View images of John Wood's salt prints.

In 1856, Montgomery C. Meigs of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who served as supervisory engineer of the U.S. Capitol expansion, hired John Wood. Wood served as photographic draftsman for the project from 1856 to 1861. Meigs reasoned that Wood could create reproductions of the original drawings for the extension and dome of the U.S. Capitol far more quickly than a draftsman. Wood documented the construction of the building as well. His prints could be easily distributed and appeared in albums sent to libraries, museums, and schools in the United States and abroad.