Name/Title
StereographEntry/Object ID
2023.055.3.0342Description
A black and white stereograph. Image is an aerial shot of the Library of Congress. Above the image "13" is printed, below the image "32233 The Library of Congress, Seen from the Dome of the Capitol, 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:
3223
SOUTHEAST FROM THE DOME OF THE CAPITOL TO THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, WASHINGTON , D. C.
Passing around to the E. side of the Capitol dome, a magnificent edifice a few hundred yards away immediately arrest our attention as it looms above the southeastern section of the city. This is the Library of Congress, acknowledged to be on of the most artistic structures in America. In addition to housing one of the greatest libraries of the world, with about 3,000,000 books and prints and 2,000,000 other items, it is a treasury fo the best contemporary American art as represented n sculpture and mural paintings. The building was commenced in 1886 and completed in 1897 at a cost of nearly $7,000,000. It is of Italian Renaissance design, covers a rectangular area of 3 3/4 acres, and its basement and two upper stories afford approximately 10 acres of floor (missing). The panels of the dome between the (missing) are overlaid with 22-carat gold and the dome terminates in a lantern crowned with a guded Torch of Knowledge. The wealth of sculptures lavished upon te exterior are a promise of the magnificence of the building within. A colossal Fountain of Nepturne stands at the base of the stately curses of steps leading up to the main entrance which faces W. Noted sculptors have carved the keystones of the 33 arched windows of the first story into thetwo central and the four corner pavilions with heads accurately representing 33 of the principal racial types of mankind. The main portico opening into the great Entrance Hall, in turn contains a number of busts of the world's great writers, symbolic bas-reliefs, and three superb bronze doors on which are graphically depicts the history of recorded knowledge, from primative oral transmission to the invention of the printing presse.
Copyright Keystone View CompanyCollection
Photograph Collection