These portraits of America’s state capitol buildings present shining examples of various architectural styles, including:

• Neoclassical
• Renaissance
• Art deco
• Bauhaus
• Gothic
• Modernist

Their intention is not merely to record the look of these secular civic temples, but to evoke their meaning and spirit through the rich visual language of photography. Paintings and sculpture, wood and stone, landscaping: these all contribute to the multilayered story of how we, as a people, value the civic structures we erect.

The book further pays homage to these capitols with the following features:

• Foreword by George Miles, former curator of the Yale Collection of Western Americana, that elaborates on the themes and ideas subtly revealed by the precise and thoughtful photographs.
• The 50 state capitol buildings are presented in order of their admission to the Union, to provide a historical flow.
• Each building has a written introduction by Robert Morton, a premier editor of photography books and works on the history of art and architecture, that provides a rich context for the images.
• Captions accompany four to six images of each structure.

The rich photographs in this book bring the viewer into a shared contemplation of the meaning and significance of these proud buildings.