How do most libraries attract people? Besides offering the latest books, staff might host story time, crafts, and educational events. How does the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., draw visitors? It creates a new exhibit.
“Collecting Memories” opens June 13 and runs through the end of 2025. The 127 items on display vary widely. Ancient Hebrew religious texts are presented alongside belongings of former presidents: James Madison’s crystal flute and Abraham Lincoln’s wallet. (It had a Confederate $5 bill inside.) The first sketches of Spider-Man are also included.
“These items are an expression of our collective history,” says Carla Hayden. She is the official librarian of Congress. “We want people to see themselves in our exhibit.”
David Rubenstein is a local philanthropist. He donated $10 million to a campaign that seeks to encourage tourists to visit the Library of Congress. There are many monuments and various museums in Washington, D.C. But visitors often don’t realize how many treasures the building holds.
“You usually don’t go to the Library of Congress because you don’t know that the Library of Congress is more than just a library,” Rubinstein says.
The library is in the Thomas Jefferson Building. That’s next door to the Supreme Court and across the street from the Capitol. The exhibition hall is filled with images and ancient relics. Slide shows play on the walls. Glass cases hold vivid tapestries, ancient texts, photographs, and historical curiosities.
Some of the more delicate items on display will rotate out at six-month intervals to protect them from exposure. The artifacts chosen for “Collecting Memories” are all drawn from the library’s internal collections, which number more than 178 million pieces.
Tourists view formerly top-secret photographs of the original Trinity test nuclear explosion. A Japanese survivor’s handwritten report of the Hiroshima bombing rests next to them. It describes the ordeal and aftermath. Omar Ibn Said, an African man abducted into American slavery, tells his story in his autobiography. It is written in Arabic.
A multiscreen video wall plays a shifting mix of old videos. They range from home movies of everyday families in the 1950s to footage of Charlie Chaplin.
“The stories told by these items still inspire and amaze, decades or even centuries after they were created,” Hayden says.
Visitors to the new exhibit must secure free timed-entry passes, which are available online.
Every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old. — Matthew 13:52
