The Capitol’s bucolic grounds existed more in the artist’s imagination than in reality in 1845, when this print was published in Morrison’s Stranger’s Guide. The accompanying text noted that the gardens were lacking, and that “art could add charms to nature, and give to the public grounds at Washington an enchantment worthy [of] the country.” It would be a half-century before noted landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted had his way with the Capitol’s grounds.
