This is a guest post by Clinton Drake, a reference librarian in the History & Genealogy Section of the Researcher Engagement & General Collections Division of the Library of Congress.
“In the form of your building, color bears much the same relation as it does to the human form; it distinguishes the living from the dead,” wrote Elmer Ellsworth Garnsey, mural painter and interior color designer for the Library of Congress. Writing in 1899, two years after completion of what became known as the Thomas Jefferson Building, Garnsey advocated for the important – often neglected – role of painted surfaces in creating harmony between building design and materials, asserting that “trivial or flimsy color makes your solid wall appear to be so in reality.” For the Jefferson Building’s Main Reading Room, Garnsey drew color inspiration from the resonant tones of ancient Pompeii to ground a progressively lighter scheme terminating with the sky-blue dome overhead.
The warm-colored marbles at the base of the room feature eight columns sheathed in reddish-yellow Numidian marble resting on chocolate Tennessee marble bases. A tawny Sienese marble forms a two-story series of arches connecting the columns in the shape of an octagon. When the Library was built in the 1890s, large quantities of American marble were only available in subdued tones; colored marble for large projects had to be imported. The Library of Congress Archives, which documents the Library’s history, sheds light on the materials used to achieve Garnsey’s vision.
Numidian marble is named for the North African kingdom of Numidia where it was likely first extracted by King Massinissa (who reigned from 202-148 B.C.). When the burgeoning Roman empire consumed Numidia, its marble became a prized building material throughout the Mediterranean region. The emperor Augustus, founder of the Roman Empire, reportedly stated, “I found Rome built of sun-dried bricks; I leave her clothed in marble.” Marble represented the transformation of Rome from an Italian backwater into a global superpower. When the Vandals conquered Roman North Africa, the precious marbles were reportedly lost and their quarries forgotten until their “rediscovery” fourteen centuries later.
The 1878 Paris Exposition, an international display of the latest in science, technology, arts, and culture, featured a variety of precious stone from North Africa, including Numidian marble. In 1881, the same year a French protectorate was imposed upon Tunisia, Sir Robert Lambert Playfair, British Consul-General in Algeria and Tunis, presented a report on the “rediscovery” of Numidian marbles that was published internationally. Meanwhile, the opulent, stone-laden Beaux-Arts architectural style was emerging as the preference for large public buildings like the Library of Congress, which is adorned with fifteen types of marble.
“The Scramble for Africa” is a phrase used to describe the nineteenth-century competitive frenzy to divvy up the African continent like a game of Monopoly. The 1884 Berlin Conference, attended by thirteen European countries and the United States, formalized this intention and established rules for colonization. Eager for raw materials to feed the Industrial Revolution, colonizers left no stone – including marble – unturned. In Algeria, archaeologists matched a piece of Numidian marble from a Roman mosaic to its quarry source in a nearby mountain. In Tunisia, cut marble blocks left in situ by the Romans revealed the site of the ancient quarry town of Simithu (later Chemtou), once a hub for extracting the prized giallo antico variety of Numidian marble.
Identifying historical marble is difficult. There are different names for the same stone, the same name for different stones, and nearly identical stones can be found in different regions. The name “Numidian” (marmor numidicum in ancient texts) refers to a variety of marbles originating from the ancient kingdom of Numidia (yet not within the Roman province of Numidia, but rather Roman Mauretania), presently Algeria and Tunisia. There are many varieties of Numidian marble – giallo antico (“old yellow”), breche sanguine (“blood breccia”), rogue etrusque (“Etrusican red”) – embracing a broad spectrum of yellows and reds. These names were used interchangeably for the marble at the Library.
In 1892, Bernard Richardson Green, persnickety engineer and construction superintendent for the Library of Congress, issued a request for bids for “handsomely veined and mottled” Numidian marble “selected with the utmost care to secure the most artistic matching.” A series of reference drawings and marble samples were available to bidders. The contract was awarded to the lowest bidder: Batterson, See & Eisele of New York City. Walter Ferris See, a partner in the winning firm, had personally traveled to Africa to find stone for the American market. As reported in a Stone Magazine article, See searched for 1,500 miles along the African coast, working deposits both in Kleber, Algeria, and Chemtou, Tunisia. At Chemtou, he made his base in an old French fortress, where, according to the article:
He was the first American that ever visited the spot, and the English tongue had never been heard there before.
The [marble quarrying] work was done entirely by Arabs, with whom he communicated through an interpreter . . . They would, of course, lay off in the heat of the day, but they would make this up in working by moonlight, often until after midnight. Mr. See was made a sort of sheik, was inducted with mysterious rites, and preserves a Tunisian portrait showing him wrapped in a flowing white bernouse.
Mr. See shipped the [marble] blocks by railway to Bona, using heavy French cars that had been employed for transporting artillery. Bona was a regular shipping port, with all of the necessary derricks for handling the stone and loading it on steamers.
Not everyone shared Green’s conviction for Numidian. Tennessee marble producers claimed “unjust discrimination” against American marbles. The quarrymen organized, launched a newspaper publicity campaign, and brought the issue to U.S. Representative John C. Houk, who wrote, “[I]f the charge is true it seems to me, to say the least, that a more patriotic Supervising Architect ought to be employed.” A resulting 1893 resolution required justification for “any foreign building material from foreign countries to be used in the construction of the Library building now in course of construction.” In his Senate response, Green reassured patriotic capitalists that nearly three times as much American marble would be visible than foreign marble, and expounded upon the need for Numidian:
The African marble, otherwise called Numidian marble, is of a deep reddish purple and a yellowish combination of color . . . [and] in combination with the Sienna . . . will form an interior most pleasing to the eye, beautiful in color, and eminently adapted for the interior of a quiet reading room or study . . . Should it have been necessary to avoid the use of any foreign marble in the rotunda the design of it would inevitably have been different from the one adopted and the effect of the interior would have been materially less pleasing, less satisfactory, and less suitable . . . the foreign marble, in the present state of American productions, is the only marble obtainable for the purposes indicated . . .
While Numidian marble survived the congressional challenge, each piece still faced one final judge: Bernard Green. A letter from Batterson, See, and Eisele to Green stated, “Regarding the Numidian you will kindly remember that when at our factory the last time you cautioned us not to get it too dark as the contrast between the yellow columns and pink pilasters would be too great . . . [we] will endeavor to come down . . . and replace the objectionable pieces.” In a follow-up letter, Batterson, Eisele, and See continued, “[I]t is impossible to obtain as close a match [with the Numidian] as with the Sienna, as out of two hundred blocks there are scarcely two identically alike.” Another supplier wrote to Green, “[W]e shall be pleased to get you out another slab of . . . marble with more veins . . . [m]eantime, will you be kind enough to forward back the slab you have reference to so that we may examine it and write you fully in reference to your criticism thereon.”
The Main Reading Room was completed with the most exquisite pieces of Numidian marble available. An 1897 Cosmopolitan article reported that “[e]ach of the eight sides of the rotunda is guarded by a splendid archway of Sienna marble, its incomparable mellow yellow tints veined in black, and at each bend of the octagon stand colossal polished columns of red African marble as warm and glowing as a tropic sunset. The place is more like some temple of ancient times than a nineteenth century reading-room.” In his obituary, Green was remembered for “his triumph over political contractors and material-men.” The same could be said about Numidian marble.
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Related Materials and Sources Cited:
Photo, Elmer Ellsworth Garnsey (1862-1946).
Photo, “Group of Arabs, Algiers, Algeria.”
Photo, “Types Algériens: Un Arabe.”
Photo, Republic Marble Quarry near Knoxville, Tenn.
“…wrote Elmer Ellsworth Garnsey” Elmer E. Garnsey, “Mural Painting in Its Relation to Architecture,” in Proceedings of the Thirty-Third Annual Convention of the American Institute of Architects (Monangahela House, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, November 12-16, 1899), ed. Glenn Brown (Washington, D.C.: Gibson Bros., 1899), 141. Garnsey quotes Byron to further illustrate the point: “So coldly sweet, so deadly fair,/We start, for soul is wanting there,” stating that “Byron was speaking of modern Greece; he might have been speaking of much of our modern architecture.”
“Garnsey drew…” Ibid, 142.
“Sienese marble…” Herbert Small (compiler), Handbook of the New Library of Congress in Washington (Boston: Curtis and Cameron, 1897), p. 76; John Young Cole and Henry Hope Reed, eds., The Library of Congress: The Art and Architecture of the Thomas Jefferson Building (New York: W. W. Norton (in association with the Library of Congress), 1997, 123.
“…had to be imported” United States Senate, Select [Joint] Committee on Additional Accommodations for the Library of Congress, Report: [to accompany S. resolution], February 20, 1893, 52nd Congress, 2nd session, 1893, S. Rep. 1314, serial 3073, 2.
“Numidian marble…” Fabio Barry, Painting in Stone: Architecture and the Poetics of Marble from Antiquity to the Enlightenment (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2020), 76.
“Roman empire…” J. Clayton Fant, Leah E. Long, and Lynley J. McAlpine, Roman Decorative Stone Collections in the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, Kelsey Museum Studies (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2024), 80.
“Augustus…” Tranquillus, Gaius Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, translated by Robert Graves (London: Cassell & Company, 1962), 53.
“Marble represented…” Maarten de Pourcq, “Postclassical Marble: Reclaiming Flux in the Reception of Marble in Contemporary Art” in Materials of Culture: Approaches to Materials in Cultural Studies, ed. Liedeke Plate, László Munteán, and Airin Farahmand (Bielefeld [Germany]: Transcript Verlag, 2023), 67.
“…reportedly lost” Arthur Lee, “Algerian Marbles,” The Manufacturer and Builder: A Practical Journal of Industrial Progress (1869-1895) 19, no. 11 (November 1, 1887): 253.
“1878 Paris Exposition…” Robert Lambert Playfair, Travels in the Footsteps of Bruce in Algeria and Tunis (London: C. Kegan Paul, 1877), 220; Robert Lambert Playfair, Handbook for Travelers in Algeria and Tunis, Algiers, Oran, Constantine, Carthage, &c., 2nd rev. and augmented edition (London: John Murray, 1878), 178; Arthur Lee, Marble and Marble Workers: A Handbook for Architects, Artists, Masons, and Students (London: Crosby, Lockwood, and Son, 1888), 92.
“a report…” “Rediscovery of Ancient Numidian Marbles,” Independent Statesman [Concord, NH], March 31, 1881, 206. http://link.gale.com/apps/doc/GT3016081632/NCNP?u=loc_main&sid=bookmark-NCNP.
“fifteen types…” Architect of the Capitol, “Thomas Jefferson Building,” accessed September 11, 2024, https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/buildings-grounds/library-of-congress/thomas-jefferson-building.
“The Scramble for Africa…“ R. M. Kulik, “Scramble for Africa,” Encyclopedia Britannica, September 3, 2024, https://www.britannica.com/event/Scramble-for-Africa.
“…cut marble blocks” Lee, “Algerian Marbles,” Manufacturer and Builder, 253.
“…blood breccia“ There may have been monetary incentives to establish a complex classification nomenclature, and there was also ambiguity between import duties charged for breccia and marble of varying types and condition of manufacture. See Treasury Decision (T.D.) 31629 in Franklin MacVeagh (Secretary of the Treasury), Treasury Decisions Under Customs and other Laws, Volume 20, January to June, 1911 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1911), 1083.
“These names…” John Watson, British and Foreign Marbles and Other Ornamental Stones: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Specimens in the Sedgwick Museum (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1916), 271-279; also see “Algerian Alabaster,” The Architect and Contract Reporter, May 24, 1895, 343, which states, “Every owner of a quarry, whether here, at Arzeu, at Chennoua, at Filfila or at Chemtou, is fully persuaded that his are the true Numidian marbles.”
“Bernard Richardson Green…” Bernard Richardson Green directed the construction and design of the Thomas Jefferson Building. His records comprise the Building and Ground series, 1871-1954, of the LC Archives Collection. The Building and Grounds series includes Green’s correspondence, memoranda, construction journal, procurement and account records, employment records, reports, schedules, writings, drawings, blueprints, photographs, printed matter, and artifacts that document the commission, construction, and operations of the Thomas Jefferson Building. Additional information about the Building and Grounds series can be found in the exhibit catalog for Ten First Street: Congress Builds a Library, 1886-1897.
“…request for bids” United States Senate, Committee on Additional Accommodations for the Library of Congress, Letter of the Chief of Engineers U. S. Army, Transmitting a Report Relative to the Character of the Building Material Used in the Construction of the Building for the Library of Congress, 52nd Congress, 2nd Session, Misc. Doc. 45, serial 3064, 32.
“…according to the article” Frank W. Hoyt, “Numidian Marble Quarries,” Stone: Devoted to the Quarrying and Cutting of Stone for Architectural Uses 33, no. 1 (January 1912): 23.
“Tennessee marble producers…” “Tennessee Marble and the Congressional Library Building,” Stone: An Illustrated Magazine 6, no. 3 (February 1893), 191.
“…publicity campaign” See various newspaper clippings in the Bernard R. Green (BRG) General Correspondence, January-May 1893, Box 34, Folder 1, Building and Grounds Division Series, Library of Congress (LC) Archives, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
“…who wrote” Ibid.
“1893 resolution…” Ibid.
“In his Senate response…” United States Senate, Select [Joint] Committee on Additional Accommodations for the Library of Congress, Report: [to accompany S. resolution], February 20, 1893, 52nd Congress, 2nd session, 1893, S. Rep. 1314, serial 3073, 2.
“A letter…” Bernard R. Green (BRG) General Correspondence, September-December 1893, Box 36, Folder 3, Building and Grounds Division Series, Library of Congress (LC) Archives, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
“…follow-up letter” Ibid.
“Another supplier…” Bernard R. Green (BRG) General Correspondence, October 1892, Box 33, Building and Grounds Division Series, Library of Congress (LC) Archives, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
“Main Reading Room…” The marble work in the “Rotunda,” or Main Reading Room, was completed by the time Thomas Lincoln Casey wrote his December 3, 1894, report to the US House of Representatives. See United States House of Representatives, Committee on Appropriations, Building for Library of Congress. Report upon the construction of the building for the Library of Congress during the year ending December 1, 1894, submitted by the Chief of Engineers, December 3, 1894, 53rd Congress, 3rd session, 1894, H. Misc. Doc 4, serial 3327.
“…reported that” Nannie-Belle Maury. “The New Congressional Library,” Cosmopolitan 23, no. 1 (May 1897), 16.
“In his obituary…” Francis E. Leupp, “Bernard Richardson Green,” The Nation 99, no. 2575 (October 29, 1914), 523.
Comments (2)
Bravo, Clint! I learned so much from this piece.
I will never look at the Main Reading Room’s marble columns the same again, this was a fantastic post! I also found the argument against and justification for importing materials to be interesting and just as relevant of a discussion in the present day.