Capitol at Dusk

The dome of the United States Capitol, better known as the Capitol Building, is one of the world’s most recognized landmarks. The Capitol actually has two domes, though, one inside the other. Atop the outer dome, visible in this 1955 photo taken from Southwest Drive, sits Thomas Crawford’s bronze sculpture “Freedom,” completed during the Civil War. The second, inner dome displays Constantino Brumidi’s fresco, “The Apotheosis of George Washington,” 180 feet above the Rotunda floor.

The outer dome was completely restored in 1960, but weather remains its biggest enemy: precipitation pelts the exterior, and Freedom statue endures the occasional strike of lightning. The Times reported in 2012 that at least 100 pieces of the dome have fallen off or been removed, including a 40-pound cast-iron decorative acorn.

This photo was taken by the legendary George Tames (1919-1994). Tames was a Washington news photographer for The New York Times whose work, for nearly half a century, changed the way Americans looked at Presidents and the powerful. His photos chronicled 10 Presidents — Franklin D. Roosevelt to George Bush — plus countless members of Congress and visiting heads of state, including Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher and Nikita Khrushchev.

Memorable Tames images convey not only the flavor of the capital but also the people making headlines. Over the years he won awards and citations for dramatic shots of a farmers’ protest, a civil rights march and the Lincoln Memorial. He joined The Times in 1945 during the era of the large Speed Graphic camera and retired from The Times 40 years later in the era of the 35-millimeter camera. No matter the format, Tames had an uncanny instinct for capturing dramatic images on film. Esteemed by his peers, Tames’s body of work has been described as the DNA of our political story.