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35 THE CAPITOL DOME BEP HISTORICAL RESOURCE CENTER Fig. 7. Woodrow Wilson memorial service souvenir, 1924 BEP HISTORICAL RESOURCE CENTER Fig. 8. William McKinley inaugural ball program page, 1897 away, leaving ink only in the design cut into the die's sur- face. Paper is then pressed against the die so forcefully that it wedges into the engraving, absorbing the ink and leaving a raised impression. The result is an image that can be felt by running a finger across the surface of the paper. This type of engraving is called intaglio. 3 The tactile quality of inta- glio serves as a significant counterfeit deterrent, since less sophisticated printing methods do not result in an image that can be felt when touched. Each vignette can take months to engrave, depending on the size of the image, the level of detail, and the skill of the engraver. For example, the vignette of the Capitol on the $50 bill engraved by Schofield in 1927 was reported to take 479 hours (about three months) to complete, at a labor cost of $1,400.84. Even just the tiny central vignette of the Capitol from the $2 postage stamp, series 1922, required more than 105 hours (almost three weeks) of work by Schofield. 4 the eNGravers Schofield was just one engraver who was tasked with creat- ing vignettes of the Capitol. Others include Luigi Delnoce, William Chorlton, G.F.C. Smillie, Charles Schlecht, and Thomas R. Hipschen. Before the establishment of the BEP in 1862, most bank note engravings were executed by a handful of private com- panies—namely the American Bank Note, the National Bank Note, and the Continental Bank Note companies. They each engraved and printed stocks, bonds, state bank notes (for the 1,600 state banks issuing currency before the Civil War), and other secure documents. Some of these companies were founded in the late eighteenth century, and others, such as American Bank Note (founded in 1858, from an amalga- mation of seven companies), still exist today. 5 The act that launched the BEP was approved and signed into law on July 11, 1862. It authorized the Secretary of the Treasury, upon deeming it "inexpedient" to procure U.S. notes by contract, to have them engraved and printed at the Treasury Department in Washington and "to purchase and provide all the machinery and materials, and to employ such persons and appoint such officers as may be necessary for this purpose." 6 The first engraver to be directly employed by the BEP was James Duthie, who had previously worked for private bank note companies and was hired in August of 1862. Duthie was soon assigned with traveling to New York City to per- suade other engravers from established bank note companies to come to Washington. By late November, a "nucleus" of an engraving staff was at work. Spencer Clark, the first Bureau Chief, then drew up a list of talented American engravers and began recruiting them as well. 7 One of the first engravers to do work for the BEP was Luigi (or Louis) Delnoce. A native of Italy, Delnoce (1822- 90) was an independent contractor for the BEP from about 1868 until at least the early 1880s. He also worked for Amer- ican Bank Note, Franklin Bank Note, Homer Lee Bank Note, and other companies. He was a skilled instructor, and several of his students would become accomplished engravers them- selves. 8 Ten years after the start of the BEP, William Chorlton was hired by the Engraving Department. Chorlton was engraving for National Banknote by the time he was sixteen years old. He joined the BEP in 1872, but died just two years later. His son, Harry L. Chorlton, would become an accomplished engraver in his own right, working at the BEP for over twenty years. 9