The Library of Congress, Washington. Photochrome print by Detroit Publishing Company, c1900. //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/det.4a31954
November 1, 2022 by Kristi
Finefield, https://blogs.loc.gov/picturethis/2022/11/happy-125th-birthday-to-the-jefferson-building-of-the-library-of-congress/?loclr=eaptb
On November 1, 1897, the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress opened to the world. Today we mark its 125th birthday. This magnificent building was the Library of Congress’ first home away from the U.S. Capitol, where it had first been established in 1800.
This was a pivotal moment in the history of the Library as we moved to expand our mission. In addition to serving the U.S. Congress, we would establish ourselves as the national library of the United States. In 1870, U.S. Copyright law began to require that those claiming copyright on books, maps, visual materials such as engravings or photographs, dramatic and musical compositions and so on must send two copies to the Librarian of Congress. In the first 25 years of this law, vast quantities of books, maps, prints, photos, and more came to the Library in the U.S. Capitol.
Librarian of Congress Ainsworth Rand Spofford pushed for a separate building
for the Library of Congress and saw his decades-long dream come to fruition in
November 1897. The Prints & Photographs Division shares its birthday with
the building, as we were established as the Department of Graphic Arts at that
time. We became the Division of Prints in 1899. And here is the reading room as
it looked in the early 1900s in the Jefferson Building:
[Reading Room, Prints Division, Library of Congress] Photo by Levin C. Handy, ca. 1900. //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3a37604
To read more about the great Library of Congress: https://blogs.loc.gov/picturethis/2022/11/happy-125th-birthday-to-the-jefferson-building-of-the-library-of-congress/?loclr=eaptb