Independence Hall group in the winter of 1840. (Note restored steeple and clock, also doorway on Sixth Street side of Congress Hall.) Lithograph by J. T. Bowen after drawing by J. C. Wild, 1840. Courtesy Philadelphia Free Library.
Earliest known photograph of Independence Hall, taken in 1850 by W. and F. Langenheim. From their “Views in North America” series. Courtesy Philadelphia Free Library.
Perhaps the best expression of this veneration is in the grandiloquent words of the famed orator Edward Everett, who, on July 4, 1858, said of the State House, or as it has now come to be known, Independence Hall: “Let the rain of heaven distill gently on its roof and the storms of winter beat softly on its door. As each successive generation of those who have benefitted by the great Declaration made within it shall make their pilgrimage to that shrine, may they not think it unseemly to call its walls Salvation and its gates Praise.”
On July 4, 1852, the delegates from 10 of the Thirteen Original States met in Independence Hall to consider a plan to erect in the square one or more monuments to commemorate the Declaration of Independence. For various reasons, their deliberations proved fruitless.
During the years after the restoration of the Assembly Room in 1831, a few paintings and other objects were purchased by, or presented to, the City for exhibition. One of the first acquisitions was the wooden statue of George Washington, by William Rush, which long occupied the east end of the room. It was not until 1854, however, that the City made any real effort to establish a historical collection for Independence Hall. In that year, at the sale of Charles Willson Peale’s gallery, the City purchased more than 100 oil portraits of Colonial, Revolutionary, and early Republican personages.
Following the acquisition of Peale’s portraits, the Assembly Room was refurnished and these paintings hung on the walls. On February 22, 1855, the Mayor opened the room to the public. From that day on, many relics and curios were accepted by the City for display in this chamber.
Independence Hall group in 1853. Engraving of a drawing by Devereux. Courtesy Philadelphia Free Library.