Library of Congress Review

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Library of Congress

  • Address: Jefferson Bldg., 1st St. and Independence Ave. SE, Capitol Hill, Washington, DC | Map It
  • Phone: 202/707-4604; 202/707-5000; 202/707-6400
  • www.loc.gov

Fodor's Review:

The largest library in the world has more than 134 million items on approximately 530 mi of bookshelves. Only 32 million of its holdings are books—the library also has 2.8 million recordings, 12 million photographs, 5.3 million maps, and 59 million manuscripts. Also here is the Congressional Research Service, which, as the name implies, works on special projects for senators and representatives.

Built in 1897, the copper-domed Thomas Jefferson Building is the oldest of the three buildings that make up the library. Like many other structures in Washington, the library was criticized when it was completed. Detractors thought its design, based on the Paris Opera House, was too florid. Congressmen were even heard to grumble that its dome—topped with the gilt "Flame of Knowledge"—competed with that of their Capitol. It's certainly decorative, with busts of Dante, Goethe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and other great writers perched above its entryway. The Court of Neptune, Roland Hinton Perry's fountain at the base of the front steps, rivals some of Rome's best fountains.

Provisions for a library to serve members of Congress were originally made in 1800, when the government set aside $5,000 to purchase books that legislators might need to consult. This small collection was housed in the Capitol but was destroyed in 1814, when the British burned the city. Thomas Jefferson, then in retirement at Monticello, offered his personal library as a replacement, noting that "there is, in fact, no subject to which a Member of Congress may not have occasion to refer." Jefferson's collection of 6,487 books, for which Congress eventually paid him $23,950, laid the foundation for the great national library. (Sadly, another fire in 1851 destroyed two-thirds of Jefferson's books.) By the late 1800s it was clear that the Capitol could no longer contain the growing library, and the Jefferson Building was constructed. The Adams Building, on 2nd Street behind the Jefferson, was added in 1939. A third structure, the James Madison Building, opened in 1980; it's just south of the Jefferson Building, between Independence Avenue and C Street. Less architecturally interesting than the Jefferson Building, the Adams does attract visitors for evening literary readings and small exhibitions, which are open from 8:30 AM to 6 PM.

The Jefferson Building opens into the Great Hall, richly adorned with mosaics, paintings, and curving marble stairways. The grand, octagonal Main Reading Room, its central desk surrounded by mahogany readers' tables under a 160-foot-high domed ceiling, inspires researchers and readers alike. Computer terminals have replaced card catalogs, but books are still retrieved and dispersed the same way: readers (18 years or older) hand request slips to librarians and wait patiently for their materials to be delivered. Researchers aren't allowed in the stacks, and only members of Congress and other special borrowers can check books out. Items from the library's collection—which includes one of only three perfect Gutenberg Bibles in the world—are on display in the Jefferson Building's second-floor Southwest Gallery and Pavilion. Information about current and upcoming exhibitions, which can include oral history projects, presidential papers, photographs, and the like, is available by phone or Web. To even begin to come to grips with the magnitude of scope and grandeur of the library, taking one of the free hourly tours is highly recommended. Well-informed docents are a font of fascinating information about the library's history and holdings; they can decode the dozens of quirky allegorical sculptures and paintings throughout the building, and can bring you into spaces—such as the glassed-in observation deck over the Main Reading Room—that are closed to solo visitors.

  • Cost: Free
  • Open: Mon.-Sat. 10-5:30; reading room hrs may extend later. Free tours Mon.-Sat. at 10:30, 11:30, 1:30, and 2:30, and weekdays at 3:30
  • Metro: Capitol S
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