About the author
Edward A. St. Germain created AmericanRevolution.org in 1996. He was an avid historian with a keen interest in the Revolutionary War and American culture and society in the 18th century. On this website, he created and collated a huge collection of articles, images, and other media pertaining to the American Revolution. Edward was also a Vietnam veteran, and his investigative skills led to a career as a private detective in later life.
Robert Edge Pine died in November 1788, leaving a large debt and an unfinished painting on the vote by the Second Continental Congress to declare independence.
Edward Savage, an American goldsmith, engraver, and artist, was asked by Pine’s widow to complete the painting, which now hangs in Independence Hall.
The room, which depicts the old State House (now Independence Hall), is considered to be the most accurate — and indeed the only rendition that we have of what the interior looked like — when the Declaration was signed. Standing center: John Adams, Roger Sherman, James Wilson, Thomas Jefferson — handing a document to John Hancock, president of the Congress. Seated in the front (left to right) are Samuel Adams, Robert Morris, Benjamin Franklin (in Windsor chair), and Charles Carroll of Carrollton.
Savage was also an engraver. He planned to popularize the painting by producing a print version for sale. When he died in 1817, however, the engraving plate was still not finished.
