The Rotunda

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was first and foremost an Italian sculptor, as well as, a painter during the High Renaissance. His piece entitled Pietà was created between the years of 1498–1499 in St. Peter’s Basilica (Kleiner). Gian Lorenzo Bernini was also an Italian sculptor and architect, but during the Baroque period. The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa was finished in 1652 for the Cornaro family chapel in Santa Maria della Vittoria (Kleiner). Though there is complexity in the…

Arguably, the three most important documents in American history--the U.S. Constitution, Bill of Rights and The Declaration of Independence--can be found at The Rotunda of the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C.. In 1776, America’s Founding Fathers signed The Declaration of Independence, explaining their desire for separation from Great Britain. Among other privileges, The Declaration of Independence guarantees Americans “certain unalienable rights” such as “life, liberty and the…

John F. Kennedy Assassination, 1963 It was late morning, sun shining through the windows, cool breeze in the air as Linda was about to go to the store for her mother. With her mother yelling at her not to forget the grocery list, she had to keep reminding herself to turn the TV off before she left. Linda running to turn it off so she could leave, stopped in her tracks as she saw news headlines across the TV. She stood there, not believing what she was reading. She yells for her mother to…

In this essay, the life and achievements of Civil Rights Activist Rosa Parks will be discussed. Rosa McCauley Parks is known today as the “mother of the civil rights movement” because her arrest for refusing to give up her bus seat sparked the pivotal Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott. (Hare, 2008) Early Life and Education Born Rosa Louise McCauley on February 4th, 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama, Rosa was subject to racial discrimination from an early age. Throughout her life, she had been sent to…

Conflict and war in America in the 18th century had a profound impact on the paintings created during that time period. Artists focused on capturing important battles and deaths of important people on canvas. Two famous artists during this time period were Benjamin West and John Trumbull. Benjamin West was born in Pennsylvania in 1738, but left the colonies permanently to study art in Europe in 1759. He settled in England, where he served as King George III painter, and helped found the Royal…

African-American activist Rosa Parks was born on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Alabama. Her refusal to surrender her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama transport caused one of the biggest bus boycott controversy. The city of Montgomery had no choice but to withhold the law requiring isolation on city transports. Rosa Parks receive numerous honors among her lifetime, including the NAACP 's most female courage honor. Rosa Parks ' adolescence carried her initial encounters with racial…

1996 and the congressional gold medal in 1999. The Southern Christian Leadership Council established an annual Rosa Parks Freedom Award. After Rosa parks death on the 5th of October 2005, Congress approved allowing Rosa’s body to lie in honor in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. Rosa was the 31st person, the first woman, and only the second black person to be…

According to Hara Marano, the author of the editorial titled “Crisis U”, anxiety is defined as “a byproduct of thinking, but it is incapacitating without the ability to apply critical thinking skills to emotional reactions” (2). Anxiety is not just being anxious about a certain topic or situations; anxiety is complex and many people experience anxiety differently. In the first part of her definition, Marano is stating that anxiety has a lot to do with the way a person defines a situation in…

President Thomas Jefferson was the chief driving force behind the newly created United States embracing Neoclassism as its architectural style. Serving a symbolic function, Jefferson believed that America must cast off the old English architectural style and embrace the style of the old Greek and Roman Republics. Jefferson constructed his own estate at Monticello in Virginia and the Virginia State Capitol building using classical revivalism, yet added many details that were commonly found in…

“Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex,” reads the Equal Rights Amendment. Women in the United States of America did not have many rights before 1919. However, in the early 1920’s, the Equal Rights Amendment was created for the benefit of America’s women. The amendment was dedicated to equality for women, for equality to be included inside of the Constitution, and to support women’s rights. Even today, the Equal…