pyrenees. that faces the susquehanna river out towards state street. you walk into the center and the rotunda opens before you. the rotunda rises about 272 feet up to the top where the statute of commonwealth states. it's 24 karat gold leafing throughout. what actually shows an aloe gorical figure with a sense of realism. to have the allo gorical figure depicted in the mural. so it's kind of blast furnaces, you know, pennsylvania iron steel industry. and then presided over by the roman god of the forge. the spirit of religious liberty has allo gorical angels leading to the new world. which represents pennsylvania as a bastion of religious freedom. revealing the treasures of the earth. and industrial wealth of the commonwealth. and the spirit of light actually has oil dairices with angels

holding flames up above it. as you go up further, you have a railing. then you have these large eight-foot tall windows that rise up. as you go up, there will be the lantern which is about 270 feet in the air and has stars in the lantern and that's up where the commonwealth statue sits on top of the dome. most people ask about the green on the dome. they are actually red clay tiles but they have a green, what's called empire green glaze. they came from wood wiki's house in ohio. the entire roof is actually green tile and that's what joseph houston, he liked the empire green glas instead of just having red terra cotta tile. we're in the senate chamber. pennsylvania state capitol building. the senate chamber is done actually in the french renaissance. each chamber has a unique architectural motif it keeps with. it's all part of the american renaissance. we have con na mara marble in

here. we have artwork by a philadelphia artist. stained glass windows by william brantly van egan. it's really a unique piece. 24 karat gold leafing throughout the entire capitol. as you can see on the ceilings and the petments here, you'll see the 24 carkarat gold leaf. the desks here are historic. the furniture is in the front and the carpet is a reproduction carpet as well as the draperies. it all really stems from 1893 chicago world's fair. where they started to produce monumental public buildings in the united states. joseph houston, the architect, really saw that. he had taken the grand tour and came back here inspired and wanted to produce basically european buildings here in the u.s. and that's where the design stems from.

the top fries is called international unity and understanding. it has a central figure. everything moves towards that. it's the arm of the earth surrend surrendering. the slaves of the earth being freed. so it all moves towards the central figure. underneath the creation and preservation of the union. 1787. on the other side she has president lincoln giving the t gettysburg address. violet oakley lived until she was 87 years old. in 1955, she actually came back before the senate at that time. she went into detail, great detail, with the senators, telling them what the representation of these murals were for them. the murals were put here to inspire the senators. we've now moved from the senate chamber to the house chamber. pennsylvania house has 203 members versus the 50 members of the senate. the house is probably most ornate room in the building.

arguably. done in the italian renaissance versus the french renaissance. the time when this capitol was bui built, there's only a 15-year period where a capitol like this would have been built in the state of pennsylvania. that gilded age. palace. that's what houston called it. that's what we still call it. pennsylvania's palace of art. because we were at the height of industry. capitalism. everything was being made and done in pennsylvania the turn of the last century. so it wanted to show its industrial and commercial wealth and it did that through the capitol building. all this gold leaf and aluminum leaf and copper and everything else that was incorporated. it was height of architecture and artistry and artisonship. the smaller ones weigh a ton and

a half. they actually go up through the next floor through giant chains and turnbuckles. they're attached to the steel trusses of the roof, so that they don't fall. the big chandeliers were done by henry bonner bronze company out of new york. the smaller what we call light standards and some of the sconces were done by the pennsylvania bronze company which was located in philadelphia. the murals in the chamber here, the front murals here. it has 34 identifiable figures from pennsylvania history with the allo gorical what's called the genius of state figure up at the top. william penn, benjamin franklin. who were famous pennsylvanians. and then they're loosely grouped by famous religious failures. famous generals, explorer, philanthropists and the like. the murals is the indians. benjamin west did the original.

that's a model. so he kind of took that and morphed it into his own understanding. and then the last mural on the other side of the apotheos is the first public reading of the declaration of independence. the mural on the ceiling is called the hours mural and that was painted by edward austin abby as well. originally joseph houston was going to incorporate a stained glass dome into the ceiling. so he had to move his dome. we'll see that over at the supreme court chamber. abby created this hours mural. it's the 24 hours of the day from light to dark. and it's alogorical made. and the zodiac signs depicted. he tried to where possible pick as many pennsylvania artists at the time. abby was a native of

pennsylvania but really a english expatriate. and then sent it back over. but abby had done a work for the boston public library called the holy grail murals. houston saw those and really liked abby's work. since he was a pennsylvanian, he got the commission. he was supposed to do all the principal rooms. they ended up doing the rotunda and also the house chamber and then he got ill and passed away. violet oakley who was the first female artist in the united states to do large-scale decorative mural painting, didn't complete that she was given the commission for the senate and the supreme court chamber after abby's death. oakley ended up doing the majority of the work in the building. we're currently in the supreme superior court chamber. this is part of the design of joseph houston's plan for the capitol. the rear central portion of the fourth floor would have the court chambers.

this is one of three philadelphia pittsburgh and here in harrisburg, one of three supreme and superior court chambers in which the court can meet. the dome here in the supreme court was actually meant to be over top of the house chamber, we believe. it was brought here as they were adding a fifth floor to the building. so even as the building was being constructed in 1906, they were kind of running out of space. they added more -- more rooms on the top and they moved the dome which was already in production here. this green stained glass dome was done by alfred godwin. so it's got a -- basically a penthouse over top that leds light come in from the side. so it's lit on -- it's photo-lit from the inside. so on cloudy days, the dome is sti lit up but allows natural light to come in. this is the final room oakley decorates. she spent 20 years of her life producing work for the capitol. the first commission was in

1902. these works were installed in 1927. so she worked on the senate and supreme court at the same time. so she completed the senate around 1918, 1920, and then went on and did these works for seven years. violet oakley, the whole fries represents her idea of what the evolution of world law is. it starts with antiquities and works its way up through the 1920s. the evolution of world law and international law which culminates in world peace. the mural on this wall. william blackstone. blackstone's commentaries. is a unique mural. that's the one, when you come in the door that's the one you see facing. you see this kind of imposing figure of blackstone sitting on the bench looking at you as you approach the chamber. and then the figure off to the other side is actually william penn seated. thomas jefferson quoted penn as what he termed the greatest law giver that the nation has known.

so lined up behind him are famous humanist thinkers. so john lock. and the very touch the corner there, violet oakley painted a selfie, a self-portrait of herself in that. so most people don't see that. oakley traveled to the library and did research there and asked the librarian for a history of law and he said there wasn't one, and so she said, i'll have to write one. she basically wrote one in terms of her paintings. which goes through biblical, judaic, different evolutions of law. then pennsylvania law, u.s. law, with john marshal, and then world law. it's a really original work that she has depicted here. capitol preservation's role is to actually care for the fine decorative arts, the historic and architectural fabric of the building. we were formed in 1902. we're a bipartisan legislative

service committee. and so our goal is really to protect the 640 rooms, the historic fabric. any of the artwork and architecture. that's the type of stuff we deal with. the historic you name it, we're a little across the board in what we do to care for the building and its upkeep. what we really help visitors take away from this is appreciation for the monumental works that the commonwealth did. it's one of just a few that are as ornate as it is. we take great pride in keeping it that way. rooms aren't gutted, and that there's an aesthetic there that we try to showcase as the masterpiece that it is.

>> this might be the only government class you ever take. you're going to be a voter forever. you're going to be a juror forever. i need to give you tools that are going to help you for the rest of your life in those pursuits, do them well. >> high schoolteachers discuss how current events affect their lessons on history, politics and government. >> as a history component, this is a chance for them to learn a little bit about their story. their story doesn't begin the moment they were born. it starts with people who have come long before them, that shape the way the world around them operates.thif they start t doesn't start and end with me, where i'm coming from is all part of this bigger story. in that way, allowing them to take in other people's opinions, take in the perspectives of others through social media. and through video, it gives them a chance to really think, this is how i see the world, why is it that i see the world this way?

how can i maybe expand that a limb bit, by taking in people's perspectives. >> tuesday, 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, c-span.org and listen using the free c-span radio app. >> voices from the road at the national conference of state legislature summit in boston asking attendees, what's the most important issue to your state. >> one of the biggest issues that's facing the great state of maryland is the issue, a problem of juvenile justice. we have over 50 of our youth that are incarcerated for life without the possibility of parole. i'm going to be working very dill gantly with the legislature to put in place a bill that would allow for these juveniles to have a hearing. that is one of the biggest issues that we see facing us in

the great state of maryland. the second has to do with opiate. the use of opiate in the state of maryland is killing our young people, our old people, it has no respect for age, creed, state, behavior, mental illness, all of these things are important. but opiate is the leading cause of death in the state of maryland. so we're trying to do whatever we can to eliminate this problem. and that's one of the issues that we are going to be looking at as we move into the legislative session. >> one of the most important issues we're facing in new york right now is rail safety. we have over 5300 rail crossings in new york, and we've seen fatalities increase over the past few years, while nationally, those numbers have decreased. i've passed legislation that

would require an inventory of the 5300 rail crossings so we could prioritize and know which ones are the most deadly, which ones need a simple amount of work, and which ones need to be eliminated all together. when we look at the 5300 all together, it's too awesome of a task to tackle. by focusing in and making sure we can eliminate the most deadly, we can make a big difference and increase safety for everyone. congress has allocated money, now we need to put our plan in place to access that funding for new york to make our rails and make our motorists safer all together. >> the issue that's most important in my state is job growth and economic development. there aren't many problems that a good job can't solve. if you were to have that to provide the income and resources for those children to provide a good education. that allows them to lift off and do a lot of pleasant things. and wonderful things throughout the entire lifetime job growth

and economic development are two things our state drastically needs. >> we don't have a budget. right now towns are preparing to go into the month of september, kids are back in school, and our municipal aide -- the governor's executive order not given the power to properly fund our schools. it doesn't give him the education funding. it doesn't help our state employees and we really need this budget now and as soon as possible. >> and i'm here to just make a statement about what we need from our leaders in washington, d.c.. what we're looking at in ohio, we need to take care of our infrastructure. that's a primary issue that's facing not only ohio, but all across the united states. and we need washington to focus in on infrastructure. our roads are crumbling, and we need trump and our legislators to start focusing on that issue. >> voices from the