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Category: John Adams Building

Figure of Brahma on bronze door, John Adams Building, Library of Congress.

Pic of the Week: Brahma

Posted by: Jennifer Harbster

In honor of Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month our Pic of the Week features Lee Lawrie’s sculptural relief of the Hindu God Brahma on the bronze doors of the John Adams Building. When we first launched Inside Adams, Donna Scanlon wrote about Our Bronze Doors, which symbolize the history of written word. During my college years, I …

Silver stylized owl with radiant circles around its head, surrounded by a gold frame

Pic of the Week: A Great Seal

Posted by: Ellen Terrell

Today’s Pic of the Week features a version of the Great Seal of the United States as a floor medallion in the entrance lobby of the Adams Building.  It has been slightly modified, but has the requisite 13 stars, olive branches with 13 leaves and 13 olives, and a bald eagle.

Silver stylized owl with radiant circles around its head, surrounded by a gold frame

Pic of Week: Then and Now

Posted by: Jennifer Harbster

This week we are featuring two photographs of the public entrance to the Science and Business Reading Room taken over thirty years apart. I found the Science Reading Room image (left), as I was browsing through an old pamphlet box of historical material about the Library. We believe it was taken sometime in the late …

Silver stylized owl with radiant circles around its head, surrounded by a gold frame

Pic of the Week: Just Outside Adams

Posted by: Ellen Terrell

I had a different Pic of the Week post all written up the other day, but I wasn’t  really enamored with it.  When I stepped outside the Adams Building to go home, the sun was out after a few days of overcast skies, the breeze was gentle, and the temperature was perfect.  And then I …