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30 the first volume of his seminal History of the United States Capitol. Because Brown had found no Bulfinch drawings for the Capitol, but had copies (since unlo- cated) of Busby's etchings dated during Bulfinch's ten- ure, he made a bold supposition. "As this elevation and plan show a different treatment from those of Latrobe, we can assume they present one of the designs made by Bulfinch." Subsequent scholars may have relied on Bulfinch's remark that Monroe glanced at Trumbull's drawings among three alternates shown him to suppose that Bulfinch had adopted Trumbull's ideas as alterna- tives of his own. Because the poor quality of Brown's illustrations prevented reading the functions assigned to the spaces on Busby's plan, Shattuck's sharing of his discovery led to this re-evaluation of Busby's etchings within the Capitol's overall history. 6 Bulfinch wrote his first letter to Trumbull on 19 January 1818. Lost in an 1836 fire at New York's Academy of Fine Arts, the main points of its content can be inferred from Trumbull's lengthy reply nine days later. He began by noting that Bulf inch was pre- cisely in the situation the painter expected, "surrounded by every possible diversity of opinions, interest, and prejudices," but he was delighted that after "thirty years of acquaintance and esteem" Bulfinch turned to him for advice. Bulfinch's letter contained the shock- ing news that Congress was considering "abandoning the grand circular room and Dome," the spur that led Trumbull to make his own design for the Rotunda that meant redesigning the entire "center building" between the House and Senate wings. In his response, Tr umbull reminded Bulf inch that if Congress Fig. 5. Latrobe's rotunda in 1817 THE CAPITOL DOME