The House Chamber before individual desks were replaced with bench seating. (LoC)

The House of Representatives was created by Article I, Section 1 of the Constitution which divided Congress into two legislative bodies: the Senate and the House of Representatives. Special House powers include the origination of revenue bills and the initiation of the impeachment process.  The number of representatives per state is based on population; seats are reapportioned after each U.S. Census.  Since 1911 the total membership of the House has been set at 435.  Representatives serve a two-year term.

The Speaker of the House is elected by the Members of the House and presides from the rostrum at the front of the chamber. Members use an electronic voting system installed in 1973.  Six remotely controlled cameras in the gallery provide a video feed to C-SPAN, which has broadcast House proceedings since 1979.

The counting of electoral votes takes place in the chamber after every presidential election. The Spanish-American War and World Wars I and II were declared by Congress here.  In 1913 President Woodrow Wilson reinstituted the practice–abandoned by Thomas Jefferson–of delivering his annual message (now known as the State of the Union message) to Congress in person in this chamber rather than in writing.

The first session in this chamber convened on December 16, 1857.  The chamber was reconstructed and remodeled in 1951. Representatives originally sat at desks, which were replaced in 1913 with theater style seating as the membership increased.  Republicans sit to the right and Democrats to the left when facing the Speaker.

The mace, long a symbol of the authority of the House of Representatives, is composed of 13 ebony rods bound together with silver bands.  This shaft is topped by a silver globe, surmounted by a solid silver eagle. When the mace stands on its marble pedestal near the Speaker’s rostrum, it indicates that the House is in session.

Marble medallions of Lawgivers are located above the gallery doors. Two paintings adorn the chamber: Marquis de Lafayette by Ary Scheffer, 1823, and George Washington by John Vanderlyn, 1834. On the ceiling are seals of the states and territories.