[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 47 (Thursday, April 13, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2715-S2719]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE OCCASION OF THE BICENTENNIAL OF THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, as Chairman of the Joint Committee on the
Library, it is my great pleasure to congratulate the Library of
Congress, and Dr. Billington, the Librarian on the occasion of the
Library's Bicentennial. The Library is America's oldest Federal
cultural institution, and was established on April 24, 1800. It houses
the largest and most extensive collection in history, and is one of the
nation's assets. Congress is very proud of
[[Page S2716]]
the Library, and the role it plays in ensuring free public access to
information. As we move forward into the new millennium, efforts are
underway to enhance public access to the collections of the Library
through the National Digital Library.
The Library has planned a wonderful day of activities on Monday,
April 24, in honor of Thomas Jefferson's birthday. It was Thomas
Jefferson's collection of 6,487 books that first began the Library's
collections. The events include the issuance of the first bimetallic
commemorative coin, and a postage stamp featuring a color photograph of
the interior dome and several of the arched windows in the Jefferson
building. At noon there will be a birthday party and concert outside on
the East Lawn of the Capitol.
I ask unanimous consent that the following message from the Librarian
of Congress, and press announcements of the exhibits and events
associated with the Bicentennial of the Library be printed in the
Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Library of Congress Bicentennial Celebration--A Message from the
Librarian of Congress, March 2000
The Library of Congress--America's national library and
oldest federal cultural institution--will celebrate its
Bicentennial in the year 2000. We want to make our 200th
birthday a national celebration of the important role that
libraries play in our democratic society. Our goal is to
inspire creativity in the century ahead by stimulating
greater use of the Library of Congress and libraries across
the country.
The centerpiece of this effort is an unprecedented project
called ``Local Legacies,'' an attempt to celebrate and share
with the nation the grassroots creativity of every part of
America. The Library of Congress will ask each Member of
Congress to lead an effort to find or create documentation
for at least one significant cultural event or tradition that
has been important to or representative of your district or
state as we reach the end of this century. Selections from
each documentation project will be forwarded to the Library
and added to the rich collections of our American Folklife
Center's Archive of Folk Culture to provide a rich cross
section of the grassroots creativity of America that will be
preserved and shared with future generations.
We also plan to digitize selections and share them
electronically, free of charge over the Internet, through our
National Digital Library Program. All participants and each
Member of Congress will be credited with helping locate a
distinctive contribution from his or her district or state.
This is an especially exciting and historic initiative
because we hope to receive and celebrate the widest possible
range of contributions, including video, sound, print,
manuscript and electronic formats.
Several other bicentennial activities embrace the broadest
participation of all Americans and encourage an understanding
of the creative roles that libraries play in modern society
and in social scholarly discourse. Included among them are
symposia such as ``Frontiers of the Mind in the 21st
Century,'' which brought together distinguished scholars who
examined the exciting horizons for knowledge in the century
ahead in a symposium held in June and now available on the
Library's Web site (www.loc.gov). Poet Laureate Robert
Pinsky's ``Favorite Poem'' program will create audio and
video archives of Americans of all ages and backgrounds
reading their favorite poems. Two commemorative coins and a
stamp will be issued in honor of the Library's 200th
birthday, April 24, 2000. Also on that day, the Library will
launch a new education Web site for families that will
complement our widely acclaimed American Memory site for
students and teachers. Another special initiative, ``Gifts to
the Nation,'' will encourage benefactors to bring rare and
important acquisitions to the national collection in the
Library of Congress.
I invite you to learn more about our Bicentennial, and I
encourage you to participate in the programs and activities
marking our 200th birthday. As you reflect on our nation's
accomplishments as we near the end of the century, you may
recall the Jeffersonian principle upon which the Library of
Congress was built--that free access to information and
knowledge is one of the cornerstones of democracy.
James H. Billington,
The Librarian of Congress.
____
Bicentennial Celebration Announced
library of congress to offer new web site, stamp, coins, exhibits and
concert
General Colin Powell, Katharine Graham, Isaac Stern,
William Styron, David Copperfield, John Kenneth Galbraith,
Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Maurice Sendak, Bobby Short, and Big Bird
are among those who will be honored as ``Living Legends''
during a day-long National Bicentennial Birthday Party and
Concert celebrating the 200th anniversary of the founding of
the Library of Congress on Monday, April 24, beginning at
9:30 a.m. The Library of Congress is America's oldest federal
cultural institution and the largest library in the world.
Other events on April 24 include:
First-day ceremonies for a new Library of Congress postage
stamp and commemorative coins
Launch of a new Web site for young people and their families
Unveiling of a national public service advertising campaign
in partnership with the Ad Council
Free performances and concert celebrating American music,
history and culture and recognizing the contribution of
the ``Living Legends''
Opening of a major exhibition on Thomas Jefferson and another
on ``The Wizard of Oz''
Key press dates prior to April are:
Press Briefing, 10 a.m., Friday, April 14, National Press
Club, 529 14th Street NW
Bicentennial press briefing with Librarian of Congress
James H. Billington on the Library's efforts to address the
digital divide. He will also announce the final details of
the April 24 celebration, the new books just published on the
Library of Congress, and the full list of the ``Living
Legends'' whose creativity the Library is honoring in its
Bicentennial year.
Exhibits Preview and Light Lunch, 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m.,
Thursday, April 20, LJ 119, Thomas Jefferson Building
Members of the press are invited to preview two new
exhibitions created for the Library's Bicentennial: ``Thomas
Jefferson'' and ``The Wizard of Oz: An American Fairy Tale.''
The Jefferson exhibition includes the display of
Jefferson's library. It marks the first time since 1815 that
the public will be able to view Jefferson's library, the seed
from which the collections of the Library of Congress grew,
in his original order. The books have been reassembled after
a worldwide search to locate matching volumes, identical to
those that were destroyed in a fire in 1851. Numerous
additional personal items will be displayed exploring the
contradictions and complexities of Jefferson the man, the
myth, and the model, including materials relating to the
Hemings family, the founding of the United States and the
earliest known draft of the Declaration of Independence in
Jefferson's own hand.
``The Wizard of Oz: An American Fairy Tale'' brings
together approximately 100 items relating to this children's
classic, including play scripts, rare books, photographs,
costumes, drawings, film clips, dolls, games and toys. A pair
of the ruby slippers (size 5B) worn by Judy Garland in the
1939 film will be displayed, along with the scarecrow costume
worn by Ray Bolger, the mane and beard worn by Bert Lahr as
the Cowardly Lion, a full Munchkin costume and an Emerald
City townsman's coat.
Curators will provide press tours of the two exhibitions.
Celebration, All day, Monday, April 24, Thomas Jefferson
Building
9:30 a.m.-10:30 a.m.--Great Hall: First day of issue stamp
and coin ceremonies. Stamps and coins on sale.
11 a.m.-11:45 a.m.--Visitors' Center: Press Preview. Launch
of americaslibrary.gov, a new entertaining Web site for
children and their families. New public service advertising
campaign unveiled for television, radio and Web.
Noon-2 p.m.--Jefferson Building grounds: Free performances
and concert honoring American Voice and Song, featuring:
The Saturday Night live Band
Kevin Locke and Reuben Fasthorse
Ralph Stanley and The Clinch Mountain Boys
Dianne Reeves
Mickey Hart and Bob Weir
Kan Kouran Dancers
Pete Seeger and Tao Rodriguez
Kathy Mattea
Tito Puente
Giovanni Hidalgo
The Army Blues
12:30 p.m.--Photo op, Main stage outside of the Thomas
Jefferson Building: Librarian of Congress James Billington
will be joined by ``Living Legends'' and Big Bird and Maria
of ``Sesame Street'' in blowing out the candles on a large
birthday cake in the shape of the Thomas Jefferson Building.
6:30 p.m.--Great Hall: Remarks by David McCullough and
Librarian of Congress James H. Billington and opening
reception for ``Thomas Jefferson'' exhibition. By invitation
only; open to press to cover.
____
Library of Congress Celebrates Bicentennial With Major Exhibition on
Thomas Jefferson
jefferson's library reassembled for first Time since 1815
The keystone for the Bicentennial celebrations of the
Library of Congress is an exhibition about the Library's very
own ``founding father,'' Thomas Jefferson, whose personal
library of 6,487 books was the seed from which the nation's
library grew. Congress purchased Jefferson's library after
its own collections, housed in the U.S. Capitol, were burned
by the British in 1814.
That library--the original volumes that came to Washington
in carts from Monticello--will be a major feature of the
``Thomas Jefferson'' exhibition. Because of an 1851 fire in
the Library, many of those original books had been lost.
Spurred by a very generous donation of Jerry and Gene Jones,
as a
[[Page S2717]]
Bicentennial ``Gift to the Nation,'' the Library has been
reassembling copies of the same editions of the works that
Jefferson held. The reconstituted Jefferson's library should
be more than 90 percent complete by April 24.
The display of Jefferson's library as part of this
exhibition will be the first time ever that the public will
be able to view Jefferson's library. It is also the first
time that the volumes have been assembled in one place in the
original order that Jefferson himself devised since the
collection came to Washington in 1815. Visitors to the
exhibition will be able to tell which volumes were owned by
Jefferson and sold to Congress in 1815, which were recently
identified and pulled from the Library's general collections,
which have been recently purchased, and which are still
missing.
``Thomas Jefferson'' will be on view in the Northwest
Gallery and Pavilion of the Thomas Jefferson Building, 10
First Street S.E., from April 24 through October 31. Hours
for the exhibition are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Saturday.
Items from the exhibition are available on the Library's
Web site at www.loc.gov, and by April 24 the Library's entire
collection of Jefferson Papers (more than 25,000 items) will
be accessible on-line.
Thomas Jefferson--founding father, farmer, architect,
inventor, slaveholder, book collector, scholar, diplomat and
third president of the United States--was a complex figure
who contributed immeasurably to the creation of the new
republicanism in America. Wherever Anglo-American culture has
shaped political and intellectual developments, Jefferson is
almost inevitably part of the mix. Drawing on the
extraordinary written legacy of Thomas Jefferson that is held
in the Library's collections, the exhibition traces
Jefferson's development from his earliest days in Virginia to
an ever-expanding realm of influence in republican Virginia,
the American Revolutionary government, the creation of the
American nation, the revolution in individual rights in
America and the world, the revolution in France, and the
burgeoning republican revolutionary movement throughout the
world. Items borrowed from other institutions contribute to
the exhibition's attempt to offer viewers a fully rounded
portrait of the nation's third president.
The exhibition focuses on the complexities and
contradictions of Thomas Jefferson, the man, the myth, the
model. He was simultaneously an unquenchable idealist and a
third-headed realist. He deplored inequality among men, but
owned slaves, supported servitude, and relegated women to a
secondary role. He supported freedom of the press until his
own foibles and politics became the focus. He was a firm
believer in the separation of church and state, but he was
often accused of being anti-Christian. He expounded the
virtues of public education, ensured that his own daughters
were well educated, and founded a public university at
Charlottesville, but he assumed that access to higher
education would be strictly limited. His life embodies the
public and private struggles of life in a democratic
republic.
Some 150 items in the eight sections will illustrate and
provide a context for the life and character of Thomas
Jefferson. The final and ninth section will be the
reassembled ``Jefferson Library.'' Visitors to the exhibition
will see such items as the only surviving fragment of the
earliest known draft of the Declaration of Independence as
well as the desk on which he composed the Declaration;
Martha Jefferson's thread case; Jefferson's instructions
to Lewis and Clark; political cartoons of the day
lampooning Jefferson; and the last letter that Thomas
Jefferson wrote to the mayor of the city of Washington
just 10 days before he died, espousing his vision of the
Declaration of Independence and the American nation as
signals of the blessings of self-government to an ever-
evolving world.
``Life and Labor at Monticello'' examines how Jefferson's
family, his era, education, role as plantation master and
slaveholder, and his love and use of books influenced his
character and the formation of his ideas on individual and
institutional rights and limits. Items include:
Thomas Jefferson's Memorandum Book, 1773, where he kept
detailed records on his expenditures including the purchase
of slaves;
Plantation account books kept by Jefferson's wife and then
his granddaughter, recording purchases made from Monticello
slaves, especially the Hemings family, for vegetables and
fowl from the slave families' own flocks and gardens;
The 1873 memoir by Madison Hemings published in the Pike
County (Ohio) Republican, who testified that his mother,
Sally Hemings, gave birth to five children ``and Jefferson
was the father of them all.'' Historical evidence, both
circumstantial and direct, documentary and oral, along with
DNA testing in 1998, substantiates Hemings' assertion;
Letters Jefferson exchanged in 1791 with Benjamin Banneker,
a free black living in Maryland, in which Jefferson praised
Banneker's mathematical accomplishment (``no body wishes more
than I do to see such proofs as you exhibit, that nature has
given to our black brethren, talents equal to those of the
other colors of men * * *'') as well as with Abbe Henri
Gregoire in 1809 trying to explain why he asserted the
inferiority of African Americans in his Notes on the State of
Virginia published in 1785; and
Letter written by Thomas Jefferson to John Adams in 1815 in
which he says, ``I cannot live without books, but fewer will
suffice where amusement, and not use, is the only future
object.''
The exhibition continues by demonstrating the expanding
influence of Jefferson on American life and his interest in
creating a culture based on republican principles--first in
his own state of Virginia, then on the federal scene with his
drafting of the Declaration of Independence and his
election to the presidency in 1800. On view are:
One of the nation's greatest treasures--Jefferson's
``original Rough draught'' of the Declaration of
Independence. The ``Rough draught'' is the final draft
presented by Jefferson to his fellow committee members and
indicates changes made by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin;
Fragment of the earliest known draft of the Declaration of
Independence in Jefferson's hand;
An 1806 document in President Jefferson's hand calling upon
Congress to end the practice of importing slaves as soon as
permitted by the U.S. Constitution in 1808; and
Notes on the State of Virginia, 1785, the only book ever
published by Thomas Jefferson.
``The West'' explores Thomas Jefferson's persistent
fascination with the vast part of the continent that lay
beyond Virginia--an area he never saw--and his conviction
that the new nation had to expand westward in order to
survive. A highlight is Jefferson's instructions to the
explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark before they set
out to map and explore the Western territories with their
Corps of Discovery in 1803. Visitors can also see a Nicholas
King manuscript map documenting the Lewis and Clark
expedition that is annotated by Lewis with information from
fur traders and Native Americans.
The influence of Jefferson's republican ideas were felt far
beyond America, especially in France, his first experience on
the world stage beyond America. He became an ardent supporter
of the French revolution and often consulted with Lafayette
during the drafting of the French Declaration of the Rights
of Man. In a July 9, 1789, letter to Jefferson, Lafayette
asked him for his ``observations'' on ``my bill of rights''
before presenting it to the National Assembly. On view in the
exhibition is a manuscript copy of the French Declaration
written in a clerical hand, with emendations in the hand of
Thomas Jefferson. Also in the exhibition is the 1789 passport
that Thomas Jefferson used upon his return from France,
signed by King Louis XVI.
The exhibition concludes with ``Epitaph: Take Care of Me,''
which reviews Jefferson's own evaluation of the meaning of
his life and his thoughts about how he would be viewed by
history. Key items here are: A sketch and wording for
Jefferson's tombstone, in his own hand; A letter explaining
his position on slavery, written just six weeks before his
death; A letter to Jefferson from his granddaughter, Ellen
Randolph Coolidge, despairing of the ``canker of slavery''
that oppresses the Southern states; and A newspaper account
of the sale of Jefferson's slaves by his heirs in order to
pay off estate debts.
A volume accompanying the exhibition, Thomas Jefferson:
Genius of Liberty, includes an introduction by Garry Wills
and essays by Jefferson scholars Pauline Maier, Charles A.
Miller, Annette Gordon-Reed, Peter S. Onuf and Joseph J.
Ellis. Published by Viking Studio, the hardcover volume is
highly illustrated with mostly color images and sells for
$35. It is available in major bookstores and from the
Library's Sales Shops; order with major credit card by
calling (202) 707-0204.
____
Commemorative Coins and Stamp Issues for the Nation
The Bicentennial of the Library of Congress presents a
unique opportunity for commemorative items. Commemorative
coins and a commemorative stamp for the Library's
Bicentennial will be issued on April 24, the Library's 200th
birthday.
The Citizens Commemorative Coin Advisory Committee
recommended enactment of legislation to mint a commemorative
coin to honor the Library of Congress's Bicentennial. As one
of only two commemorative coins to be issued in 2000, this is
an extraordinary honor for the Library. The Library's coin
will be the nation's first bimetallic coin (gold and
platinum) and the first commemorative with the new millennium
date.
The minting of commemorative coins requires passage of
legislation by both chambers of the U.S. Congress. The coin
bill (H.R. 3790) was passed by the House of Representatives
on August 4, 1998, and by the Senate on October 6. President
Clinton signed the bill into law as P.L. 105-268 on October
19, 1998. The design of the commemorative coins by sculptors
and engravers at the Philadelphia Mint is under way.
The Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee, a group of
independent citizens appointed by the Postmaster General to
review the more than 40,000 suggestions for stamp subjects
received by the U.S. Postal Service annually, recommended a
commemorative stamp for issuance in honor of the Library's
birthday. Ethel Kessler, the designer of the breast cancer
stamp, designed the Library's Bicentennial commemorative
stamp, which features a photograph by Michael Freeman of the
interior dome and several of the arched windows in the main
Reading Room in the 1897 Thomas Jefferson Building.
[[Page S2718]]
The stamp will be issued on April 24, 2000, during a
ceremony to be held in the Jefferson Building in Washington.
From April 25 through May 31, state and local libraries
across the country will hold issuance ceremonies to celebrate
the Library's birthday and to applaud the important role of
libraries throughout the United States.
How You Can Participate: If your library or other
institution would like to sponsor a second-day-issue event,
contact Kathy Woodrell in the Bicentennial Program Office at
(800) 707-7145 or [email protected].
____
The Local Legacies
The Local Legacies project is an opportunity for citizens
to participate in the Library of Congress's Bicentennial
Program. Working through their U.S. senator or representative
and with hometown libraries, folklife organizations and other
local cultural institutions, Americans everywhere have been
participating in an unprecedented effort to document the
cultural heritage of communities throughout the nation.
What is a local legacy?
It is a traditional activity or event that merits being
documented for future generations. A Local Legacy might
include the music, crafts or food customs that represent
traditional life. Examples of defining or signature events
include a rodeo, powwow, auction, market-day celebration,
parade, procession or festival. Local Legacies might also
include the artistry of individuals performing traditional
music or dance, or working at crafts or trades. From zydeco
music to decoy carving, rodeos to dogsled races, parades to
food festivals, the Local Legacies project is reaching into
every corner of the nation to document America's folk
heritage.
More than 1,000 Local Legacies projects, which were
selected by members of Congress in every state and the
District of Columbia, celebrate the nation's diversity as a
source of its strength and vitality. As a whole, the projects
will serve as a snapshot of everyday life in America at the
turn of the 21st century and will be preserved in the
Library's Folklife Center and made available for study by
others.
On May 23, the Library of Congress will celebrate these
cultural and historical contributions to the Bicentennial
with participants and their Congressional representatives.
Selections from the Local Legacies projects will be digitized
and shared electronically over the Internet at www.loc.gov,
where Americans for generations to come will be able to learn
about their cultural heritage.
____
A New Collection of America's Favorite Poems
Poet Laureate of the United States Robert Pinsky launched
the Favorite Poem Project with poetry readings in New York,
Washington, Boston, St. Louis and Los Angeles in April 1998,
during National Poetry Month. A part of the Library of
Congress Bicentennial celebration, the Project has created
audio and video archives of Americans of all ages,
backgrounds and walks of life reciting their favorite poems.
At the heart of this initiative is Mr. Pinsky's belief that
poetry is meant to be read aloud.
``The archives will be a record at the end of the
millennium of what we choose and what we do with our voices
and faces, when asked to say aloud a poem that we love,''
said Mr. Pinsky, appointed Poet Laureate in 1997 by Librarian
of Congress James H. Billington. Mr. Pinsky is serving an
unprecedented third term as Poet Laureate.
The two long-term goals of the Favorite Poem Project are to
promote the reading and appreciation of poetry and encourage
the teaching of poetry in schools nationwide. Collaborating
with Mr. Pinsky are the New England Foundation for the Arts,
which administers the program, the Library of Congress, which
is the home of the Poet Laureate, and Boston University.
The Project aims to record up to 1,000 Americans saying
poems that they love. Mr. Pinsky will deliver the first 50
audio and video segments to the Library of Congress as part
of a Library-sponsored poetry symposium scheduled for April
3-4, 2000. The audio and video tapes will become a permanent
part of the Library's Archive of Recorded Poetry and
Literature. ``This will be a gift to the nation's future: an
archive that may come to represent, in a form both individual
and public, the collective cultural consciousness of the
American people at the turn of the century,'' said Mr.
Pinsky, a professor of English and creative writing at Boston
University.
For information on the Favorite Poem Project, visit the
Project's Web site at www.bu.edu/favoritepoem/.
____
New Radio Series to Air for Library of Congress Bicentennial
``Favorite Poets.'' a series of four one-hour programs of
American poets interviewed by Grace Cavalieri, will air on
public radio during National Poetry Month, April 2000, In
Washington, D.C., the series will be heard on WPFW-FM on
Sundays at 9 p.m. on April 16 and 23. (Check listings for
local dates and times.)
Guests on the series are U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky,
former Poet Laureate Rita Dove, and Pulitzer Prize winners
Louise Gluck and W.S. Merwin. The poets, recorded at the
Library of Congress, honor the Library's Bicentennial
celebration on April 24, as well as National Poetry Month.
Each program presents the poets reading their work, a
discussion of the writing process, and a portrait of the poet
through conversation and interview, with an entertaining look
at the personal and poetic lives of each of these literary
figures. The poetry archives at the Library are among the
largest and most comprehensive in the world.
Grace Cavalieri, host of the series, is a familiar voice on
public radio, having presented more than 2,000 poets through
her program ``The Poet and the Poem'' on WPFW-FM from 1977 to
1997. She has had 11 books of poetry published, and a number
of her plays have been produced throughout the country and
Off-Broadway. She has received the Allen Ginsberg Award for
Poetry, the Pen Syndicated Prize for Fiction, and the Silver
Medal from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for
``entertainment and innovation in radio.''
``Favorite Poets'' will be distributed nationally via NPR
satellite, Interested listeners should contact their local
public radio stations for times and dates of airing. The
program is a Bicentennial project of the Library of Congress
with funding provided by the Madison Council, the Library's
private sector advisory group.
For more information on the 200th birthday celebrations of
the Library of Congress, call (202) 707-2000 or visit the
Library's Web site at www.loc.gov.
____
New Book Celebrates 200-Year History of the Library of Congress
America's Library: The Story of the Library of Congress,
1800-2000 by James Conaway will be published in April by the
Library of Congress in cooperation with Yale University
Press. The publication is one of several planned to celebrate
the Library's Bicentennial on April 24, 2000.
The Library was founded in 1800 with the primary mission of
serving the research needs of the United States Congress.
During the past two centuries the collections have evolved
into the largest repository of knowledge in the world and are
accessible to all Americans. The Library maintains a
collection of nearly 119 million books, maps, manuscripts,
photographs, motion pictures, sound recordings and digital
materials in some 460 languages.
``In America's Library, James Conaway invites you to learn
the story of this great and complex institution, during its
two centuries of development, as the men and women within its
walls collect, preserve, and make useful the heritage it
holds,'' said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington.
``Its collections represent and celebrate the many and varied
ways that one generation has informed another.''
This lively account of the Library of Congress is filled
with an immense cast of characters ranging from presidents,
poets, journalists, and members of Congress to collectors,
artists, curators, and eccentrics. The author focuses the
Library's 200 year history on the 13 men who have been
appointed by presidents to lead the Library of Congress. He
investigates how the Librarians' experiences and
contributions, as well as the Library's collections, have
reflected political and intellectual developments in the
United States. Each Librarian confronted great challenges:
the entire Library collection was lost when the British
burned the Capitol in 1814, and rebuilt a year later with
Thomas Jefferson's personal library; in the 1940s, a backlog
of 1.5 million objects waited to be cataloged; the gigantic
task of replacing the card catalog with a computerized system
was undertaken in the 1980s. In the 1990s, the current
Librarian, Dr. Billington, has expanded the reach of the
institution nationwide through the National Digital Library
Program (www.loc.gov). The Library's widely acclaimed Web
site is one of the most heavily used in the federal
government.
Yet each Librarian also enjoyed the excitement of acquiring
unique treasures--from Walt Whitman's walking stick to the
papers of the Wright brothers, from the Civil War photographs
of Mathew Brady to the archives of Leonard Bernstein. The
thrill of using these collections in the Library's Thomas
Jefferson building is conveyed in the book's introduction,
``One Writer's Library,'' by biographer Edmund Morris:
``Those lights, those glowing rectangles and portholes, are
windows into the central repository of our nation's cultural
intelligence: a cerebellum, a sanctum of free thought forever
energized by the spirit of Thomas Jefferson.''
Conaway is the author of eight books, including The
Smithsonian: 150 Years of Adventure, Discovery and Wonder,
copublished by Smithsonian Books and Alfred A. Knopf in
connection with the Smithsonian's 150th anniversary
celebration in 1996. He is the former Washington editor of
Harper's and has written for many publications: Civilization,
The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times Magazine, National
Geographic, and Preservation.
America's Library--a 256-page, hardbound book--is available
for $39.95 in major bookstores and from the Library of
Congress Sales Shops (Credit card orders: 202-707-0204).
____
The Wizard of Oz is Saluted in Library of Congress Bicentennial
Exhibition
The ``yellow brick road'' leads to the Library of Congress
on April 21 with the opening of an exhibition marking the
100th anniversary of one of America's most beloved stories,
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The Library's Copyright Office
registered this work by L. Frank Baum in 1900, and it has
gone on
[[Page S2719]]
to become one of the most profitable and well-known copyright
ever issued.
Since its publication, the book has outsold all other
children's books in numerous editions. It has also inspired a
long series of sequels, stage plays and musicals, movies and
television shows, biographics of Baum, scholarly studies of
the significance of the book and film, advertisements, toys,
games and all sorts of Oz-related products.
Drawing on the Library's unparalleled collection of books,
posters, films, sheet music, manuscripts and sound
recordings, ``The Wizard of Oz: An American Fairy Tale''
examines the creation of this timeless American classic and
traces its rapid and enduring success and its impact on
American popular culture. It can be seen in the South Gallery
of the Great Hall of the Thomas Jefferson Building from April
21 through September 23. Hours for the exhibition are 10 a.m.
to 5:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday.
Approximately 100 items in a variety of formats will be on
view from the Library's collections, including play scripts,
rare books, photographs, posters, drawings, manuscripts,
maps, sheet music and film, as well as three-dimensional
objects such as figurines, dolls, games and toys. The Library
will supplement its own large holdings with items borrowed
from other museums, libraries and private collectors.
Of particular interest to visitors of the exhibition will
be items related to the classic 1939 film ``The Wizard of
Oz,'' including a pair of the ruby slippers (size 5B) worn by
Judy Garland as Dorothy; the sacrecrow costume worn by Ray
Bolger; the mane and beard worn by Bert Lahr as the Cowardly
Lion; a Munchkin costume; and an Emerald City townsman's
coat. These are supplemented with publicity shots and
photographs taken on the set of the film, related sheet
music, recordings, magazine advertisements, posters and lobby
cards, from the Library's own collections. Clips from other
Oz films--from early silents to ``The Wiz''--will be shown on
a video kiosk.
L. Frank Baum's ability to make fantastic circumstances
seem plausble, combined with illustrator W.W. Denslow's
striking color plates and line drawings, produced a volume
that was innovative both in style and presentation. The first
edition of the book, along with the original copyright
application handwritten by Baum, will be on display along
with six of the black-and-white Denslow illustrations for the
book. Some of Baum's pre-Oz books will be shown, along with a
selection of other books set in the ``Land of Oz'' authored
by Baum.
Children especially will be fascinated with the selection
of Oz-related souvenirs and novelties including plates,
figurines, games, greeting cards, Christmas ornaments, music
boxes, paper dolls and coloring books.
For nearly 130 years, the Copyright Office in the Library
of Congress has served as America's ``national registry for
creative works.'' The 1870 law that centralized the copyright
function in the Library of Congress--and set up the copyright
deposit system that systematically brings two copies of every
item registered for copyright to the Library--helped to
create the unequaled national collections that form the core
of today's Library of Congress.
Through the copyright records, one can trace the career of
Frank Baum, America's great fantasist, who lived from 1856 to
1919, beginning with the 1882 copyright registration for
Baum's first theatrical venture, Maid of Arran, to the
publication of the last book in his Oz series, Glinda of Oz,
published in 1920.
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New Book Features the Architecture of the Library's Thomas Jefferson
Building
The Library of Congress: An Architectural Alphabet will be
published in April by the Library of Congress in cooperation
with Pomegranate Press. The publication is one of several
planned to celebrate the Library's Bicentennial on April 24,
2000.
Across the street from the United States Capitol in
Washington, D.C., stands the first of the three Library of
Congress buildings. The Thomas Jefferson Building, completed
in 1897 and named for the president in 1980, is a landmark in
the nation's capital as well as one of the country's great
architectural treasures.
``At the heart of all our efforts stands the Jefferson
Building, a heroic structure that is at once celebratory,
inspirational, and educational,'' said Librarian of Congress
James H. Billington. ``Few places represent human aspiration
in such dramatic fashion.''
The Library of Congress: An Architectural Alphabet opens
doors into many of the extraordinary spaces and features that
rest within the 600,000 square feet enclosed by the
building's historic walls. The book offers an illustrated
tour of the Library's art, architecture, and sculpture,
created by some 50 artists and artisans. From A (for arch) to
Z (for zigzag), it explores the Jefferson Building's unusual
architectural details--egg-and-dart molding, helixes, jambs,
pilasters, quoins, spandrels, tripods, vaults, and even an X-
motif printer's mark. Illustrations and descriptions are
joined by a colorful alphabet drawn from the Library's
collection of rare books and manuscripts.
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Visitors must allot many hours to see all of this
landmark's 409,000 cubic feet of granite, 22 million red
bricks, 500,000 enameled bricks, 2,165 windows, 15 varieties
of marble, untold numbers of classical columns, and millions
of items. Compact in a 9-by-9-inch format, the Architectural
Alphabet is a wonderful place to start.
The Library of Congress: An Architectural Alphabet--a 64-
page, hardbound book, with 29 color photographs--will be
available for $17.95 in major bookstores and from the Library
of Congress Sales Shops (Credit card orders: 202-707-0204).
Gifts to the Nation
national collections, endowed chairs, endowed curatorships and national
focal points of scholarship
The Library of Congress occupies a unique place in American
civilization. For nearly 200 years, the Library has collected
and preserved our national cultural heritage. The collection
of nearly 119 million items housed in the Library represents
America's ``creative legacy,'' and ranges from books, maps
and manuscripts to photographs, motion pictures and music.
Copyright deposits have been a major source for the Library's
collections, yet the Library has also received a significant
portion of its unparalleled collections as special gifts from
donors, collectors and Americans who aspire to preserve our
national heritage for generations to come.
Without the generosity of such benefactors, the Library
would not have the diaries of Orville and Wilbur Wright, the
music of George and Ira Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein, the
outstanding Stern Collection of Abraham Lincoln materials,
the Rosenwald Collection of rare illustrated books from as
far back as the 15th century, or its largest manuscript
collection--from the NAACP.
The Library has identified additional materials that,
because of their significance to American life and learning,
belong in the national library, where they will be preserved
and made available for future generations of Americans. Gifts
to the Nation is an opportunity to support the acquisition of
these important cultural legacies.
A very special undertaking is the effort to rebuild the
original core of the Library--Thomas Jefferson's vast and
diverse personal collection--which he sold to Congress after
the British burned the U.S. Capitol, including the Library of
Congress, in 1814. Tragically, in 1851, nearly two-thirds of
Jefferson's library was destroyed in another Capitol fire.
Jefferson believed that there was ``no subject to which a
member of Congress may not have the occasion to refer,'' and
reconstructing his wide-ranging collection, the scope of
which is reflected in the current Library of Congress
holdings, will provide new insights into the mind of one of
our nation's greatest thinkers and reinforce the Jeffersonian
principle upon which the Library of Congress was built--that
free access of information and knowledge is one of the
cornerstones of democracy.
To enhance the research opportunities at the Library, the
Bicentennial celebration also includes giving opportunities
for Endowed Chairs, Endowed Curatorships and National Focal
Points of Scholarship. Support of these programs will ensure
that experts from diverse fields of study use and write about
the Library's collections as well as provide advice on
collection policies for future acquisitions.
How You Can Participate: If you would like to support Gifts
to the Nation, contact Winston Tabb, Associate Librarian for
Library Services, at (202) 707-6240 ([email protected]), or Norma
Baker, Director of the Development Office, at (202) 707-2777.
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