The story of a very large canvas, painted in 1866 for a Kentucky competition to render a full length portrait of Henry Clay. How this painting lost in the competition and how it over a period of 143 years gradually deteriorated until it was rescued in 2007 and hangs since 2009 fully restored in the U.S, Capitol in Washington, DC. It was not until the questions and answers after she read her paper that the author modestly acknowledged her own role in this story.