In addition to making many of its extensive resources available on its award-winning Web site, the Library shared its treasures with hundreds of thousands of national and international audiences through tours, on-site and traveling exhibitions, major publications and special events and symposia, many of which were broadcast and later archived on the Library's Web site.
Exhibitions. The Library presented six new major exhibitions in the Thomas Jefferson Building in 2003. "Rivers, Edens, Empires: Lewis & Clark and the Revealing of America" (July 24 through Nov. 29) drew on the Library's rich collections of exploration material. The inaugural display of the newly acquired 1507 map by Martin Waldseemüller, which used the name "America" for the first time, provided a dramatic opening to the exhibition. The exhibition featured the trek of the Corps of Discovery as the culmination of the quest to connect the East to the West by means of a waterway passage.
Selections from the Library's prints, photographs and graphics holdings were featured in four exhibitions: "Creative Space: Fifty Years of Robert Blackburn's Printmaking Workshop" (Feb. 25 through June 28); "Herblock's Gift: Selections from the Herb Block Foundation Collection" (March 12 through June 28); "Canadian Counterpoint: Illustrations by Anita Kunz (Sept. 4, 2003, through Jan. 4, 2004); and "Reflections: Russian Photographs 1992-2002 (Sept. 18 through Dec. 27).
"Ancient Manuscripts from the Desert Libraries of Timbuktu" (June 24 through Sept. 23) featured manuscripts dating from the 16th to 18th centuries. The manuscripts were on loan from several private collections. Copies were provided to the Library for inclusion in its Africana collection, which contains several ancient West African manuscripts similar to those in the exhibition.
In keeping with conservation and preservation standards, three rotational changes were made in the continuing "American Treasures of the Library of Congress" exhibition, and one in both the "World Treasures of the Library of Congress" and the "Bob Hope Gallery of American Entertainment." The changes in "American Treasures" included a special presentation, "The Dream of Flight," dedicated to the Wright brothers' achievement a century ago. Four major exhibitions toured to six venues in Europe.
The Library of Congress/Ira Gershwin Gallery opened in the newly constructed Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles on the occasion of the concert hall's grand opening on Oct. 23. The inaugural display featured 53 items from the Library's collections, including prints, photographs, music manuscripts and rare recordings. In addition to highlighting the work of George and Ira Gershwin, the display included the Library's Los Angeles-related collections and items featuring Southern California architecture.
Publications. The Publishing Office produced more than 25 books, calendars and other products describing the Library's collections in 2003, many in cooperation with trade publishers. In collaboration with W.W. Norton, the Library published "Barns," the inaugural volume of the Norton/Library of Congress Visual Sourcebooks series. "Barns" presents a new perspective on American history through one of America's cultural and architectural landmarks. The book also provides a tour of architecturally significant barns across the United States, tracing geographical and chronological continuities of barn type, design and construction. A second publication celebrates another architectural landmark—the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress. "The Thomas Jefferson Building, The Library of Congress" is part of Scala Publisher's Art Spaces series, an innovative line of landscape-shaped volumes celebrating the architecture—both contemporary and classical—of buildings containing the art and design of Europe and the New World.
Several other major publications featured the Library's collections. "A Small Nation of People: W.E.B. Du Bois and African American Portraits of Progress," published in collaboration with Amistad/Harper Collins, showcases the photographs first displayed a century ago in the American Negro Exhibit at the 1900 Paris Exposition. They provide an invaluable record of the lives of prosperous, educated, upwardly mobile African Americans and served as a counterpoint to the negative stereotypes of African Americans that were prevalent at the turn of the century. In addition to its 150 photographs, "A Small Nation of People" also contains essays by historian David Levering Lewis and photographic historian Deborah Willis, providing a rich context for viewing and understanding the photographs.
Published in cooperation with University Press of New England, "Books on the Frontier: Print Culture in the American West, 1763-1875," by Richard W. Clement describes the pioneers who carried books and book-making technology across a continent. Focusing on images from Library of Congress collections and accounts of the frontier hero in popular literature, particularly Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, and Buffalo Bill Cody, "Books on the Frontier" traces the creation and the transmission of the vision of America as a frontier nation.
Literary Events, Concerts, Symposia. A variety of literary events—most notably the third annual National Book Festival—concerts and symposia were held at the Library throughout the year, many of which were cybercast on the Library's Web site.
The Library organized and sponsored the annual National Book Festival on Oct. 4, 2003, on the National Mall. Hosted once again by first lady Laura Bush, the event drew a crowd estimated at 70,000—a considerable increase from last year's estimated 45,000 visitors. The event, which was free and open to the public, featured more than 80 award-winning authors, illustrators, poets and storytellers, including children's book authors Julie Andrews, R.L. Stine and Avi; historians Robert Caro and Michael Beschloss; journalists Bob Schieffer, Juan Williams and David Maraniss; mystery writer Nelson DeMille; and novelists Catherine Coulter, Pat Conroy and Stephen Carter. A new Poetry Pavilion featured poets Li-Young Lee and Marilyn Nelson. Chef and author Jacques Pépin spoke in the new Home & Family Pavilion. In the Teens & Children's Pavilion, past and current stars of the National Basketball Association and Women's National Basketball Association promoted their "Read to Achieve" program. In addition to author readings and book discussions, the festival featured storytelling presentations, book sales and signings; appearances by children's storybook characters; and performances representing a wide range of America's musical traditions.
The Center for the Book's Books & Beyond lecture series emphasized the importance of books and reading. The series featured authors such as Robert Caro discussing his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "Master of the Senate," which covers Lyndon Johnson's senatorial career; Kenneth Janken discussing his new biography of NAACP founder Walter White; and historians David Levering Lewis and Deborah Willis discussing their contributions to the book "A Small Nation of People: W.E.B. DuBois and African American Portraits in Progress."
The Library's 2003 concert season featured many classical performances in the Coolidge Auditorium by ensembles such as the Juilliard String Quartet and the Beaux Arts trio. Legendary pianist-composer Dave Brubeck officially launched the concert season on Sept. 30 by hosting a special workshop and jam session featuring the Dave Brubeck Quartet, bassist Christian McBride and the Brubeck Institute's sextet of talented young musicians: Justin Brown, Asher Tobin Chodos, Anthony Coleman, Joseph Sanders, Scott McGinty and Mark Zaleski. Odetta, one of the most influential folk artists of the past 50 years, appeared in a special concert in November. The Library honored both Brubeck and Odetta with a Living Legend award.
During the year the Library sponsored a number of symposia on topics such as Abraham Lincoln; the Richard Nixon/Henry Kissinger Era; and a variety of issues pertaining to the Islamic world. A two-day symposium titled "Resourceful Women: Researching and Interpreting American Women's History" highlighted current research in the field and showcased the Library's multiformat holdings in this area of study.
In August Librarian of Congress James H. Billington announced the 2003-2004 appointment of Louise Glück as the Library's 12th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry. Glück opened the Library's fall literary season on Oct. 21 with a reading of her poems.
Outreach. The Library continued to share its treasures both nationally and internationally on its Web site, through its Learning Page for teachers, traveling exhibition program and other initiatives. During the year four major exhibitions toured to six venues in Europe. As part of the Library's exhibitions loan program, it honored requests from 44 institutions for a total of 343 items.
In October the Library launched a pilot program called "The Library of Congress Comes to Your Hometown." Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio) was the first to host the program, which made its debut in three cities in Ohio—Columbus, Cleveland and Cambridge. The program not only introduced local audiences to the Librarian of Congress but also explained and demonstrated the Library's services to their region and the nation.
The Library reached out to the international library community by participating in a U.S. State Department mission to Baghdad to assess war damage to the National Library of Iraq and the House of Manuscripts. A team of three Library staff members with knowledge of the Arab world as well as conservation techniques visited Iraq between Oct. 25 and Nov. 3. At year's end the team issued a report on its findings, which is available on the Library's Web site at www.loc.gov.