<div>In 1910 John Merven Carrère, a Paris-trained American architect, wrote, &ldquo;Learning from Paris made Washington outstanding among American cities.&rdquo; The five essays in <i>Paris on the Potomac</i> explore aspects of this influence on the artistic and architectural environment of Washington, D.C., which continued long after the well-known contributions of Peter Charles L&rsquo;Enfant, the transplanted French military officer who designed the city&rsquo;s plan.<br> <br> Isabelle Gournay&rsquo;s introductory essay provides an overview and examines the context and issues involved in three distinct periods of French influence: the classical and Enlightenment principles that prevailed from the 1790s through the 1820s, the Second Empire style of the 1850s through the 1870s, and the Beaux-Arts movement of the early twentieth century. William C. Allen and Thomas P. Somma present two case studies: Allen on the influence of French architecture, especially the Halle aux Blés, on Thomas Jefferson&rsquo;s vision of the U.S. Capitol; and Somma on David d&rsquo;Angers&rsquo;s busts of George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette. Liana Paredes offers a richly detailed examination of French-inspired interior decoration in the homes of Washington&rsquo;s elite in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Cynthia R. Field concludes the volume with a consideration of the influence of Paris on city planning in Washington, D.C., including the efforts of the McMillan Commission and the later development of the Federal Triangle complex.<br> <br> The essays in this collection, the latest addition to the series Perspectives on the Art and Architectural History of the United States Capitol, originated in a conference held by the U.S. Capitol Historical Society in 2002 at the French Embassy&rsquo;s Maison Française.</div>