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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;micheldura2, post: 640391, member: 18966&quot;]We assume you&#039;re referring to the 1976 version of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._two_dollar_bill" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._two_dollar_bill" rel="nofollow"><b><span style="color: #0000ff">$2 bill</span></b></a> that features John Trumbull&#039;s &quot;Declaration of Independence&quot; painting. Created between 1788 and 1795, the painting memorializes the document&#039;s historic signing. However the scene didn&#039;t actually take place as depicted. Trumbull included all the key players in his painting, whether or not they supported independence, and whether or not they actually signed. </p><p><br /></p><p>Twenty-five years after he finished the painting, Trumbull identified the man in the Quaker hat as <a href="http://www.gaspee.org/StephenHopkins.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.gaspee.org/StephenHopkins.htm" rel="nofollow"><span style="color: #0000ff">Stephen Hopkins</span></a>, a signatory of the Declaration of Independence and first governor of Rhode Island. But in the 1940s, Trumbull&#039;s original sketch of Hopkins was discovered. It called into <a href="http://www.brown.edu/Administration/George_Street_Journal/vol23/23GSJ19l.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.brown.edu/Administration/George_Street_Journal/vol23/23GSJ19l.html" rel="nofollow"><span style="color: #0000ff">question</span></a> the identity of the man in the wide-brimmed hat. </p><p>Art historian Irma Jaffe <a href="http://www.library.fordham.edu/trumbull/preface.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.library.fordham.edu/trumbull/preface.html" rel="nofollow"><span style="color: #0000ff">concludes</span></a> the mysterious man was actually <a href="http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/related/dickinson.htm" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/related/dickinson.htm" rel="nofollow"><span style="color: #0000ff">John Dickinson</span></a>, a Pennsylvania Quaker opposed to independence. A commission from the Rhode Island Governor&#039;s Office investigated the claim and agreed with Jaffe&#039;s findings. Maybe John Trumbull intended to be vague. Or maybe he was pulling a joke. He certainly showed a sense of humor when he painted John Adams stepping on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Declaration_independence.jpg" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Declaration_independence.jpg" rel="nofollow"><span style="color: #0000ff">Thomas Jefferson&#039;s foot</span></a>.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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