The Library of Congress
June 21, 2005
A card for the Library of Congress is reasonably simple to procure. Upon entering the office a lady pointedly inquired about what business I had with the library. Just being a grad student did not cut it, I had to have an actual project. I mentioned that I was working on my dissertation and that was all she needed to hear. The man in back of me worked for some restaurant, and wanted to look at Lewis and Clark maps. That was no problem either.. it was a defined project. It seemed to me that their only concern was to screen out people who just want to sit down and read a book.. something they could presumably do at a local library.
Inside the library there is a split in the crowd. There are those who are inside for a tour or just to see the inside of the building.. and then there are people doing some kind of research. Guards are generally concerned to make sure that tourists do not wander into study areas, and will sometimes inquire whether a visitor has a library card or not.. but they always accept a simple nod in the affirmative.
It is refreshing to find that the Library of Congress is like a large public library, only a lot more careful with respect to its materials.. being often rare or valuable. If a member of the public is willing to spend a little time to figure out the system, he or she is welcome to make full use of the resources.
There are three separate buildings that make up the Library of Congress, but the main one for most purposes is the Jefferson Building. Ornate enough on the outside, but that really does not prepare one for the brightness of the interior. It is a bit like walking into some elaborate church with its two levels of arches and columns, and painted figures decorating the ceiling. Had Michelangelo been American, he would have been assigned the ceiling of the library.
There is a certain fetish value assigned to names in the decoration of the library. Everwhere one looks there is a great name popping up. On the second floor, in the African and Middle Eastern Reading Room where I am spending my time, there are squares on the ceiling which give four related names.. one says: Bach, Wagner, Liszt.. and I do not recall the fourth, although one could guess Haydn or Strauss given the other three. Then in the central dome of the Library there are ten principal names arranged in a rectangle around the upper stained glass windows.
long side: Dante Homer Milton
short side: Herodotus Moses
long side: Goethe Shakespeare Moliere
short side: Aristotle Bacon
If you look carefully around the capitals of the inner columns you will find other names, but this group of ten was given an especially prominent position. Not only names get enshrined, but also the virtues, quotations about learning and art, and even American publishing houses.
And downstairs there is a bust of Thomas Jefferson, reminding the visitor of the man who gave the seed books for the foundation of the library, and whose vision of the importance of knowledge was enshrined in this building. Now I am thinking that the list of names is a fitting tribute to his organizing mind..
