Library of Congress

Of all the places to visit in Washington DC, my favorite is the Library of Congress. It is a palace of history and knowledge. Its beauty suggests the upstart Americans wanted to show the Europeans that Americans could match the splendor of any of their castles or opera houses. I've wanted to make a web page about it for a while.

It's actually a bit hard to describe because we tend to think of places in a sort of flat 2D, but the Library and its endless details are extremely 3D. The floors, the ceilings, the corners, every inch of the Library is another artistic and inspirational detail. It perhaps reminds me of the Vatican. It is one coherent artistic vision. It is truly beautiful.

Really, there is no way to capture the library in words or images. You have to go there and spend time experiencing it. Still, make your browser as big as you can.  ... And hey, you can get a library card for free.

You should really go there...

It's a bit drab from the outside, but that's just DC for you. This is the Thomas Jefferson Building, in a Beaux-Arts and Italian Renaissance style

This is the reading Room. You can go in there if you get a library Card. I went through some of the books. It has lots of variety.
Statues of Philosophers, Scientists and Statesmen line the upper mezzenine.
The thing is that underneath where this image was taken is the main entrance. It is a magnificent marble portal... but you cannot take pictures in the Reading Room, so I do not have an image.

This is what you see if you look directly up into the dome above the Reading Room. It actually is not flat and that center part is above a short, windowed tower.

Everything has its symbolism, here, youth and age.

This is the ceiling of the main room where almost all of these images were taken.

There are some statues, but not so many.

This is "Continental Children" on the hand rail, representing East and West."

The Library was basically started with Thomas Jefferson's library. Could you imagine meeting him or Benjamin Franklin?

Columns... columns, columns, columns; made from every different stone imaginable.

These are in each ceiling corner of the main hall... and are typical of the ... filler art over every surface.

As I said... detailed.

All the art has loads of symbolism. Far more than I could find. It is why listening to the docents is fun.

Traditions.

This is looking at the second floor. You can see how many portraits there are. Some are shown below. This is a palace of knowledge and wisdom.

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Minerva, ancient Roman goddess of wisdom, perhaps the Greek goddess Athena.

These tend to be above doorways. There are many of them.

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