The Library of Congress Archives, located in the Library's Manuscript Division, contain a rich variety of records concerning the construction, architecture and decoration of the 1897 Library of Congress building -- today known as the Jefferson Building. The Library of Congress Building records in the office of the Architect of the Capitol and the Edward Pearce Casey papers at the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities in Boston are other important resources.
The Library of Congress Building records in the Library of Congress Archives include: the Journal of Operations on the Building for Library of Congress, October 1888-September 1893 and a three-part scrapbook covering the years 1885-1911 kept by superintendent of construction Bernard R. Green; the record book of the Commission for the Construction of the Congressional Library Building, 1886-1888; Bernard Green's correspondence with contractors and with individual sculptors and painters; and the contracts themselves.
Construction photographs by Levin C. Handy documenting the rise of the building are in the Library's Prints and Photographs Division. These and other early photographs of the building are described in Kathleen Collins's Washingtoniana Photographs (Washington: Library of Congress, 1989). The architectural drawings for the building also are in the Prints and Photographs Division. Other valuable resources in the Manuscript Division include the Librarian's Letterbooks (outgoing correspondence) from 1864 to 1886, and the personal papers of Ainsworth Rand Spofford and Paul J. Pelz.
In addition to the books and articles listed below, several government documents are of special value. These include the published annual reports of the Librarian of Congress from 1866 to 1897; Bernard R. Green's final reports to the Congress: Letter from the Officer in Charge of the Building for the Library of Congress, Transmitting His Report of the Construction of the Building for the Year 1896, 54th Cong., 2d Sess., H.R. Doc. No. 20, Dec. 7, 1896, and Report from the Superintendent of the Building for the Library of Congress Upon the Construction of the Building, 55th Cong., 1st Sess., Senate Doc. No. 55, April 22, 1897; and the congressional hearings about the Library on the eve of its move into the new building: U.S. Congress, Joint Committee on the Library, Condition of the Library of Congress, March 3, 1897 (54th Cong., 2d Sess., Senate Rpt. 1573).
Books and Articles
Coffin, William A. "The Decorations in the New Congressional Library," The Century Magazine 53 (March 1897): 694-711.
Coffin, William A. "Robert Reid's Decorations in the Congressional Library, Washington, D.C." Harper's Weekly 40, no. 2078 (October 17, 1896: 1028-29.
Cole, John Y. "A National Monument for a National Library: Ainsworth Rand Spofford and the New Library of Congress, 1871-1897," Records of the Columbia Historical Society of Washington, D.C., 1971-1972, ed. by Francis Coleman Rosenberger, Washington, D.C.: Columbia Historical Society, 1973.
Cole, John Y. On These Walls: Inscriptions and Quotations in the Buildings of the Library of Congress. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1995.
Cole, John Y. "Smithmeyer & Pelz: Embattled Architects of the Library of Congress," Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress 29 (October 1972): 282- 307.
Cortissoz, Royal. "Our National Monument of Art: The Congressional Library at Washington," Harper's Weekly 39 (December 28, 1895): 1240-41.
Cortissoz, Royal. "Painting and Sculpture in the New Congressional Library," a series of articles in Harper's Weekly in 1896 and 1897. "The Decorations of Mr. J.W. Alexander," 41, no. 2092 (January 23, 1897): 82-85; "The Decorations of Messrs. Benson, Walker, Melchers, Van Ingen, and Pearce," 41, no. 2097 (Feb. 27, 1897): 201-202, 204-205; "The Decorations of Mr. Edwin Blashfield," 40, no. 2038 (Jan. 4, 1896): 35-37; "The Decorations of Mr. Kenyon Cox, 40, no. 2048 (March 21, 1896): 277-78; "The Decorations of Mr. Frederick Dielman," 40, no. 2085 (Dec. 5, 1896): 1189; "The Decorations of Mr. George W. Maynard," 40, no. 2071 (Aug. 29, 1896): 852-53; "The Decorations of Mr. Elihu Vedder," 40, no. 2043 (Feb. 15, 1896): 156-58; "The Doors Modeled by Mr. Frederic MacMonnies," 40, no. 2081 (Nov. 7, 1896): 1095-96; "A Last Glance at the Rotunda and Entrance-Hall," 41, no. 2101 (March 27, 1897): 316-318; "Works by Herbert Adams, Frederick W. Ruckstuhl, and John J. Boyle," 41, no. 2090 (Jan. 9, 1897): 31-32.
Green, Bernard R. "The Building for the Library of Congress," in Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution ... for 1897 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1898), 625-632.
Hilker, Helen-Anne. "Monument to Civilization: Diary of a Building," Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress 29 (October 1972): 234-266.
Hilker, Helen-Anne. Ten First Street Southeast: Congress Builds a Library, 1886- 1897. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1980.
Lowry, Bates. Building a National Image: Architectural Drawings for the American Democracy, 1789-1912. Washington, D.C.: National Building Museum, 1985.
Murray, Richard N. "Painting and Sculpture," in The American Renaissance 1876- 1917. Brooklyn, N.Y.: The Brooklyn Museum, 1979, pp. 153-189.
Murray, Richard N. Art for Architecture: Washington, D. C. 1895-1925. Washington, D.C.: National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, 1975.
Reed, Henry Hope, ed., The Library of Congress: Its Architecture and Decoration. Text by Herbert Small. The Classical America Series in Art and Architecture. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1982.
Reynolds, Charles B. The Library of Congress and the Interior Decorations: A Practical Guide for Visitors. Washington, D.C.: Foster & Reynolds, 1897.
Rice, Pierce. "The Library of Congress Today" in Classical America IV, William Coles, ed. N.Y.: W. W. Norton & Company, 1977, pp. 160-165.
Schuyler, Montgomery. "The New Library of Congress," Scribner's Monthly 21 (June 1897): 709-27.
Small, Herbert, comp. Handbook of the New Library of Congress. Includes essays on "The Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting" by Charles Caffin, and "The Function of a National Library" by Ainsworth R. Spofford. Boston: Curtis & Cameron, 1897.
Smithmeyer, John L. History of the Construction of the Library of Congress. Washington, D.C. Beresford, 1906.
Spofford, Ainsworth Rand. "The Nation's Library: I. The New Building; II. Special Features of the Congressional Library." The Century Magazine 53 (March 1887): 682-694.
Sturgis, Russell. "The New Library of Congress: A Study in Decorative Sculpture," The Architectural Record 7 (January-March 1898): 295-332.
Wayne, John J. "The Jefferson Building's Ethnological Heads," in Library of Congress Information Bulletin 50 (Dec. 2, 1991): 458-464; 50 (Dec. 16, 1991): 482-87; 51 (Jan. 13, 1992): 14-19.
