News & Updates

The oldest portrait in the Michigan State Capitol’s collection turns 200 years old this year! Our portrait of the Marquis de Lafayette has a unique history, including the fact that it is a nearly identical copy of another artwork.

Learn about Isle La Motte, Vermont and the origin of our Capitol's eye-catching fossil-filled floors.

Follow along with the Michigan battle flags with this July progress report!

Let your phone be the guide on these quick, 15 minute special topic tours through the Capitol and its grounds!

Charles Pompilius is one of only four living artists represented in the Capitol’s portrait collection. His portrait of Governor Jennifer Granholm was unveiled in 2011 and now hangs on the second floor of the Capitol, in the rotunda’s Gallery of Governors.

Learn a little bit about our artifact collection as we celebrate the return of mid-century light fixture to the Capitol!

Good news from Conservation Specialists May Oyler and Cambray Baylis regarding the Civil War regimental flag of the 15th Michigan Volunteer Infantry!

June was a productive month of researching, conserving, and presenting for the Save the Flags team!

Lewis Ives painted Young Girl Reading in 1889 for the family of David and Martha Pegram Hamilton. It was painted in memory of their deceased daughter, Margaret.

Learn about the 1898 unveiling of the statue on Capitol Square of Governor Austin Blair, a fitting tribute to the beloved leader who led Michigan through some of America’s darkest days.

It was another busy month for Save the Flags!

Last week, members of the Capitol’s HBIM team traveled to Washington, D.C. and Richmond, Virginia as part of an ongoing project with Quinn Evans Architects to construct a Historical Building Information Model (HBIM) for the Capitol.

For many of us longtime Michiganders (or Michiganians), the month of May means tulips! 🌷

Percy Ives painted Portrait of a Young Violinist in 1884, in preparation for his first solo exhibition. Historians believe that his first cousin, May Leggett Abel, served as his model for the piece.

It has been another busy month of researching, conserving, and presenting for the Save the Flags team!

April is poetry month, which means it is a good time to dig into the archives and pull out a few not-so-classic Capitol poems.

A new art exhibit just opened in Heritage Hall! The first in our Behind the Canvas series, A Father’s Presence explores the relational dynamics between two of the Capitol’s most prolific artists – Lewis and Percy Ives.

Sen. Eva McCall Hamilton, Michigan's first female legislator (1921–22), was a teacher, suffragist, and reformer.

Michigan's Senate Chamber was restored in 1989 and rededicated in January 1990.