United States Capitol rotunda in the context of "United States Capitol dome"

Robert Walter Weir (June 18, 1803 – May 1, 1889) was an American artist and educator and is considered a painter of the Hudson River School. Weir was elected to the National Academy of Design in 1829 and was an instructor at the United States Military Academy. His best-known work is Embarkation of the Pilgrims in the United States Capitol rotunda in Washington, D.C. More than 450 of his works are known, and he created many unsigned paintings that may never be attributed to him.

A rotunda (from Latin rotundus) is any roofed building with a circular ground plan, and sometimes covered by a dome. It may also refer to a round room within a building (an example being the one below the dome of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.). The Pantheon in Rome is perhaps the most famous, and is the most influential rotunda. A band rotunda is a circular bandstand, usually with a dome.

Between seventy-three and seventy-nine days after the presidential election, the president-elect of the United States is inaugurated as president by taking the presidential oath of office. The inauguration takes place for each new presidential term, even if the president is continuing in office for another term.

The first inauguration of George Washington took place on April 30, 1789. Subsequent public inaugurations from 1793 until 1933 were held on March 4, with the exceptions of those in 1821, 1849, 1877, and 1917, when March 4 fell on a Sunday, thus the public inauguration ceremony took place on Monday, March 5. Since 1937, it has taken place at noon Eastern time on January 20, the first day of the new term, except in 1957, 1985, and 2013, when January 20 fell on a Sunday. In those years, the presidential oath of office was administered on that day privately and then again in a public ceremony the next day, on Monday, January 21. The most recent presidential inauguration was held on January 20, 2025, when Donald Trump reassumed office.

Declaration of Independence is a 12-by-18-foot (3.7 by 5.5 m) oil-on-canvas painting by the American artist John Trumbull depicting the presentation of the draft of the Declaration of Independence to Congress. It was based on a much smaller version of the same scene, presently held by the Yale University Art Gallery. Trumbull painted many of the figures in the picture from life, and visited Independence Hall to depict the chamber where the Second Continental Congress met. The oil-on-canvas work was commissioned in 1817, purchased in 1819, and placed in the United States Capitol rotunda in 1826.

The painting is sometimes incorrectly described as depicting the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The painting shows the five-man drafting committee presenting their draft of the Declaration to the Congress, an event that took place on June 28, 1776, and not the signing of the famous copy, which took place mainly on August 2.

The United States Capitol crypt is the large circular room filled with forty neoclassical Doric columns directly beneath the United States Capitol rotunda. It was built originally to support the rotunda as well as offer an entrance to Washington's Tomb. It currently serves as a museum and a repository for thirteen statues of the National Statuary Hall Collection.

The Apotheosis of Washington is the fresco painted by Greek-Italian artist Constantino Brumidi in 1865 and visible through the oculus of the dome in the rotunda of the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.

The fresco is suspended 180 feet (55 m) above the rotunda floor and covers an area of 4,664 square feet (433.3 m). The figures painted are up to 15 feet (4.6 m) tall and are visible from the floor below. The dome was completed in 1863, and Brumidi painted it over the course of eleven months at the end of the American Civil War. He was paid $40,000 ($821,652 in today's funds) for the fresco.

The inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th president of the United States took place on Monday, January 20, 2025. Due to freezing temperatures and high winds, it was held inside the U.S. Capitol rotunda in Washington, D.C. It was the 60th U.S. presidential inauguration and the second inauguration of Trump as U.S. president, marking the commencement of his second and final presidential term and the only term of JD Vance as vice president. It was the second re-inauguration for a former U.S. president, after the second inauguration of Grover Cleveland in 1893. Trump's first inauguration was exactly eight years earlier, on January 20, 2017.

The event included a swearing-in ceremony, a signing ceremony, an inaugural luncheon, a first honors ceremony, and then a procession and parade at Capital One Arena. Inaugural balls were held at various venues before and after the inaugural ceremonies. The Capitol rotunda can seat approximately 600 people; the number of attendees has not been disclosed.