Francis Trumbull
Windsor Chairs
(c1770)

Image from an online exhibition at the Library of Congress - -Declaring Independence: Drafting the Documents.



Edward Savage, Congress Voting the Declaration of Independence (an unfinished engraving, after a painting by Robert Edge Pine, c.1776.

Note the Windsor chairs (with spindles and rounded backs) made by Francis Trumbull. Windsor chairs were popular at all levels of society. Franklin, Jefferson, and Washington all owned chairs of this type, as did families of more moderate means. During the Revolutionary era, buying a Windsor chair could be an expression of patriotism because they were made in America (rather than imported from England and France as was most high-fashion furniture). Windsor chairs also evoked a feeling of republican simplicity, frugality, and virtue.

This image is considered the most accurate rendition of the deliberations on the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson is the tall figure placing the Declaration on the table. Benjamin Franklin is seated to the right of him, and the other members of the Declaration committee stand to his left (From left to right: John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston).





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