Thomas Paine (1737–1809), portrait by Auguste Milliere, in the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Thomas Paine penned his famous radical pamphlet Common Sense in January, 1776. He urged the American Colonies to declare independence and immediately cut all ties with the British monarchy.

Thomas Paine's The American Crisis, December 1776. This pamphlet, correctly advertised as "written by the author of Common Sense," was, as the description recounts, "written during Washington's retreat across the Delaware and by his order was read to his dispirited and suffering soldiers."

This is the official signed copy of the Declaration of Independence, August 2nd, 1776. Drafted by Thomas Jefferson in June 1776, the Declaration of Independence was famously adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4th, 1776. It was engrossed on parchment but not until August 2nd, 1776 did all the delegates actually begin signing it.

This famous painting by John Trumbull was commissioned in 1817 and placed in the Capitol Rotunda in 1826. A duplicate of this work appears on the reverse of the rarely circulated two-dollar-bill, but five figures were cut out of the reproduction in order to make the dimensions fit onto the currency.

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), painted by Charles Willson Peale.

George Mason (1725–1792) of Virginia, painted by Dominic Boudet.