The Maryland State House - The Senate Chamber

- 18th Century
- 19th Century
  - Old House of Delegates Chamber
  - State House Caucus Room
- 20th Century
  - Annex, 1902-1906
  - Grand Staircase
- 21st Century
  - Senate Chamber
  - House of Delegates Chamber
- Second Floor
  - Governor's Reception Room
  - Governor's Office
- Online Exhibits

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The Senate Chamber

The Senate Chamber is decorated in red and white, the Crossland colors of the Maryland Flag. Woven into the carpet is the Great Seal of 1648. The Senate Chamber has two visitors' galleries which may be entered from the second floor. There are 47 senators, one from each of Maryland's legislative districts. The Maryland General Assembly meets every year for 90 calendar days, beginning on the second Wednesday in January.

The First Citizen Award

Portraits of Maryland's four signers of the Declaration of Independence are on the side walls. Beginning with the portraits on the left and going clockwise around the room, they are:

William Paca (1740-1799) by John Beale Bordley (1800-1882). This portrait was painted in 1836, and the head is after Charles Willson Peale. Paca was governor of Maryland, 1782-85.
Thomas Stone (1743-1787) by John Beale Bordley. The head of this portrait, which was painted in 1836, is after Robert Edge Pine (1730?-1788). Stone served in both the Maryland House of Delegates and the Maryland Senate.
Charles Carroll of Carrollton, (1737-1832), by Thomas Sully (1783-1872). This portrait was painted in 1834, after Carroll's death and is based on life studies for the "Marquis of Wellesley" portrait. Carroll was the only Roman Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was a member of the Maryland Senate from 1790-1800 and its president in 1783. He was also a U.S. Senator from Maryland and resigned from the U.S. Senate to retain his seat in the Maryland Senate. At the time of his death in 1832, he was the last surviving signer.
Samuel Chase (1741-1811) by John Beale Bordley. The head of this portrait, which was painted in 1836, is after the 1811 portrait by John Wesley Jarvis. Chase was an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1796-1811.

On the back wall of the Senate Chamber are portraits of Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., and Verda Welcome. These portraits were installed on January 13, 2020, replacing the portraits of former governors Edwin White and John Walter Smith, both former governors and presidents of the Maryland Senate.

Thomas V. Mike Miller, Jr. (b. 1942) by Lisa Egeli (b. 1966). Miller was a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, Prince George's County from 1971-74, and has served in the Maryland Senate since 1975. He was President of Maryland Senate from 1987-2020.
Verda Welcome (1907-1990) by Simmie Knox (b. 1935). Welome was a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, Baltimore City from 1959-62 and served in the Maryland Senate from 1963-82. She was the First African American woman to serve in the Maryland House of Delegates and the first to become a state senator in the United States.

The skylight is by Tiffany & Co. and was installed during the construction of the annex addition to the State House in 1902-05. The annex was designed by the architects Baldwin & Pennington. The skylight was completely restored in 1989-90.

Portraits and statues in the Senate Chamber