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Thomas Jefferson Building
The Thomas Jefferson Building at the Library of Congress in April 2007
Location within the District of Columbia
General information
Architectural style	Beaux-Arts
Town or city	Washington, D.C.
Country	United States
Construction started	1890
Completed	1897
Design and construction
Architect(s)	John L. Smithmeyer Paul J. Pelz Edward Pearce Casey
Other information
Public transit access	Capitol South, Union Station, Washington Union Station
Library of Congress
U.S. National Historic Landmark
Added to NRHP	December 21, 1965

The Thomas Jefferson Building, also known as the Main Library, is the oldest of the Library of Congress buildings in Washington, D.C. Built between 1890 and 1897, it was initially known as the Library of Congress Building. In 1980, the building was named in honor of Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), a Founding Father, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third U.S. president. In 1815, the purchase of Jefferson's book collection formed a core foundation for the library's collection.

The building is located on First Street, S.E. between Independence Avenue and East Capitol Street in the federal national capital city of Washington, D.C., across from the United States Capitol on Capitol Hill. It is adjacent to the library's additional buildings in the Library of Congress complex, the John Adams Building (built in the 1930s) across Second Street, and the James Madison Memorial Building (built in the 1970s) across Independence Avenue to the south.

The building is designed in the Beaux-Arts and elaborate decorative version of Classical Revival styles of architecture, and is known for its classicizing façade and elaborately decorated interior. The building's primary architect was Paul J. Pelz, who initially began work on the building in partnership with John L. Smithmeyer, and was subsequently succeeded by Edward Pearce Casey during the last few years of construction. In addition, Bernard Green was also a consulting engineer and architect (later worked on the Mississippi State Capitol of 1901-1903, in Jackson).

In 1965, in recognition of the prominent monumental structure and building's historical significance, it was designated a National Historic Landmark (lists maintained by the National Park Service of the United States Department of the Interior).

Design

John L. Smithmeyer and Paul J. Pelz won the competition for the architectural plans of the library in 1873. The start of the project was delayed by U.S. congressional debates until a vote on the project was held in 1886.

In 1888, Smithmeyer was dismissed and Pelz became the lead architect. Pelz was himself dismissed in 1892 and replaced by Edward Pearce Casey, the son of Brig. Gen. Thomas Lincoln Casey, Chief of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who at the time was in charge of the building's construction. While Smithmeyer was instrumental in securing the commission, Pelz appears to have been the main designer of the building and oversaw most of the exterior work. Bernard Green, the superintendent of construction, and Casey are credited for the completion of the interiors and the artistic supervision of the building's unique decorative program. The Library opened to the public in 1897 and the finishing work was completed in 1898.

The Thomas Jefferson Building contains some of the richest public interiors in the United States. The building represents a compendium of the work of classically trained American sculptors and painters of the "American Renaissance", in programs of symbolic content that exhibited the progress of civilization, personified in Great Men and culminating in the American official culture of the Gilded Age; the programs were in many cases set out by the Librarian of Congress, Ainsworth Rand Spofford. The central block is broadly comparable to the Palais Garnier in Paris, a similarly ambitious expression of triumphant cultural nationalism in the Beaux-Arts style that had triumphed at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, 1893. On the exterior, sculptured portrait heads that were considered typical of the world's races were installed as keystones on the main storey's window arches. The second-floor portico of the front entrance facing the U.S. Capitol features nine prominent busts of Great Men as selected by Ainsworth Rand Spofford in accordance with Gilded Age ideals. From left to right when one faces the building, they are Demosthenes (portico north side), Ralph Waldo Emerson, Washington Irving, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Babbington Macaulay, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Sir Walter Scott and Dante Alighieri (portico south side). The sculptors were Herbert Adams, Jonathan Scott Hartley and Frederick W. Ruckstull. The Court of Neptune Fountain centered on the entrance front invites comparison with the Trevi Fountain; its sculptor was Roland Hinton Perry. The copper dome, originally gilded, was criticized at the structure's completion, as too competitive with the national Capitol Building. Originally, the dome over the Main Reading Room was intended to be less than 70 ft tall to avoid this critique, however Casey and Green increased the size of the dome to 195 ft and covered it with 23 carat gold leaf.

History

Needing more room for its increasing collection, the Library of Congress under Librarian Ainsworth Rand Spofford suggested to the Congress that a new building be built specifically to serve as the American national library. Prior to this the Library existed in a wing of the Capitol Building. The new building was needed partly because of the growing Congress, but also partly because of the Copyright Law of 1870, which required all copyright applicants to send to the Library two copies of their work. This resulted in a flood of books, pamphlets, maps, music, prints and photographs. Spofford had been instrumental in the enactment of this law.

After Congress approved construction of the building in 1886, it took eleven years to complete. The building opened to the public on November 1, 1897, met with wide approval and was immediately seen as a national monument. The building name was changed on June 13, 1980, to honor former U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, who had been a key figure in the establishment of the Library in 1800. Jefferson offered to sell his personal book collection to Congress in September 1814, one month after the British had burned the Capitol in the War of 1812.

Book Conveying Apparatus

Prior to the 2000s, the Jefferson Building was linked to the Capitol Building by a purpose built book tunnel. This housed an electric "book conveying apparatus" that could transport volumes between the two buildings at 600 feet per minute. A portion of the book tunnel was destroyed to make room for the underground Capitol Visitor Center, which opened in 2008.

Capitol Page School

Senate, House and Supreme Court pages formerly attended school together in the Capitol Page School located on the attic level above the Great Hall. Upon the separation of the programs (and the closure of the Supreme Court Page Program), the schools split. Senate Pages now attend school in the basement of their dormitory. The House Page Program was closed in August 2011. A small suite in the northwest corner of the attic level remains home to the official office of the Poet Laureate of the United States.

Coolidge Auditorium

The Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Auditorium, which opened in October 1925, has been home to more than 2,000 concerts, primarily of classical chamber music, but occasionally also of jazz, folk music, and special presentations. Some performances make use of the Library's extensive collection of musical instruments and manuscripts. Most of the performances are free and open to the public.

Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge was a wealthy patron of the arts and was no relation to Calvin Coolidge, who, coincidentally, was President of the United States at the time the Coolidge auditorium was established.

Art

According to the Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Bernard Green, who played an important role on the interior design of the building, viewed the interior art as necessary "to fully and consistency carry out the monumental design and purpose of the building".

Art and sculptures can be found in and throughout the Jefferson Building. Representatives of the National Sculpture Society met with Casey and Green during the building's construction to select the sculptors for the Library's statues and figures. In 1894, 20 American sculptors were extended commissions and 19 accepted. In total, more than fifty American painters and sculptors produced commissioned works of art.

The Main Reading Room, circular in shape, is surrounded by eight giant marble columns that are each decoratively topped with a large statue of a female figure. The 8 statues each represent different aspects of knowledge and are symbols of civilization, including: Religion, Commerce, History, Art, Philosophy, Poetry, Law, and Science. Pendentives rest above each symbolic statue, with a quote from a notable author/work relating to each aspect.

Additionally, there are 16 bronze statues on raised balustrades overlooking the floor of the Main Reading Room. These statues "pay homage to men whose lives symbolized the thought and activity represented by the plaster statues." The subjects were chosen by Ainsworth Rand Spofford, Librarian of Congress from 1864 to 1897.

Details of each of the symbolic and portrait statues are included in the table below.

• Art at the Thomas Jefferson Building
• Olin Levi Warner, tympanum representing Writing, above exterior of main entrance doors, 1896
• Henry Oliver Walker, Lyric Poetry, 1896
• Erotica, one of the eight panels representing literature by George Randolph Barse (1861–1938)
• Gari Melchers, Mural of War, 1896
• Gari Melchers, Mural of Peace, 1896
• Elihu Vedder, Minerva of Peace, 1896
• Edward Emerson Simmons, Melpomene, 1896
• Charles Sprague Pearce, Labor, 1896
• Charles Sprague Pearce, Religion, 1896
• Mural paintings at the corridor
• Mural painting, Northeastern Pavilion by Elmer E. Garnsey
• A portion of Edwin Blashfield's Evolution of Civilization, located on the dome above the Main Reading Room, 1895
• Ceiling of the Great Hall
• The Court of Neptune Fountain, 1897–98, by Roland Hinton Perry

References

1. "List of NHLs by State". National Park Service. Archived from the original on January 31, 2024. Retrieved January 31, 2024.
2. Cronau, Rudolf (1916). German Achievements in America. New York: Rudolf Cronau. pp. 204–205. pelz.
3. Cole, John Y. (October 1972). "Smithmeyer & Pelz: Embattled Architects of the Library of Congress". The Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress. 29 (4). JSTOR 29781519.
4. ^ Cole, John Y. (1971). "A national monument for a national library: Ainsworth Rand Spofford and the new Library of Congress, 1871–1897". Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C. 71–72: 468–507. JSTOR 40067786.
5. "On These Walls". Library of Congress. April 4, 2017. Retrieved January 12, 2018. Over forty artists were commissioned to produce sculpture, bas-relief panels, frescoes and empanelled canvases, and designs for mosaic.
6. According to a contemporary guidebook, "America is justly proud of this gorgeous and palatial monument to its National sympathy and appreciation of Literature, Science, and Art".
7. Carter, Elliot (August 26, 2015). "There's a Hidden Conveyor Belt Under the Capitol That Was Just for Moving Books". Gizmodo. Retrieved June 12, 2016.
8. Logan, Mrs. John A. (1901). Thirty Years in Washington. Hartford, Connecticut: A.D. Worthington & Co. pp. 433–436. Retrieved January 12, 2018.
9. "About the Coolidge Auditorium". Library of Congress. August 31, 2004. Retrieved January 12, 2018.
10. "On These Walls". Library of Congress. April 4, 2017. Retrieved January 12, 2018. Over forty artists were commissioned to produce sculpture, bas-relief panels, frescoes and empanelled canvases, and designs for mosaic.
11. ^ "Main Reading Room | Thomas Jefferson Building | Virtual Views | Visiting the Library". Library of Congress. Retrieved November 24, 2022.
12. Cole, John Y. "The Thomas Jefferson Building: Part 1 (On These Walls: Inscriptions and Quotations in the Buildings of the Library of Congress, by John Y. Cole)". Library of Congress. Retrieved November 24, 2022.
13. "[Main Reading Room. View of statue representing Religion, by Theodore Baur, on the column entablature between two alcoves. Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C.]". Library of Congress. Retrieved November 24, 2022.
14. "[Main Reading Room. View of statue representing Commerce, by John Flanagan, on the column entablature between two alcoves. Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C.]". Library of Congress. Retrieved November 24, 2022.
15. "[Main Reading Room. View of statue of History by Daniel Chester French on the column entablature between two alcoves. Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C.]". Library of Congress. Retrieved November 24, 2022.
16. "[Main Reading Room. View of statue of Art by Tonetti-Dozzi on the column entablature between two alcoves. Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C.]". Library of Congress. Retrieved November 24, 2022.
17. "[Main Reading Room. View of statue representing Philosophy, by Bela Lyon Pratt, on the column entablature between two alcoves. Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C.]". Library of Congress. Retrieved November 24, 2022.
18. "[Main Reading Room. View of statue representing Poetry,, by John Quincy Adams Ward, on the column entablature between two alcoves. Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C.]". The Library of Congress. Retrieved November 24, 2022.
19. "[Main Reading Room. View of statue representing Law by Paul Wayland Bartlett on the column entablature between two alcoves. Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C.]". Library of Congress. Retrieved November 24, 2022.
20. "[Main Reading Room. View of statue of Science by John Donoghue on the column entablature between two alcoves. Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington, D.C.]". Library of Congress. Retrieved November 24, 2022.

Sources

• Architect of the Capitol, Washington, D.C. "Thomas Jefferson Building Architecture." Accessed 2011-12-18.
• Library of Congress. "Thomas Jefferson Building: A Brief History of the Library." Accessed 2011-12-18.

v t e United States Capitol Complex
United States Capitol
House	House chamber Office buildings (office lottery): Cannon House Library Ford Longworth Rayburn O'Neill O'Neill (former)
Senate	Senate chamber Old Senate Chamber Senate Reception Room Hideaways Office buildings: Dirksen Hart Mountains and Clouds Russell Senate Library
Library of Congress	Adams Jefferson Madison Law Library of Congress Mary Pickford Theater
Individual features	Cornerstone Dome Statue of Freedom The Apotheosis of Washington Rotunda Columbus Doors Declaration of Independence painting Frieze of American History General George Washington Resigning His Commission Surrender of General Burgoyne Surrender of Lord Cornwallis Jefferson statue Lincoln statue Washington statue National Statuary Hall Statues Crypt Hall of Columns Brumidi Corridors Apotheosis of Democracy Progress of Civilization Pediment First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (Bittinger) Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States Revolutionary War Door George Washington and the Revolutionary War Door Washington at Princeton Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way Vice Presidential Bust Collection Ohio Clock President's Room Vice President's Room Congressional Prayer Room Old Supreme Court Chamber Washington's Tomb Visitor Center Lincoln Catafalque
Former features	George Washington as Zeus (sculpture, 1841–1908) Discovery of America (sculpture, 1844–1958) The Rescue (sculpture, 1853–1958) National Capitol Columns U.S. Capitol Gatehouses and Gateposts
Others	Art List of art List of portraits (A-J) Confederate Botanic Garden Capitol Hill James A. Garfield Monument Ulysses S. Grant Memorial Peace Monument Judiciary Building Power Plant Reflecting Pool Subway System Supreme Court Building Union Square Senate Page Residence Pennsylvania Avenue

38°53′19″N 77°00′17″W / 38.8887°N 77.0046°W / 38.8887; -77.0046

• 1897 establishments in Washington, D.C.
• Beaux-Arts architecture in Washington, D.C.
• Buildings of the United States government in Washington, D.C.
• Capitol Hill
• Government buildings completed in 1897
• Independence Avenue
• Library buildings completed in 1897
• Library of Congress
• Monuments and memorials to Thomas Jefferson
• National Historic Landmarks in Washington, D.C.
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• Thomas Jefferson