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Posted by: Wendi Maloney
Karen Werth is the Library's deputy chief of exhibitions. She talks about her work on popular exhibits featuring Rosa Parks, the Magna Carta and baseball in this short Q&A.
Posted in: Exhibitions, Gazette, Library Work and Employees, My Job, Thomas Jefferson Building
Posted by: Mark Hartsell
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.
Posted in: Abraham Lincoln, LCM, Shakespeare, Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington DC
Posted by: Neely Tucker
This June, the Library will open “Collecting Memories: Treasures from the Library of Congress,” an exhibition that explores the ways cultures preserve memory and shows off some of the Library's most valuable holdings. The exhibition is the first in the Library’s new David M. Rubenstein Treasures Gallery.
Posted in: Abraham Lincoln, Collections, Comics, Geography and Maps Division, LCM, Library Work and Employees, Music, Performing Arts, Rare Book and Special Collections, Thomas Jefferson Building
Posted by: Mark Hartsell
"A Library for You" is the Library's multi-year initiative to connect readers and patrons to our collections in new ways. These new galleries, exhibits and showcases will present some of the Library's most stunning items, whether they are recent or thousands of years old. These include Lincoln's handwritten first draft of the Gettysburg Address, fragments of the ancient Greek epic the "Iliad," cuneiform tablets that are among the oldest examples of writing, pre-Columbian artifacts, Rosa Parks' papers and watercolors by Diego Rivera. They'll begin to open in 2024.
Posted in: Abraham Lincoln, African American History, Civil War, Collections, Exhibitions, Hispanic and Latino, Jay I. Kislak Collection, LCM, Library Work and Employees, New Visitors Experience, Thomas Jefferson Building
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
The Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2022. This post describes the remarkable history of the building's planning, construction and final grand opening in 1897.
Posted in: Library Work and Employees, News, Thomas Jefferson Building
Posted by: Brett Zongker
The Kislak Family Foundation is donating $10 million to create a new exhibition at the Library that will share a fuller history of the early Americas, featuring the Jay I. Kislak Collection of artifacts, paintings, maps, rare books and documents, the Library announced today. The new Kislak Gallery will be part of a reimagined visitor …
Posted in: Jay I. Kislak Collection, Native Americans, News, Thomas Jefferson Building
Posted by: April Slayton
Plans for a new renovation to the Library's Thomas Jefferson Building, designed to offer more members of the public access to the Library's inspiring architecture and comprehensive collections, include an oculus; a circular glass window that will allow visitors to look up to the dome from the orientation center below the Main Reading Room, where visitors will begin their Library journey.
Posted in: New Visitors Experience, Thomas Jefferson Building
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Dolly Parton’s documentary about her world-class book giveaway program for young children debuted on Facebook this week, highlighting her Imagination Library’s 25-year history and its ties to the Library. “The Library that Dolly Built” chronicles how Parton, the child of impoverished parents (her father was illiterate) in rural Tennessee, built an international program that has …
Posted in: Books, Literacy Awards, Thomas Jefferson Building
Posted by: Neely Tucker
The Library features new coloring pages adapted from our collections, adding to the growing number of family activities on offer since Covid-19.
Posted in: Education, Influeza/Covid-19, Kids, National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, New Online, Thomas Jefferson Building