The United States Capitol is the building in Washington, DC, which houses the United States Congress (the federal parliament). The one with the big white dome pictured above. The word “Capitol” comes from Latin Capitolium, the name of one of the 7 hills of Rome, which back then was believed to be the location of the Rome Senate. Later it was determined that, actually, the Senate occupied different buildings in the Roman Forum, under the hill, and never sat on the top of the hill, so to speak, but it was too late – the new American republic had already adopted this name for the seat of the legislative branch of its federal government.
The need for the parliament buildings did not stop with Washington – the new republic was expanding, and every new state needed its own legislature headquarters. It naturally happened that the US Capitol has become the model for those new edifices, both in shape (most of them look very similar to the Capitol in DC), and in the name. So now, when we say “US Capitols”, we mean state legislature buildings throughout the US. And this is what this collection is about. Eventually, I am planning on visiting all 50 US state capitals and take pictures of every state Capitol, even if the building is not called that (there are 11 states that use another word for it). The pictures of these buildings will be collected here.