THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS: A WONDERFUL D.C. TOUR
WASHINGTON, D.C., March 20, 2019 — There are so many benefits to being an AARP Experience Corps volunteer. There are, of course, the training sessions, accompanied by some rather fancy breakfasts and lunches, and the hours spent tutoring elementary school children, and the rapport you will develop with them. But aside from the obvious benefits of interacting with children on a regular basis, there are the activities that the Experience Corps staff arrange for those mid-term holiday breaks.
The week of February 18th-22nd, 2019, was crammed with activities that included a lunch and learn session about the pitfalls of online and telephone scams, a book club, and – my favourite – a trip to the Library of Congress. This beautiful building has to be one of the most exciting venues in Washington D.C. I have done the tour of the Library a few times, and it is definitely my most favourite of all the historic buildings in the capital.
In 2016, my daughter Claire arrived in DC from the UK. We had a week to explore the capital together, and as I was a new arrival to the capital I was anxious to show her around. Knowing that Claire loves museums and art galleries I asked her where she would like to start. Claire has always loved books, and in fact has a Masters degree in Library and Information Studies, so it was no surprise that she chose the Library of Congress first. It was also my first time going there, and it was wonderful to share this experience with her.
The AARP Experience Corps trip was no less special. Our group met up at the entrance at 9:30am on a freezing cold Tuesday. The weather was gearing up for a snow storm beginning that night, so we were very glad that it held off long enough for us to make this tour. It began with a docent (tour guide) showing us around the great hall and surrounding libraries and exhibits, where we learned that the Library was established by an Act of Congress on April 24th, 1800. Three men, who all became Presidents of the United States, were the prime movers and shakers behind the establishment of the Library; Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and James Madison. We also learned about the three fires that had beset the original library, destroying many valuable and irreplaceable documents and books, the first being in 1814, when the British set fire to it along with the Capitol, in revenge for US troops destroying the Parliamentary Library in Canada the year before.
Throughout the Great Hall and various libraries and study rooms, there are many elaborate paintings and statues that represent early poets, writers, and copyrights from the four corners of the Earth. We marvelled at the intricate designs of the columns, the beautifully polished marble quarried from Italy, France and Tennessee, and the 15 foot high glass mosaic of Minerva, goddess of wisdom, designed by Elihu Vedder in 1896 . Early maps of the globe from Germany dating back to 1516 included the famous Carta Marina by Martin Waldseemueller. Thomas Jefferson’s amazing circular library, and the incredible reading room under the main dome were all part of the tour. Our last stop was at the famous Gutenburg Bible, the first book in the Western world to be printed using moveable type, in the year 1454-55.
At the end of the tour we were scheduled for a very special treat. We were met by Michael North, head of the Rare Books department of the LOC, who took us up to the second floor, to a climate controlled room. There we sat around a table while Michael gave us a stunning presentation of some of the oldest and rarest books in the collection. These included the Book of Hours, which is a medieval book of prayers from Europe dating back to 1480; a vellum copy of the Nuremburg Chronicles from 1493; the Bible on which Presidents Lincoln and Obama swore their Presidential oaths of office; a page from the Gutenburg Bible, and the original copy of L.Frank Baum’s Wonderful Wizard of Oz that was submitted for copyrighting on August 1st, 1900.
This was a really wonderful tour, and thanks to the great team at Experience Corps for organising it for us, especially Abby Greene and Tracy Eichelberger. These ladies do a phenomenal job of putting together the training for the literacy tutors, as well as fun events like this trip to the Library of Congress. If ever you are in Washington, DC, this tour should be on your “must see” list.
