cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] announcer: you are watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. to join the conversation like us , on facebook at c-span history. >> c-span, where history is unfolding daily. in 1979, c-span was created as a public service on america's public television companies and is brought to you by your satellite providers. >> american history tv is in harrisburg, the state capital of pennsylvania. the capitol building was dedicated in 1906 and then president the door roosevelt said it was the handsomest capital he had seen.

of next, we will take you inside and show you around. >> this is our third state capital here in harrisburg, the first one was built from nate -- 1819-1822. the second one was an interim capital and the third one was commissioned, designed and constructed by architect from houston. it's designed in the american renaissance style. it tries to incorporate as many european architectural motifs and styles as possible. inside and out it has an astronomical amount of ornamentation, here and all the gold leafing, the chambers are and it is an amazing work of art. we are west of the main entrance

facing the susquehanna river out toward state street. you walk into the center and the rough attendant will open before you. feet,ad tend is about 272 it's 24 carat gold leafing through out. it shows an allegorical figure with a sense of realism, a figure of balkan depicted, and , andave blast furnaces godided over by the roman that represents pennsylvania as a bastion of religious freedom. the spirit of light actually has oil there with angels holding

flames above it. as you go up further you have a railing and then you have the large eight tall windows that rise up. as you go up, there will be a lantern which is 270 feet in the air and has stars in the lantern and that is up with the commonwealth statue sits on top of the dome. most people ask about the green on the dome. they are red clay tiles but they have a green glaze. they came from a tile company in ohio. joseph you shouldn't -- joseph houston liked the green glaze instead of red terra-cotta style. we are in the senate chamber. of the pennsylvania state capitol building.

there are three principal chambers in the building. the senate chamber was done in the french renaissance. each one has an architectural motif that he keeps with. so it is part of the american renaissance. we have artwork here by philadelphia artists. stained-glass windows. so, it is really a unique piece. 24 karat gold leafing through the entire capital as you can see on the ceilings and pediments here. most of the furnishing in the principal chambers is historic to 1906. the desks are historic. the carpet is a reproduction carpet, as are the draperies. the architectures goal was to incorporate as many european motifs and models as possible. it stems from 1893, the world fair where they started to produce monumental public buildings in the united states. and the architect saw that and he came back here inspired and he wanted to produce european buildings here in the u.s..

and that is where the design stems from. this is called the international unity and understanding. so it has a central figure and everything moves towards that. it is the arm of the earth's surrendering and the slaves of the earth being freed as they approach. so it all moves towards the central figure. -- has the pennsylvania delegation and on the other side there is lincoln giving the gettysburg address. a couple of interesting things of note, in 1955 -- came back before the senate. so she went into great detail with the senators. we have now moved from the senate chamber to the house chamber. the house has 203 members versus the 50 members of the senate. the house is probably the most ornate room in the building.

it's done in the italian renaissance versus the french renaissance. there is a 15 to 20 year time when a capital like this would have been built in the commonwealth of pennsylvania. and that is up to 1910. the gilded age. we still call it pennsylvania's palace of art. we were at the height of industry or capitalism and everything was being made and done at the turn of the last century. so it wanted to show it through the capital building. all the gold leaf and aluminum leaf and copper and everything else is incorporated into it wanting to show that it is at the height of architecture and partisanship and that's what it displays throughout the walls of this capital. since the chandeliers in this about ae large ones way

time and a half. and they go through the next floor, through giant chains and turnbuckles. and they are attached to the roof so they don't fall. the big chandeliers were done out of new york. the smaller light standards and the sconces were done by the pennsylvania bronze company which is located in pennsylvania. the murals in the chamber here, 35 identifiable figures here. with allegorical genius of state figure up in the top. famous pennsylvania's and then they are famous religious figures and famous generals. famous philanthropists. the treaty with the indians benjamin west did the

, original. edward austin abbey did all of these so we took that and morphed it into its own understanding of the treaty with the indians. the last mural is the first public reading in the declaration of independence reading. the mural on the ceiling was painted by edwin austin abbey. originally it was going to include a stained-glass dome but they decided in 1904 there were going to put another floor above that. they moved the dome over there and he created this mural. it is the 24 hours of the day from light to dark. and the zodiac sign is depicted behind that as well. p trying to pick as many pennsylvania artist at the time.

abbey was a native of philadelphia but in english x expatriate and lived in england for most of his his work there and send it back over. but he did the work for the boston public library called the holy grail of murals and houston saw those and like his work. and he got the commission. he was supposed to do all of the principal rooms. so he ended up doing the rotunda and also the house chamber. and then he passed away and violet oakley, the first female artist in the united states to do large-scale decorative mural painting, was given the commission by the senate and supreme court chamber after his death. so she ended up doing the majority of the work and building 43 murals over the course of 25 years. we are currently in the supreme court chamber. this is part of the design of the chamber with the rear

central chamber. this is one of three supreme and superior court chambers. the dome here in the supreme court was actually meant to be over top of the house chamber. and it was brought here as they were adding a new fourth building. -- a new fifth floor to the building. so even as this is being constructed, they were running out of space so they added more rooms on the top and they moved the dome, already in production, here. the stained-glass dome is from outside of philadelphia. it lets light coming from the side. it is folate from the inside so on cloudy days the dome is still lit up and it allows natural light to come in. this room, the final room that violet oakley decorated. she spent 25 years of her life producing work for the capital. the first commission she got was

in 1902. these were installed in 1907. she worked on the senate and supreme court at the same time. she completed the senate around 1919 and 1920. and then did these works for 20 -- for seven years. the whole freeze represents her idea of what the evolution of world lowell is. and this is probably her most original because it starts with antiquity and works its way up through the 1920's, the evolution of world law and international law which culminates in world peace. the murals on this, william blackstone, his commentary is a unique mural. because when you come in the door, that is what you see. an imposing figure with him sitting on the bench looking at you as you approach the chamber. and the figure off to the other side is -- william penn. at the very top -- there is a

selfie, a self-portrait of violet up there. oakley traveled to the library and did research there. she has the library and for history and there wasn't one so she said she would have to write one. so she basically wrote one in terms of her paintings and what you wanted to produce which goes through biblical, hebrew, judaic -- it comes up through pennsylvania law and u.s. law with john marshall and then the world law. capital preservation role is to care for the decorative arts and architecture fabric of the building. we were formed in 1902.

our goal is really to protect the rooms, the historic fabric and artwork and architecture. the historic civil war flags. you name it, we are across the board in what we do and how we care for the building. what legal visitors take away from this is an at appreciation in the works at the commonwealth and we take great pride in keeping it. it's one of just a few that are as ornate as it is. we try to ensure the rooms are just not that it and that there is an aesthetic there that we try to showcase for a masterpiece that it is.

>> this weekend, we are featuring the history of harrisburg, pennsylvania. together with our comcast cable partners. learn more about other stops at c-span.org. you are watching american history tv. all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. night, outgoing fcc chair tumblr talks about his three year tenure as the commission, its major decisions, including net neutrality, and the issues he sees facing the trump administration. the interviewed by technology reporter for politico. givee idea that we should a lot of responsibilities to the ftc is something that the networks have been pushing for years. before i took this job there was a headline, an article in the washington post that