Printed in Cambridge between 1660 and 1663, the Eliot Indian Bible today represents a landmark in printing history: It was translated into the Wampanoag language of the region’s Algonquin tribes and was the first Bible printed in North America in any language. In recent decades, the Wampanoag nation has used the Eliot Bible as a tool to help resurrect its ancestral language. The Library preserves a 1685 copy.
The Library has six letters that Albert Einstein wrote to Margarita Konenkova, a Russian national with whom he had a passionate, late-in-life affair while he was at Princeton. Einstein was a widower, Konekova was married to a famous Russian sculptor. The affair was not revealed until 1994. The letters, our staff experts write, mix Einstein’s humanity with his genius.
The Library's custom-designed multitracking studio at National Audio-Visual Conservation Center was built to house and preserve the collections of guitarist and audio-engineering innovator Les Paul. But it's also used to convert, preserve and save recordings made on formats that may not last. It's one of several labs that use cutting-edge technology to save the nation's recorded sound history.
In the late 1400s, Maestro Martino, a chef from Como, in Lombardy, created the first Italian cookbook, “Libro de arte coquinaria,” or “The Art of Cooking.” It is one of the featured exhibits in the Library's newly opened David M. Rubenstein Treasures Gallery.
Everyone who enters the Main Reading Room cranes their necks as far back as they can to take in “Human Understanding,” a mural created by American artist Edwin Howland Blashfield 125 feet above at the apex of the soaring, coffered dome. Here's a short guide to what some of the painted figures represent.
Haruo Shimizu, a Japanese schoolteacher, survived the United States’ bombing of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945. One year later, he wrote down his memories of that horrific day for a friendly U.S. soldier stationed in Japan, who brought it home after his deployment. Today, it is one of the items featured in the new Treasures of the Library gallery.
The AIDS Memorial Quilt is often regarded as the largest folk art project ever created and the Library’s American Folklife Center has held the quilt’s archival collections since 2019. Parts of it are on display at the initial exhibit of the Library's Treasures Gallery, opening in June.
One of the Library's many outstanding comic book holdings is the 24 original drawings by Steve Ditko for Amazing Fantasy No. 15 in August 1962, including the Spider-Man origin story. The iconic images were donated to the Library by an anonymous donor in 2008. They are included in the opening exhibit of the David M. Rubenstein Treasures Gallery.
The contents of Abraham Lincoln's pockets the night he was assassinated -- a gathering of the ordinary and everyday -- have long been one of the Library's most fascinating holdings. They, along with Lincoln's work on the Gettysburg Address, are featured in "Collecting Memories: Treasures from the Library of Congress,” the inaugural exhibit of the Library's new Treasures Gallery, opening June 13.
