December 28, 1854

On this date, artist Constantino Brumidi met Captain Montgomery C. Meigs, engineer in charge of the construction and decoration of the Capitol extension. This initial meeting led to Brumidi’s appointment to paint frescos (painting on wet plaster walls) throughout the new sections of the Capitol over the next two decades, including the dome of the Rotunda. Brumidi moved to New York from Italy in 1852, shortly after receiving a pardon from a prison sentence related to his activities during the Republican Revolution in Italy in the late 1840s. Brumidi had worked steadily painting frescos in Rome, with projects completed in the Vatican and other notable institutions. After his arrival in the United States, he established himself in the Northeast painting portraits and decorating private residences. In 1854, Brumidi obtained an introduction to Captain Meigs while traveling through Washington, D.C. Prior to meeting Brumidi, Meigs had envisioned a grand decorative program for the Capitol, inspired by his research on the Vatican and the villas of Pompeii. With his experience in Italian decorative style and mastery of fresco technique, Brumidi was a good fit for Meigs's vision, and was soon asked to complete a test mural in the Capitol. The work—depicting the popular subject of the Roman General Cincinnatus—was a success, and Brumidi was hired to decorate the Capitol. He began work in 1855, and continued to paint the corridors, committee rooms and ceremonial spaces of the Capitol extension until his death in 1880.

December 31, 1946

On this date, the House Campaign Expenditures Investigating Committee refrained from challenging New York Representative Vito Marcantonio’s right to take his seat in the 80th Congress (1947–1949). First winning election to his polyglot, East Harlem district in 1934, Marcantonio built his career on a radical political agenda. Running on the American Labor Party (ALP) ticket—a New York City-based, left-wing political party—for most of his career, he was a firm supporter of the protection of civil liberties and organized labor. He was also known for his Soviet sympathies. Anti-communist sentiment and a desire to return to pre-war normalcy permeated the 1946 election; the GOP adopted the slogan “It’s Time for a Change,” vowing to “replace [war time] controls, confusion, corruption, and communism.” Marcantonio’s re-election in the face of increased opposition to his left wing politics was further complicated when GOP party employee Joseph Scottoriggio was fatally beaten en route to his job as an election observer in East Harlem. Having won their first majority in nearly 20 years, emboldened congressional Republicans charged that the attack on Scottoriggio was an attempt to intimidate voters and sought to bar Marcantonio—who had defeated his GOP opponent with 54 percent of the vote—from taking his seat. Four of the five members of the investigating committee in the lame duck session of the 79th Congress (1945–1947), however, opted to hold off their final decision until the conclusion of an ongoing investigation into Scottoriggio’s murder. The case went unsolved and Marcantonio took his seat without incident. However, his continued adherence to his left-wing agenda, coupled with his isolation as the only ALP Member in an increasingly anti-communist Congress, eventually forced an end to Marcantonio’s political career in 1950.

January 3, 1969

On this date at the opening of the 91st Congress (1969–1971), Shirley Anita Chisholm of New York became the first African-American Congresswoman. Trained as a school teacher, Chisholm served two terms in the New York state legislature before winning election in November 1968 to a newly created congressional district in Brooklyn. The only woman among the freshman class of the 91st Congress, Chisholm took the House by storm. “I have no intention of just sitting quietly and observing,” she said. “I intend to focus attention on the nation’s problems.” Chisholm continued to work for the causes she had espoused as a community activist. She sponsored increases in federal funding to extend the hours of daycare facilities and a guaranteed minimum annual income for families. She was a fierce defender of federal assistance for education, serving as a primary backer of a national school lunch bill and leading her colleagues in overriding President Gerald R. Ford’s veto on this measure. In 1972, she mounted a longshot presidential bid that nevertheless received national attention. In 1982, after seven terms in the House, Chisholm declined to run for re-election to the 98th Congress (1983–1985). She stated that she had become disillusioned with the conservative politics of the Ronald Reagan administration and factionalism in Congress. After leaving office, Chisholm taught and remained active in political organizations, but never again sought elective office.