Building unique is the fact we have this amazing collection of materials that document the construction of the building. When the decision was made that nebraska needed a new state capitol, the legislator put noorgt a commission to over see the design and construction of the building. The chigz put together a competition to select an architect. The unique part about this competition is that it was a double blind competition. So the comp petteres didnt know who the judges were. And the judges didnt know who the competitors were. The advantage to this process was that the architects could design to the specifications that were put ipfront of them ined stead of designing to the known tastes of the judges. They were able to come up with some solutions they might not have come up with normally. His winning design was very dwlu neek. It had a power instead of the tradition capitol style being. It also had the advantage of being able to be constructed in phases. This photo here shows that process. So we have the north and south parts of the building going up around the previous capitol. Once the north and south secks were done, they moved the employees out of the old building, into temporary quarters in the new building. And in 1925 they took down the old building and continued construction of the new building. One of those requirements was of a main entrance detail. So this is bertrams drawing of his proposed main the entrance to his nebraska state capitol. The ink wash drawing is amazingly amazingly detailed. It shows that he was looking at a very classical structure originally. There are features that certainly between the time of competition and time of construction, interest thbuilding was redesigned to a point. Some of the features of the design are still there. But he cleaned up the design so theyre much more classical ask less modern 20s design bhch the pie near wagon exists now, but there arent the columns. The figures carved on the building arent still there. But theyre engaged in the stuckture rather sthan separate on the structure. Each competitor was required to include a figure for scale in their main entrance drawing. While the competitors didnt know the judges, they certainly were aware of politics at the time. And bertram included a figure that looks remarkably like we have here a sequence of artwork that created during the design and construction of the rotunda floor for the building. The architects created a plan of what they prosed the floor would look like. They colored in the marble. They had their mosaic pencilled in. She also created larger zal pieces that were sent to i presume both the Architecture Office in new york and later the commission in lincoln. The design shows mother earth and the four elements of water, air, fire and earth. And the designs she created for the most part were used as she created them with the exception of mother earth. In the final four the design is very different. Mother surgt is seated on a tlen and her children were behind her. She also created a fullscale figure to show them this is what the mosaic would look like on the floor of the rotunda. Another piece on the rotunda floor the ribbon that runs around. It shows the history of creatures and animals that lived in the nebraska territories from the earliest known points. So the commission worked a pail dw iantologist from the universe of nebraska. He worked a series of drawings with drawings they were going to put on the floor of the rotunda. And he created these drawings in amazing color detail, even though it was already known the floor was going to be black and white marble. He was able to take his drawings and alter them to the point where she could fit them within the bounds of that ribbon and created this amazing progression of animals on the floor. This drawing shows the floor as built. After the design was completed, they were able to draw this all in. And this is a beautiful documentation of what the whole floor looks like in a way that you cant see it in person. The building was constructed during the depression. And the commission was very aware of the need to be prudent with the dollars of the citizens of nebraska. The decision was made towards the end of construction to cut certain pieces out of the budget that could then be added later. One of those things was the murals that would fill the walls in the foyer, fevestibule and rotunda of the building. In the 1950s the legislatorer decided there were Funds Available to start working on the artwork in the building. In 1954 there was a competition held to select an artist to produce murals for the rotund a of the building. And in 1936 he installed thooe pieces. We have markets, in the comp tegz, labors of the head, labors of the hand and labors of the heart. They depict activities that people in nebraska would be participating in. There was certainly some controversy after the artwork was installed. The very first piece to go in was the labors of the hand including a depiction of a farmer with a bull. And there was lots of Media Coverage about how the bull looked like a square bull and what kind of bull has those keends of lines. Squchl the surprising thing was it was not just in the lincoln paper but covered nationally in 1956. I would say that the citizens of nebraska are very aware of the gem they have here in the capitol city, that the capitol is a Wonderful National historic landmark but a functional government building. I would say that theres not a lot of awareness about what happens behind the scenes and the fact that we have this collection. And ware definitely working to promote the awareness of these materials. We are standing in the house dh chamber of the old state capitol. This pilding was actually built