Strange as a $2 Bill

John Trumbull’s iconic 1818 painting Declaration of Independence is so associated with American history that a version of it was reproduced on the back of the $2 bill. But an anonymous somebody in the U.S. Bureau of Engraving decided to make some changes to Trumbull’s work, and that’s when things got a little strange.
• First of all, six signers of the Declaration of Independence were simply lopped out of the picture: four (George Wythe, William Whipple, Josiah Bartlett, and Thomas Lynch) from the far left side, and two (Thomas McKean and Philip Livingston) from the far right.
• A patterned rug that appears in the Trumbull painting was removed from under the feet of the five men standing in the center.
• In the painting, Thomas Jefferson is twisted about 90 degrees and his leg is outstretched like a ballet dancer in order to stand ever so slightly on John Adams’s foot. The two men had a lot of respect for each other, but they were also political rivals for decades, belonging to opposite parties and running against each other for president. In the $2 bill version, though, the two men’s feet are touching toe to toe.
• Finally, there is the curious case of James Wilson, who would eventually go on to become an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. In the place of the smooth-shaven, white-haired gentleman in Trumbull’s painting, the $2 bill includes a young man with dark, close-cropped hair and a short goatee.
THE FINE PRINT
Having said all that, it’s only fair to note that the original painting wasn’t perfect to begin with. Trumbull pictured just 47 congressmen, even though there were 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence. And of the men he did include, several hadn’t actually signed the document.