In this image two graceful bronze torchbearers raise their lamps, illuminating the Great Hall in all its splendor. One steps into the sumptuously decorated main vestibule, with its gleaming white marble arches, stucco decorations and heavily-paneled and gold-ornamental ceiling. It has been written that it is the most sumptuous single room in any building in America.

The Library of Congress opened the doors of the Thomas Jefferson Building to the public in 1897, after being housed in the Capitol Building since 1815. The 326,000 square feet of floor space in the new building represented an unparalleled national achievement. Its design linked the United States to classical traditions of learning and simultaneously flexed American cultural and technological muscle. It was considered the "largest, costliest and safest" library building in the world. It has an elaborately decorated interior, embellished by works of art from more than 40 American painters and sculptors.

In August 1814, invading British troops set fire to the Capitol Building, burning and pillaging the contents of the small library. Within a month, retired President Thomas Jefferson offered his personal library as a replacement. Jefferson had spent 50 years accumulating books, "putting by everything which related to America, and indeed whatever was rare and valuable in every science"; his library was considered to be one of the finest in the United States. He wrote, "I do not know that it contains any branch of science which Congress would wish to exclude from their collection; there is, in fact, no subject to which a Member of Congress may not have occasion to refer." The Jeffersonian concept of universality, the belief that all subjects are important to the library of the American legislature, is the philosophy and rationale behind the comprehensive collecting policies of today's Library of Congress. The Library of Congress is an unparalleled world resource with a collection of more than 138 million items including materials representing over 460 languages of the world.

The Library of Congress was established by an act of Congress in 1800 when President John Adams signed a bill providing for the transfer of the seat of government from Philadelphia to the new capital city of Washington. The legislation described a reference library for Congress only, containing "such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress - and for putting up a suitable apartment for containing them therein...."

Carol Highsmith, the distinguished photographer, has comprehensively photographed the interior of the Thomas Jefferson building and along with much of her other work, has donated them to the Library of Congress.

Medium : 1 color tiff file

Created/Published : 2007

Creator : Carol Highsmith, photographer, 1946 -

Forms part of the Carol Highsmith Archive and is housed in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress

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Product #: highsm01970E