CH 9
Memorial Chamber
Public Service
Take a Virtual Tour of the State Capitol. Click HERE to tour the Memorial Chamber of Nebraska's Beautiful Capitol.
The dome in the top of the Memorial Chamber is 70 feet above the floor. The outside dome is actually 50 feet above the inside dome! The dome is gold on the outside, but the gold isn't metal--it's ceramic tile with a gold glaze.
The tiles are very strong and will stand up to the rain and weather, and never need cleaning. On the inside, the dome is blue tile, to symbolize the sky. At the very top is a red and gold sunburst.
Below that hangs one of the Capitol's most striking chandeliers, meant to suggest two celestial stars. It's made up of interlocking tetrahedrons (figures with four triangular shapes) and is decorated with corn and sunflower designs.
The windows in this room are golden glass so the lighting is always soft and peaceful, just right for a memorial. From the observation decks at the 14th floor level you can see for over 20 miles to the horizon.
Artist Stephen Cornelius Roberts said, “As a descendant of pioneers, I chose to portray my family at the far right of this mural.” Stephen has a reddish shirt and dark brown hair. His brother is in the middle with the gun.
Roberts’ murals look photographic because he drew from photos of real Nebraskans he used as models. The people in the painting were never posed all together. Roberts took photographs of each person posed individually, and then combined the portraits to create each picture’s design.