by architectures in philadelphia. this is a building that tries to incorporate motives and styles. this has an astronomical amount of ornamentation. and outside. this is marble from connemara and the. days. it is an amazing work of art. we are at the left of the main entrance. that faces out towards state street. he will walk into the center and the rotunda opens for you. the statue of commonwealth -- 24 commonwealth gold leafing throughout. -- theye is designed by have the allegorical figure of balkan featured and then they have furnaces. so it is the steel industry at the turn of the last century and provided by the roman god of the forge. angelsre allegorical leading chains to the new world which represents pennsylvania as a bastion of religious freedom. of minimal ands industrial wealth for the commonwealth. oilthe spirit of life has derricks with angels holding flames above it. a you go up further you have railing and then you have the large eight tall windows that rise up. as you grew 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. red clay tiles but they have a green glaze. they came from a tile company in ohio. -- likes 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. 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. 1893, the world fair where they started to produce monumental public buildings in the united states. andthe architect saw that 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. earth'se arm of the surrendering and the slaves of the earth being freed as they approach. so it all moves towards the central figure. -- has the pennsylvania sideation and on the other 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. the house is probably the most ornate room in the building. 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. it throughd to show the capital building. -- it aluminum leaf and is at the heart of architecture. and partisanship. since the chandeliers in this -- way a 10 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. here,rals in the chamber here.ntifiable figures with allegorical genius of state figure up in the top. famous pennsylvania's and then famous religious figures and famous generals. famous philanthropists. the pens tree with the indians under -- 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 tree with the indians. 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. and he's try to use pennsylvania artists of the time. was really an english x and lived in england for most of his life ended his work there and send it back over. 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. do all of thed to 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. supreme andof three 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. 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. is fromned-glass dome 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. thatroom, the final room violet oakley decorated. the first commission she got was a nice have to. she completed the senate around 1919 and 1920. and then did these works for 20 years. the whole freeze represents her idea of what the evolution of world lowell is. her mostis probably 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. to protect really the rooms, the historic fabric and artwork and architecture. 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 we take great pride in keeping it. making sure that it is and does 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-span three. publicound that officials, the people who really govern the country -- it is in congress or the president -- it is bureaucrats. they write thousands of rules and regulations. don't found out that they think much of ordinary americans. >> tonight, benjamin ginsberg, professor at johns hopkins university, talks about his book. "what washington gets wrong." >> what did we learn? we learn that we elect a law and who selects the the president executes the law. courts review the laws. but that isn't exactly how the system works. much of it, we think of as the law, it consists of rules and regulations written by bureaucratic agencies. written by bureaucratsmuch of ie you are not elected by anyone and you often serve for decades. >> tonight on c-span's q&a. tv, as american history the centennial of america's entry into world war i approaches, a historian discusses economics and the role of big is this in the u.s. response to the great war. the professor examines relationships between british, u.s. and german business communities. bigt is in a talk titled " business and questions of american neutrality." part of antation was two-day symposium hosted by the national world war i museum and memorial in kansas city, missouri. a professor of history at columbia university, where he specializes in modern german german and european and relas.