Name/Title
StereographEntry/Object ID
2023.055.3.0324Description
A black and white stereograph. Image is the interior of a building, a large staircase leads to the second floor, there are multiple columns along the guardrail of the second floor. Above the image "14" is printed, below the image "32234 Magnificient Entrance Hall of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C." is printed, to the left of the image "Keystone View Company COPYRIGHTED Manufacturers MADE IN U.S.A. Publishers" is printed, to the right of the image "Meadville, Pa., New York, N. Y., Chicago, Ill., London, England." is printed. On the reverse the following is printed:
32234
MAIN ENTRANCE HALL, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, WASHINGTON, D.C.
Although the spacious corridors and pavillons of the Library of Congress all are profusely decorated and filled with exhibits of great artistic or bibliographic interest, in no part is the lavish splendor of this famous building so wll displayed as in the Entrance Hall. We have now come into the latter from the sumptuous portico and are looking N. W. across the Rotunda to the foot of the northern grand staircase. From this position we see at the left one of the three enrrance arches, the splendid array of carved and polished marble balustrades and the forest of columns upholding the arches and vaulted ceilings of the second story gallery. The mural paintings on the walls, the mosaic ceilings, and the delicate carvings and sculptures of stairways, arches and vaultings are of rich and harmonious colors. All are the works of American painters, sculptors and architects, more than fifty of whom contributed to the final perfection of the building. In the floor at our feet, laid in a rich variety of marbles in geometric patterns, is a great sun of polished brass, its twelve diverging rays pointing to the sings of the Zodiac.
In "The Book of Washington," Robert Shackleton has said of the Library of Congress: "The grand staircase, about which is lavished the gorgeousness of glowing mural paintings, a riot of symbolism and color; the great areas of soft mosaic, the glow of rich Italian marbles, pillar after pillar, arcade beyond arcade, the gleam of bronze - all mark an effort to outod anything else that ever was dong; - the Venetian glories of t Doge's staircase, the Roman splendor of Raphael's Stanzia, - and to outshine the fading (unreadable) of Fontainebleau. Seldom have architects had such an opportunity."
Copyright by Keystone View CompanyCollection
Photograph Collection