Top of page

Category: Thomas Jefferson Building

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

March on Washington Riches at the Library of Congress

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

Celebrants observing the 50thanniversary of the March on Washington should not miss special displays of artifacts, treasures and a talk by Congressman John Lewis on Wednesday, Aug. 28, all at the Library of Congress and all free and open to the public. Opening that day is the Library’s photo exhibition, “A Day Like No Other, …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Story Time Returns at the Young Readers Center

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

The author Pat Mora has a word for it: Bookjoy. If you’re a lover of books, you won’t have to look that up in a dictionary – you’ll just know, instinctively, what it is.  But where were you when you first experienced the joy of books? Odds are it was on your mom’s, dad’s or …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Leading a Library with a Long, Long Legacy

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

You’ve heard, no doubt, about the Great Library of Alexandria, Egypt, which was destroyed in a fire back in antiquity. (There are still debates about who torched it and why. We’ll probably never know.) You may also have heard that the national library of Egypt – the Bibliotheca Alexandrina – was rebuilt in an architecturally …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Whodunit? … and Whydtheywriteit?

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

Mark your calendars … then dust them for fingerprints.  Blockbuster mystery authors David Baldacci, Sandra Brown and Kathy Reichs are coming to the Library of Congress next week, and you can meet them. It’s a Monday preview to the National Book Festival (to be held on the National Mall Saturday, Sept. 25 from 10 a.m. – …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Come Laugh With Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

Beloved comedian Bob Hope’s legacy has gotten new legs with the opening of the Library of Congress exhibition “Hope for America: Performers, Politics & Pop Culture.” An online preview is available here. “Hope for America” explores the special relationship between comedians and politicians and the way it changed in the century that encompassed Hope’s life and …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Businessman, Philanthropist, Reader

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

Thursday, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington had an announcement sure to thrill hundreds of thousands of people who’ve loved the National Book Festival during its storied run, “a decade of words and wonder.” He announced that David M. Rubenstein, co-founder and managing director of the private equity firm The Carlyle Group, is donating $5 million …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Music … Ripped from the Headlines!

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

One of the complaints heard from non-fans of classical music is that so much of it reaches back centuries. As one wag, who preferred jazz, put it: “Mozart hasn’t written anything decent in 200 years!” And yet classical, as a genre, continues to unfold even in our lifetimes.  Which means there may be among us the …