March 27, 1997
Contact: Yvonne French (202) 707-9191
Craig D'Ooge (202) 707-9189
On-Line Preview Heralds "American Treasures of the Library of Congress" Exhibition
An on-line preview of the upcoming exhibition "American
Treasures of the Library of Congress" will be available on
the World Wide Web beginning March 27.
The preview heralds the Library's exhibition of the
same name, which features American books, films,
photographs, music scores, cartoons, drawings, manuscripts
and such objects as the contents of Abraham Lincoln's
pockets the night he was assassinated.
"This preview is an introduction to the cultural
treasures that the nation's library holds in trust for all
Americans. We hope it will entice visitors to see the
exhibition and the gloriously restored Jefferson Building,"
said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington.
The preview will feature selected items biweekly,
beginning with one of the Library's top treasures, the rough
draft of the Declaration of Independence in Thomas
Jefferson's own hand with notations by Benjamin Franklin and
John Adams. Every two weeks, three new items will be added
to the preview site until the exhibition opens in May.
Among the preview items will be the lab notebook of
Alexander Graham Bell, Maya Lin's design for the Vietnam
Veterans Memorial and what may be the first surviving
baseball card.
The items will be added from each of three areas in
the actual exhibition: "Memory," "Reason" and "Imagination,"
reflecting the organization of Thomas Jefferson's personal
library, which, when sold to the Library in 1815, became the
seed of the present collections.
This permanently rotating exhibition and the on-line
preview are made possible by generous support from the Xerox
Corporation. "American Treasures" will be the centerpiece of
a yearlong celebration marking the official reopening of the
Library's Thomas Jefferson Building during its 100th
anniversary year.
The continuing exhibition will be on view in the newly
restored Jefferson Building at 10 First Street S.E. Hours
are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The preview
will be available on the Library's World Wide Web site at
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits.
Color slides of many of the items in the preview and
exhibition are available from the Public Affairs Office.
Please call (202) 707-9191 to request reproductions.
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PR 97-43
3/27/97
ISSN 0731-3527