Ohio Clock

The Ohio Clock is a clock in the United States Capitol. The United States Senate ordered the clock from Thomas Voigt in 1815, and it has stood in or near the Senate Chamber since 1859.

History

Senator David Daggett of Connecticut ordered the eleven-foot tall clock in late December 1815 from Philadelphia clockmaker Thomas Voigt for use in the Old Brick Capitol. The clock was delivered in 1817 to the Old Senate Chamber and was moved to the corridor outside the newly finished Senate Chamber in 1859. There is no evidence to support the claim that senators hid illegal liquor in the clock during the Prohibition period. The glass covering the clock's face was broken in the 1983 United States Senate bombing. The clock, which was renovated in Boston in 2010, is wound weekly and keeps accurate time.

Name

The source of the clock's name is unknown. One myth is that the clock was meant to commemorate Ohio's admission to the Union as the 17th state because the shield on the front of the clock's case has seventeen stars in it. However, there is no record that shows the clock celebrates Ohio's statehood and the clock was ordered twelve years after Ohio became a state, at a time when there were already eighteen states.