In 1853, British novelist William Makepeace Thackeray toured the U.S. Capitol with Senator Charles Sumner. Thackeray, who illustrated his own novels with sketches, was impressed by the Rotunda and its four wall-size paintings of scenes of the American Revolution: The Declaration of Independence, The Surrender of General Burgoyne at Saratoga, The Surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, and The Resignation of General Washington. All were done by John Trumbull, who had died ten years earlier. “Trumbull is your painter,” Thackeray told Sumner. “Never neglect Trumbull.”
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