Alethia "Lethe" Tanner was an American educator and a leader in the African American community of Washington, D.C. in the early nineteenth century. She purchased the freedom of 18 enslaved people and
Image of Alethia Browning Tanner
William Thornton was an American physician, inventor, painter and architect who designed the United States Capitol. He also served as the first Architect of the Capitol and first Superintendent of the
Portrait by Gilbert Stuart, 1804
Ruins of the Thornton Plantation at Tortola
Thornton's original Capitol Building design
Thornton's submission for the Capitol, officially approved by Washington in 1793