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10 THE CAPITOL DOME 1. The relevant literature would take a book just to list, but starting points of various kinds include Matthew Restall, Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest (New York, 2003), J. H. Elliott, Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America, 1492-1830 (New Haven, 2006), Charles C. Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created (New York, 2011), and Matthew Restall and Kris Lane, Latin America in Colonial Times (Cambridge, 2011). 2. For images and historical information, see the official website on the Capitol and the frieze: aoc.gov/history-us- capitol-building. In the original drawing for the scene (pre- served in the Capitol; see Barbara A. Wolanin, Constantino Brumidi: Artist of the Capitol [Washington, DC, 1998], p. 150), the seated Aztec woman looks more like an elderly ruler, an ambiguity that was removed when it was painted. 3. For my book-length argument on this point, see The Meeting (New York, forthcoming in 2018). This essay origi- nated in an earlier version of a chapter from that book, and also from a lecture given at The George Washington Univer- sity on March 24, 2016. I am grateful to Marcy Norton for arranging that lecture, to Ken Bowling and others in the audience for suggesting to William "Chuck" diGiacomantonio that he contact me regarding this essay, and to the latter for his invitation, encouragement, and suggestions. 4. There are many editions of what is usually called Cortés's "Second Letter," but the most commonly cited one, which includes three subsequent reports, is Hernán Cortés: Letters from Mexico, Anthony R. Pagden, trans. and ed. (New York, 1971). 5. Quote from Francis V. O'Connor, who imagines Bru- midi "[g]azing down on the Rotunda" and its murals while pondering his sketches for the frieze; in "Symbolism in the Rotunda," in Wolanin, Constantino Brumidi, p. 148. The Powell mural was installed by 1855. I hope to pursue in greater detail an analysis of the European-indigenous encoun- ter in the Rotunda's frieze, murals, and relief sculpture. 6. Robert W. Johannsen, To the Halls of the Montezumas: The Mexican War in the American Imagination (New York, 1985), pp. 120, 150, 155-57, 179-83, 246-48. Also see Amy S. Greenberg, A Wicked War: Polk, Clay, Lincoln, and the 1846 U.S. Invasion of Mexico (New York, 2012). There are numerous editions of Prescott's book, but I recommend History of the Conquest of Mexico, with a preliminary view of the Ancient Mexican Civilization and the life of the conqueror Hernando Cortés, Felipe Fernández-Armesto, intro. (London: 1994 [1843]). 7. The painting hung in the hallway of the Polk mansion in Nashville from 1849 until Sarah Childress Polk's death in 1891; it remained in the Polk estate and is today preserved in the President Polk Home and Museum in Columbia, Tennes- see. I thank the curator, Tom Price, for sharing information and images of the painting. Also see the White House His- torical Association's page, whitehousehistory.org/a-portrait- of-spanish-conquistador-hernan-cortes. 8. Wolanin, Constantino Brumidi, pp. 50, 239. 9. For book-length studies of Brumidi's work in the Cap- itol, see Wolanin, Constantino Brumidi; and Amy Elizabeth Burton, ed., To Make Beautiful the Capitol: Rediscovering the Art of Constantino Brumidi (Washington, DC, 2014); on Cox, see Debra Hanson, "Modern Muralists of the Capitol: Allyn Cox and Jeffrey Greene," The Capitol Dome, v. 52, 3(Winter 2015-16):2-10. 10. On the Columbus-Armstrong link, see Restall, Seven Myths, p. 2. noteS