[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 155 (Friday, November 7, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2188-E2189]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  DR. JAMES H. BILLINGTON'S COMMENTS ON THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 
  OPENING OF THE THOMAS JEFFERSON BUILDING OF THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 5, 1997

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, this week marks the centenary of the opening 
of the Thomas Jefferson building of the Library of Congress. This 
magnificent edifice has now served the American people and the U.S. 
Congress for 100 years.
  This is an anniversary that should be noted, remembered, and 
appreciated by all of us here in the Congress, who benefit from the 
excellent facilities and the outstanding staff of the Library, and it 
is an anniversary that all Americans should join with us in 
celebrating. All Americans are blessed with the outstanding collection 
of materials housed in the Library, but we are also fortunate to be 
able to enjoy the beauty of the Thomas Jefferson building, which is one 
of the finest public buildings in our Nation. This building reflects 
the best of American architecture, art, engineering, and construction.
  Mr. Speaker, on this important anniversary of the opening of the 
Thomas Jefferson building, I ask that a short article of Dr. James H. 
Billington, the Librarian of Congress, be placed in the Record, and I 
urge my colleagues to read it. The article by Dr. Billington appeared 
in the October/November issue of Civilization, a magazine published by 
the Library of Congress which provides information and background about 
the incredible resources our national library possesses. Mr. Speaker, 
Civilization is only one of the many creative innovations that Dr. 
Billington has contributed since he became Librarian of Congress 10 
years ago this September.
  Mr. Speaker, I invite my colleagues to join me in celebrating a 
century of service to the American people of the Thomas Jefferson 
building and to join me in commending Dr. Billington on his decade of 
outstanding service to our Nation as Librarian of Congress.

                   A Glorious Moment for Mr. Max West

                      (By Dr. James H. Billington)

       On a rainy Monday, November 1, 1897, the ``largest, 
     costliest, and safest'' library building in the world opened 
     its doors to the public without ceremony. In a front-page 
     story that day, the Washington Evening Star noted that ``the 
     rain did not come amiss to the bookworms'' who rushed to the 
     Library's new building but ``rather served to heighten their 
     enjoyment [of] the literary feast provided for them.''
       The first volume requested after the doors were opened, 
     reported the Star, was `` `Roger Williams' Year Book' of so 
     recent a date that it had not been received. . . . The first 
     book applied for and given out was `Martha Lamb's History of 
     New York City' and the gentleman [reader] . . . bore the name 
     of Max West.''
       The new Italian Renaissance building housed 1 million 
     books, 55,000 maps and other items that had been carted 
     across the street from the Capitol, which had been the 
     Library's overcrowded home for 97 years. The new structure 
     was not only the most modern library building in existence, 
     it was also a unique architectural feat. The Library's 
     glittering dome, plated with 23-carat gold leaf, capped an 
     elaborately decorated facade and a spectacular marble 
     interior adorned by murals, frescoes and statuary created by 
     more than 40 leading American artists.
       For months prior to the official opening, newspapers and 
     popular magazines carried effusive articles about the new 
     Library. Few visitors were disappointed. Senator Justin 
     Morrill of Vermont, one of the Library's chief supporters in 
     Congress, felt that its ``grandeur and felicitous finish'' 
     would be likely to remain long unrivaled ``in this or any 
     other country.'' Speaker of the House Joseph G. Cannon 
     called it the best public building in Washington. 
     Architecture critic Montgomery Schuyler praised the 
     structure as a ``national possession, an example of a 
     great public building monumentally conceived, faithfully 
     built, and worthily adorned.'' On November 25, 1897, more 
     than 4,700 people visited the Library during special 
     Thanksgiving Day tours.
       The new building--today one of the Library's three major 
     buildings on Capitol Hill and named the Thomas Jefferson 
     Building after the Library's chief founder--was completed at 
     a time of considerable optimism and national pride. The 
     election of William McKinley in 1896 had seemed to inaugurate 
     a period of domestic tranquillity. Prosperity was returning 
     after the great Wall Street panic of 1893. There was 
     unfinished business: The Civil War and Reconstruction had 
     brought black Americans emancipation but nothing close to 
     equality, and reformers decried child labor, slums and 
     extremes of wealth and poverty. Nevertheless, all 45 states 
     (Oklahoma, Arizona and New Mexico were still territories) 
     were now linked by telegraph and transcontinental railroads; 
     the population, swollen by European immigration, had reached 
     76 million; the country boasted steel mills and farms second 
     to none; the telephone was beginning to take hold in the 
     cities; the first automobiles had appeared. New land-grant 
     colleges, notably in the Midwest, were producing future 
     managers, engineers and teachers, and Andrew Carnegie's 
     philanthropy had begun to build hundreds of local public 
     libraries. Progress was in the air.
       This November, we plan to mark the 100th birthday of this 
     glorious building without great fanfare but with deep 
     gratitude to our forebears. There will be a gathering of 
     members of Congress and other friends and benefactors of the 
     Library, and a new brass plaque honoring Senator Morrill will 
     be unveiled. Curators will make fresh additions to ``American 
     Treasures,'' our permanent rotating exhibition of great 
     artifacts and published works from the Library's collections.
       And, as we look back to the 1890s, we also will note 
     certain differences in the 1990s. Visitors to the exhibition 
     halls have to come and go through security gates--a 
     necessity, sadly, on Capitol Hill these days. On the bright 
     side, more than 60 images of the

[[Page E2189]]

     ``American Treasures,'' which range from the original rough 
     draft of the Declaration of Independence to Thomas Edison's 
     first copyrighted motion picture, have been digitized and 
     made available to people across the nation on the Internet, 
     along with 350,000 other unique items of Americana from the 
     Library's collections and our entire electronic card catalog 
     with 27 million entries. The Library now serves not only 
     people who come to Washington. Thanks to new technology, the 
     Library's most useful resources are becoming accessible on-
     line to all Americans every where. That is progress.

     

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