitol Building.

Staff from the Architect of the Capitol’s Curator Office will discuss the newest addition to the National Statuary Hall Collection, Virginia’s Barbara Rose Johns, and the sculptor, Steven Weitzman.

On December 2, 1863, the Statue of Freedom was placed on top of the new Capitol Dome. Learn about the twists, turns, technologies, triumphs, and setbacks in getting the statue from a plaster model in artist Thomas Crawford’s studio in Rome to the bronze statue that crowns the Dome of America’s center of representative government.

Since 1964, Congress has placed and lit a tree on the West Front of the Capitol to celebrate the start of the holiday season. Join us for a live look at the 2025 Capitol Christmas Tree, coming to Washington all the way from the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in Nevada.No registration required. Please click the link below at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, December 17th to join this week’s Capitol Conversation.https://aocgovus.zoomgov.com/j/1617286625?pwd=umaUlol0NI9JaCEafJylgAQHYjBGCJ.1

Learn about the Capitol Christmas Tree from a Capitol arborist. No reservations necessary. Please join us!

Learn about the many Native Americans depicted as statues in the U.S. Capitol, from Po’pay of New Mexico to Chief Standing Bear of Nebraska.

In 1822, Samuel F.B. Morse, who later invented the telegraph, painted a scene of the Hall of the House of Representatives. Learn about this moment in time, later used for the restoration of the space in 1976.