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Read Ebook: Handbook of the new Library of Congress by Small Herbert Compiler Caffin Charles H Charles Henry Contributor Spofford Ainsworth Rand Contributor
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Ebook has 295 lines and 66483 words, and 6 pages
Contributor: Charles Caffin Ainsworth R. Spofford
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
Footnote anchors are denoted by , and the footnotes have been placed at the end of the book.
Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book.
HANDBOOK OF THE NEW LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
COMPILED BY HERBERT SMALL
ARCHITECTURE, SCULPTURE AND PAINTING
BY CHARLES CAFFIN
AND ON
THE FUNCTION OF A NATIONAL LIBRARY
BY AINSWORTH R. SPOFFORD
BOSTON CURTIS & CAMERON 1897
COPYRIGHT 1897 BY CURTIS & CAMERON
THE HEINTZEMANN PRESS BOSTON
PREFACE
The intention of this Handbook is to furnish such an account of the new building of the Library of Congress as may prove of interest to the general reader, and at the same time serve as a convenient guide to actual visitors. To this latter end, a system of headings and sub-headings has been introduced, and the building has been described throughout in the order in which a visitor might naturally walk through it. Criticism has been avoided in the general description, but a brief survey of the artistic qualities of the Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting is given in Mr. Caffin's supplementary essay.
The writer had intended at first to give rather a full account of the collections of the Library, of the Smithsonian system of exchange, of the operation of the copyright law, and of the general system under which the Library was carried on. So much of what he might have thus described, however, would have been entirely changed, and so much more considerably modified, by the new methods of administration made possible and necessary by the new building, that it was decided to pass lightly over all matters connected with the administration of the Library. Should another edition of the Handbook be called for, it is hoped that there will be an opportunity to supply this omission. In the meantime it will be found that Mr. Spofford's paper on the Function of a National Library will serve to indicate the general scope of the institution.
The writer desires to express his great obligation, for much information and courtesy, to Mr. Bernard R. Green, in charge of the Library during the time that this book was preparing, to Mr. Edward Pearce Casey, and to Mr. Spofford. Without their assistance the book could hardly have been written. Thanks are due, also, to many of the individual artists for their courtesy in explaining the meaning and application of their work--and in particular to Mr. Elmer E. Garnsey, for a great deal of painstaking assistance.
H. S.
TABLE OF HEADINGS.
PAGE
HISTORY OF THE LIBRARY 2 The Burning by the British Troops 2 The Acquisition of Jefferson's Library 3 Mr. Spofford's Administration 3 The Old Quarters in the Capitol 4 The Agitation for a New Building 4
THE NEW BUILDING 6 The General Decoration; Mr. Garnsey and Mr. Weinert 7 The General Character of the Building 8
THE EXTERIOR OF THE BUILDING 9 The Fa?ade 10
THE ENTRANCE PAVILION 11 Mr. Hinton Perry's Fountain 12 The Ethnological Heads 13 The Portico Busts 16 Mr. Pratt's Spandrel Figures 17
THE MAIN ENTRANCE 18 Mr. Warner's Bronze Doors 18 Mr. Macmonnies's Bronze Door 20
MAIN ENTRANCE HALL 21 The Vestibule 21 The Stucco Decoration of the Vestibule 22 The Marble Flooring 22 The Staircase Hall 23 The Commemorative Arch 23 Mr. Warner's Spandrel Figures 24 Mr. Martiny's Staircase Figures 24 The Ceiling of the Staircase Hall 27 The Mosaic Vaults of the First Floor Corridors 28 Mr. Pearce's Paintings 28 Mr. Walker's Paintings 30 Mr. Alexander's Paintings 33 Mosaic Decorations of the East Corridor 33 The Librarian's Room 34 The Lobbies of the Rotunda 35 Mr. Vedder's Paintings 36 The Second Floor Corridors 39 The Decoration of the Vaults 39 The Printers' Marks 42 Mr. Hinton Perry's Bas-reliefs 43 Mr. Shirlaw's Paintings 44 Mr. Reid's Paintings 46 Mr. Barse's Paintings 48 Mr. Benson's Paintings 50 The Decoration of the Walls 51 Mr. Maynard's Pompeiian Panels 52 The Inscriptions along the Walls 53
THE ENTRANCE TO THE ROTUNDA 55 Mr. Van Ingen's Paintings 55 Mr. Vedder's Mosaic Decoration 56
THE ROTUNDA 57 The Importance of the Rotunda 58 The General Arrangement 60 The Alcoves 61 The Symbolical Statues 62 The Portrait Statues 64 Mr. Flanagan's Clock 66 The Lighting of the Rotunda 67 The Semicircular Windows 68 The Dome 70 The Stucco Ornamentation 70 Mr. Blashfield's Paintings 71 The Rotunda Color Scheme 76 Provision for Readers 77 The Book-Carrying Apparatus 78 Connection with the Capitol 79
THE BOOK-STACKS 80 Arrangement and Construction 80 Ventilation and Heating 82 The Shelving 82 Lighting 82
THE LANTERN 84
THE RECTANGLE 84
SOUTHEAST GALLERY 86 Mr. Cox's Paintings 86
THE PAVILION OF THE DISCOVERERS 88 Mr. Pratt's Bas-reliefs 89 Mr. Maynard's Paintings 89
THE PAVILION OF THE ELEMENTS 93 Mr. R. L. Dodge's Paintings 93
THE PAVILION OF THE SEALS 94 Mr. Van Ingen's Paintings 96 Mr. Garnsey's Ceiling Panel 98
THE PAVILION OF ART AND SCIENCE 99 Mr. W. de L. Dodge's Paintings 99
THE NORTHWEST GALLERY 101 Mr. Melchers's Paintings 101
THE RECTANGLE: FIRST FLOOR CORRIDORS 101 Mr. McEwen's Paintings 102
THE HOUSE READING ROOM 106 Mr. Dielman's Mosaics 107 Mr. Gutherz's Paintings 109
THE SENATE READING ROOM 110
THE NORTH CORRIDOR 111 Mr. Simmons's Paintings 111
SPECIAL ROOMS 112
THE BASEMENT 112
THE ARCHITECTURE, SCULPTURE AND PAINTING 113
THE FUNCTION OF A NATIONAL LIBRARY 123
THE NEW
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
IN WASHINGTON
BY HERBERT SMALL
This development amounts almost to a change of front, in spite of the fact that the original purpose of the Library as an aid to the legislation and debates of Congress has been fully preserved. The change has been brought about in many ways, but principally by the exchange system of the great governmental scientific bureau, the Smithsonian Institution, and by the operation of the national copyright law.
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