Worldcon—Library of Congress

Believe it or not, one of the two top buildings I wanted to see in my Washington, D.C. trip was the Library of Congress. Here’s a rather typical tourist shot of it.

Note the three alcoves at ground level. They contain bronze statues. Just to warn you, they have some nudity, which is typical of the city’s statues. So let’s take a look.

Wait, these aren’t the statues yet.

And here is the back.

Here is Poseidon. Don’t know who he is? Read a book.

To the left and right of him are sea nymphs, or nereids. A little nudity is okay, right?

Oh, the right one is really . . .

So going inside the Library itself, I was determined not to take pictures. (They prefer having visitors make appointments first.) The visit is different if one is thinking of taking pictures, instead of just experiencing the moment. But they recreated Thomas Jefferson’s library inside the library, including some of his original books.

This is his copy of The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith published in 1776. This was the historic book that argued for free market economics. These are the volumes Jefferson actually read.

The Library of Congress has a complete copy of the Gutenberg Bible. These were the first books ever printed on a printing press. The exact date varies, but the first copies could have been printed in 1454.

click to enlarge

They also have the first printed book on astronomy.

As a final shot, here is a view of the Washington Monument and the Capitol from the Library of Congress.

I was tempted to post that photo by itself and let you guess if I were floating in air, but nah.

I can’t begin to tell you what else was in the Library of Congress. It’s like an art museum. I encourage you to visit if you take a trip to Washington, D.C.