Library of Congress -- Thomas Jefferson Building

When we first started making a list of everything we wanted to see in Washington D.C., Brian immediately added the Library of Congress. That guy sure loves libraries...but so do I. Both of us have fond childhood memories of going to the library. In fact, we recently just learned about this study that states a library trip will make you as happy as getting a raise. So there you go, we've known all along how awesome libraries are.

We scheduled some time to take a self-guided tour of the Thomas Jefferson Building the morning before we visited the National Archives. There are actually three buildings that make up the Library of Congress, but the Jefferson Building is the oldest. It sits just southeast of the U.S. Capitol.

Construction started in 1890 and wasn't finished until 1898, even though the building opened to the public in 1897. It was originally named the Library of Congress Building, but was changed to the Thomas Jefferson Building in 1980 to honor Jefferson's influence and contributions to the creation of the national library in 1800. Beginning in the 1870's, copyright law mandated that two copies of each copywriteable work be sent to the Library of Congress. They realized that they needed a place to store all of these works...thus was born this building.

There are nine busts of notable men above the windows on the main entrance's second story. You can only see seven in the photo above, as the first one sits on the north side and the last sits on the south side. The names of the men depicted (when moving from left to right) are: Demosthenes, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Washington Irving, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Babbington Macaulay, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Sir Walter Scott, and Dante Alighieri.

The library opens at 8:30 am and we arrived a bit early so that we could get right in. However, we got so distracted looking at the building's exterior and taking pictures that we lost track of time and ended up behind a large tour group.

We had no idea of the awesomeness that we were about to see. We had to wait in line for about 10 minutes before we walked through the doors and passed through security. While we were being scanned we caught a glimpse of the hallway's ceiling and were just astounded. It was a very detailed and beautiful mosaic.

Once we had put ourselves back together after the security scan, we walked down the hallway to find the entrance into the great hall. Our first glimpse just blew us away completely! We couldn't believe what we were seeing, it was so much more grand than anything we imagined.

As we walked up the stairs, I think that both of our mouths were hanging open. We couldn't believe the colorful, intricate mosaics and the decorative touches upon every surface. From the outside, it looks like any other somewhat fancy government building, but the inside is unlike anything else we saw on our whole trip.

Once we were in the great hall, our eyes immediately moved upward to the ceiling, where once again we were struck by the unanticipated beauty. The six stained glass skylights mirror the pattern on the Italian marble floor below. 

The floor sports a sun in its center, on which sits the four compass points. Embedded in the marble around the floor's perimeter are circles that contain the signs of the zodiac. These circles alternate with squares that each contain a rosette design.

We loved this arch that sits above the doorway leading into the main reading room. On either side of the arch is a reading scholar. On the left he is young, while on the right he is old. These figures symbolize a lifelong search of learning.

We could spend this whole post discussing how beautiful everything is, but that will get redundant really fast, so we'll let the pictures speak for themselves. We walked up to the second floor, after our senses adjusted to all the colors and details surrounding us.

You can see from all of these pictures that every surface is covered with artwork and quotations, making the library something of a shrine to learning and knowledge. The symbols of learning included scrolls, lamps, and torches. Emblems of many different branches of study, like astronomy, architecture, and medicine, were repeated throughout the interior. There were also dozens of quotes on every wall and ceiling. The room was flooded with light, from both windows and artificial light fixtures. The building's interior seemed to glow, and I thought that was symbolic as well.

The figures at the end of the hallway, against the red, depict courage and patriotism. The quote in between them (on the yellow rectangle above the window) reads, "Beholding the bright countenance of truth in the quiet and still air of delightful studies." 

Below you can see three circular windows wreathed with garlands of oak leaves, acorns, and fruits. Above each window is what's called a liberty cap. In Rome, these hats were worn by freed slaves. They symbolize the freedom that knowledge brings. In the yellow triangular archways above each window, there are mythological creatures like mermaids and satyrs, little dedications to various scholars and authors, and depictions of printers' marks from the great printers and publishers throughout history. Between these are still more quotes and emblems of the sciences.

We found this quote, "There is but one temple in the universe and that is the body of man." This wasn't the first scriptural concept that we came across.

See how happy he is to be in the library.

There were lots of paintings of female figures. This particular mural is of Aglaia, patroness of husbandry, holding a crook. She is one of three murals that depict the graces. The other two are the patronesses of beauty and music.

Here is Euphrosyne, patroness of beauty, looking at herself in a mirror. Painted in the yellow square above her, is a set of carpentry tools. You can see how they have combined all of these symbolic objects, murals, and quotes into a detailed design.

Above the windows down one hallway we found four murals, each depicting a different season. This one is summer. The quote below her reads, "They are never alone that are accompanied with noble thoughts."

The interiors of the domed portions of the ceiling are painted beautifully. In the center is a burning lamp along with a book and parchment scrolls, surrounded by a ring of shields and flowers. The birds are doves.

After viewing the hallways of the second floor, we wandered through a side hall that led to a room containing a recreation of Thomas Jefferson's personal library. His library consisted of nearly 7,000 books from all over the known world and in many languages (he could read 5 or 6 different languages you know). He once said, "I make it a rule never to read a translation where I can read the original." The national library was initially housed in the U.S. Capitol, and when that building was burned by the British during the war of 1812, the books were destroyed. Jefferson sold his book collection to Congress in 1815 for the amount of $23,950 to replace the lost books. A second fire in 1851 destroyed two-thirds of the collection. Hence the recreation.

The books in the recreation were the same books, by the same authors, printed in the same time period. So even though they weren't Jefferson's actual books, what we saw was about as close as you can get. Because the books were really old, photography wasn't allowed.

We were on our way to see the main reading room when we noticed this large, ornate mosaic of Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom and sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. She is holding a scroll that lists the many topics of study. An owl in the bottom left corner is a symbol of wisdom. 

The mosaic's caption is written in Latin. In English it reads, "Not unwilling, Minerva raises a monument more lasting than bronze."

We walked up the stairs, past the mosaic, and through the door into the balcony overlooking the main reading room. The balcony is sealed off from the room with glass panels, probably to create an overlook where visitors won't be able to disturb those below. It was a gorgeous room, illuminated with natural light from the stained glass windows and filled with desks for reading. 

There are a total of eight columns around the perimeter of the room. On each of these columns sits a 10-foot tall plaster female figure representing one aspect of civilized life and thought: art, science, religion, philosophy, history, poetry, commerce, and law. Two bronze statues sit on the railing between each of the plaster statues, representing men who embodied these virtues or principles. Plato and Bacon represent philosophy, Michelangelo and Beethoven represent art, Gibbon and Herodotus represent history, Columbus and Fulton represent commerce, St. Paul and Moses represent religion, Newton and Henry represent science, Solon and Kent represent Law, and Shakespeare and Homer represent poetry.

Lest you think that only the walls and ceilings were so ornately decorated, here's a look at the tiled floor as were descending down the stairs from the reading room.

Here's a view from the balcony across the great hall from the Minerva mosaic. All those people are walking up the stairs past her to get to the main reading room's overlook.

The Jefferson building was D.C.'s first public building constructed with electrical wiring. Two bronze statues, one on either staircase, hold up electric lamp torches. These statues, along with the bare light bulbs throughout the building, pay tribute to American ingenuity and invention. They highlight Benjamin Franklin's discovery of electricity and Thomas Edison's electric light bulb.

There was a small display showing two large Bibles. The first that we saw was a copy of the Gutenberg Bible, the first major book printed on a movable type press in 1455. Only 48 copies survive today.

The second is called the Giant Bible of Mainz, and is what's called a manuscript Bible. Manuscript Bibles were written by hand. It took the scribe 15 months to hand copy every page. This one is important because it is one of the last manuscript bibles written before the printing press' use became widespread, and because it and the Gutenberg Bible were both produced in Mainz, Germany. We looked closely at the text in both books, and I wouldn't have been able to tell the printed words from the handwritten, that's how good the scribe was.

Another example of the many emblems of the sciences. This one is particularly interesting, seeing as how many of the founding fathers were practicing Masons. These nods to Masonic imagery were prevalent throughout the building.

Before leaving we took a look at the plaster bust of Thomas Jefferson and bronze bust of George Washington. 

I know there were a lot of pictures in this post, but it was only a small handful from the many photos we took. There were so many little details to see, and messages to take in, that we could have spent all day here. Brian said that of everything we saw during our trip, this was his favorite. I'm glad he didn't actually get to the books, or we would still be there.