
Image

Reading of the Declaration of Independence, by Edwin Austin Abbey and Ernest Board
Credit: Pennsylvania Capitol Preservation Committee and Brian Hunt Commercial Photography
Born in Philadelphia, Edwin Austin Abbey (1852-1911) spent much of his adult life in England, where he became a successful muralist. He returned to Pennsylvania to paint murals in the new state capital building. Unfinished at the time of his death in 1911, this painting of the Reading of the Declaration of Independence, was finished by his assistant, Ernest Board.