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1492: An Ongoing Voyage
August 13, 1992-February 14, 1993
Examines the first sustained contacts between Native American peoples and European explorers, conquerors, and settlers between 1492 and 1600.
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The African-American Mosaic: African-American Culture and History
February 9-August 29, 1994
Marks the publication of The African-American Mosaic: A Library of Congress Resource Guide for the Study of Black History and Culture. The exhibit explores four topics from the book: Colonization, Abolition, Migrations, and the Works Progress Administration.
Al Hirschfeld - Beyond Broadway
November 9, 2000-March 31, 2001
Celebrates a "Gift to the Nation" of original drawings given by the artist in honor of the Library’s Bicentennial. The exhibition features twenty-five drawings that span Hirschfeld’s remarkable career.
The American Colony in Jerusalem
January 12-April 2, 2005
Offers a glimpse into the remarkable history and work of the American Colony, a Christian utopian society that formed in Jerusalem in 1881.
American Treasures of the Library of Congress
May 5, 1997-August 18, 2007
Provides unique insight into various aspects of American history and culture. Objects displayed are organized according to the three categories that Thomas Jefferson used for his library: memory, reason, and imagination.
Ancient Manuscripts: From the Desert Libraries of Timbuktu
June 24-September 3, 2003
Presents ancient manuscripts, dating from the 16th to the 18th centuries, which cover every aspect of human endeavor and are indicative of the high level of civilization attained by West Africans during the Middle Ages.
Arthur Szyk: Artist for Freedom
December 9, 1999-May 6, 2000
Presents the work of one America’s leading political artists, in particular his work during World War II, when he produced hundreds of anti-Axis illustrations and cartoons in aid of the Allied war effort.
As the Old Sing, So the Young Twitter
May 6–October 30, 2010
Explores the different realms of flute-playing, from the lively to the serene, and takes an etymological and iconographic journey through the depth and breadth of the Library of Congress collections relating to the flute.
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Benjamin Franklin: In His Own Words
Dec. 12, 2005-June 17, 2006
Indicates the depth and breadth of Benjamin Franklin’s public, professional, and scientific accomplishments through important documents, letters, books, broadsides, and cartoons.
Bob Hope and American Variety
May 10, 2000-January 9, 2010
Explores variety entertainment through the lens of Bob Hope’s long and rich career, in which he continued to practice the variety traditions he learned on the vaudeville stage.
Books That Shaped America
June 25–September 29, 2012
Marks a starting point—a way to spark a national conversation on books and their important in Americans' lives, and, indeed, in shaping our nation. This exhibition will preface the National Book Festival scheduled in September 2012.
Bound for Glory: America in Color
September 8–January 21, 2006
Presents color images taken by photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information. The photographs document not only the subjects in the pictures but also the dawn of the era of color photography.
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Canadian Conterpoint: Illustrations by Anita Kunz
September 4, 2003-January 3, 2004
Features sixteen paintings selected from a gift by the artist. The paintings reflect the rich variety to be found in the hundreds of paintings that Kunz has created during her twenty-two-year career.
Caroline and Erwin Swann Memorial Exhibition
Ongoing exhibition, opened March 18, 2011
Introduces visitors to the fascinating world of caricatures, political cartoons, comics, animation art, graphic novels and illustrations. A permanent memorial exhibition features fifteen facsimiles of treasured cartoons from the Swann and other cartoon collections, which represent the broad range of holdings in the Library of Congress.
Cartoon America
November 2, 2006-January 27, 2007
Presents selections from the Art Wood Collection of Cartoon and Caricature, which contains more than 36,000 original cartoon drawings.
Churchill and the Great Republic
February 5-July 10, 2004
Presents the life of Winston Churchill, his career, and his connection with the United States, a country he called "The Great Republic." A unique interactive presentation is a featured part of the exhibit.
The Civil War in America
November 12, 2012 – January 4, 2014
The Library's unmatched Civil War collections featured in this exhibition chronicle the sacrifices and accomplishments of those in both the North and South whose lives were lost or affected by the events of 1861–1865.
Coast to Coast: The Federal Theatre Project, 1935-1939
February 17–July 16, 2011
Explores a unique time in American history when the federal government organized and produced theater events in an effort to provide work for theater professionals during the Great Depression.
Creating the United States
April 12, 2008–May 5, 2012
Offers insights into how the nation’s founding documents were forged and the role that imagination and vision played in the unprecedented creative act of forming a self–governing country.
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The Dream of Flight
October 4, 2003-April 24, 2004
Honors the Wright Brothers’ achievement, using the Library’s rare and significant materials to explore the notion that flight, whether fanciful or actual, has inspired and occupied a central place in most cultures.
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Earth As Art 3: A Landsat Perspective
May 31, 2011–May 31, 2012
Showcases Landsat 7 images created by the United States Geological Survey. Since 1972, Landsat satellites have collected from space information about Earth’s continents and coastal areas.
Earth as Art: A Landsat Perspective
July 23, 2002-July 3, 2005
Showcases images from the collection of Landsat photographs held in the Geography and Map Division that have been selected for aesthetic rather than scientific value.
Enduring Outrage: Editorial Cartoons by HERBLOCK
July 17, 2006–January 20, 2007
Features original work by the Pulitzer Prize–winning political cartoonist to explore themes important to Herblock that continue to resonate in American society.
Exploring the Early Americas
Ongoing exhibition, opened December 12, 2007.
Features selections from the Jay I. Kislak Collection to examine indigenous cultures, the drama of the encounters between Native Americans and Europeans, and the changes caused by the meeting of the two worlds.
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For European Recovery: The Fiftieth Anniversary of the Marshall Plan
June 2-August 30, 1997
Marks the fiftieth anniversary of Secretary of State George Marshall’s speech proposing a solution to the hunger, unemployment, and housing shortages that faced Europeans in the aftermath of World War II and examines the ways his plan benefited Europe and the U.S.
From Haven to Home: 350 Years of Jewish Life in America
September 9-December 30, 2004
Features more than two hundred treasures of American Judaica from the collections of the Library of Congress, augmented by a selection of important loans from other cooperating cultural institutions.
From the Home Front and the Front Lines
May 24, 2004-November 13, 2004
Consists of original materials and oral histories drawn from the Veterans History Project collections at the Library of Congress.
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Gettysburg Address
January 12–19, 1995
Shows the Library’s two copies of the famous address. President Lincoln gave a copy to each of his two private secretaries, John Nicolay and John Hay. The Nicolay copy is believed to be the earliest copy that exists.
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A Heavenly Craft: The Woodcut in Early Printed Books
February 4-July 9, 2005
Presents woodcut-illustrated books from the Library’s Rosenwald Collection. These books were printed within the first century after Gutenberg mastered printing with moveable type in Europe.
Herblock Gallery
Ongoing exhibition, opened March 18, 2011
Celebrates the work of editorial cartoonist Herbert L. Block—better known as "Herblock"—with an ongoing display of ten original drawings, to change every six months, drawn from the Library's extensive Herbert L. Block Collection.
Herblock!
October 13, 2009–May 1, 2010
Celebrates the gift of the Herb Block Foundation and features a selection of original cartoons spanning the artist’s remarkable career.
Here to Stay: The Legacy of George and Ira Gershwin
Ongoing exhibition, opened December 11, 2008
Experience the glamour and sophistication of the 1920s and 1930s in this permanent tribute to the brothers who helped provide a musical background to the period.
Humor’s Edge: Cartoons by Ann Telnaes
June 3-September 11, 2004
Celebrates Ann Telnaes’s generous gift of eighty-one original drawings that represent the range of themes that engage this gifted artist who has recently emerged as a leader in American editorial cartooning.
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I Love Lucy: An American Legend
August 4, 2011–January 28, 2012
In celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of the show's debut, the Library of Congress presents I Love Lucy: An American Legend. This exhibition explores the show's history through the Ball and Arnaz family scrapbooks as well as photographs, scripts, printed and manuscript music, and other documents from the Library of Congress.
Illuminating the Word: The St. John’s Bible
October 6-December 30, 2006
Presents a single work of art, an illuminated, handwritten Bible commissioned by Saint John’s University and Abbey in Minnesota. The exhibit also includes several priceless volumes from the Library’s Bible collection.
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Language of the Land: Journeys Into Literary America
August 5, 1993-January 18, 1994
Offers a tour of four sections of the United States through literary maps that focus on geographical areas, individual authors, and particular works. Features passages from authors whose works are rooted in a particular place as well as images of the places.
Library of Congress Bible Collection
Ongoing exhibition, opened April 11, 2008
Explores the significance of the Giant Bible of Mainz and the Gutenberg Bible, as well as sixteen selected Bibles from the Library’s collections.
Los Angeles Mapped
January 28, 2006-January 2007
Shows historical maps of Los Angeles from the Library’s Geography and Map Division. These diverse works provide a guide to some remarkable stories of the city’s history.
Louis Braille: His Legacy and Influence
November 5, 2009–January 30, 2010
Gives insight into the legacy of Louis Braille and his version of a tactile system of reading and writing—later refined to enable blind and visually handicapped people throughout the world to read and write.
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Madison’s Treasures
One day only, March 16, 2001
Examines documents related to two seminal events in which Madison played a major role: the drafting and ratification of the U.S. Constitution and the introduction of the amendments that became the Bill of Rights.
Maps in Our Lives
September 14, 2005-August 19, 2009
Explores surveying, cartography, geodesy, and geographic information systems. It draws on the Library’s American Congress on Surveying and Mapping Collection as well as on historic maps.
Margaret Mead: Human Nature and the Power of Culture
November 30, 2001-May 31, 2002
Documents Mead’s life, her career as an anthropologist, and the critical reception of her work by drawing upon the 500,000-item Mead Collection, one of the Library’s largest collections for a single individual.
Molto Animato! Music and Animation
November 12, 2009–March 27, 2010
Explores the unparalleled collections in the Music; Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound; and Prints and Photographs divisions of the Library of Congress. Molto Animato (“very animated”), juxtaposes music scores, lyrics, and drawings with film clips and sound recordings to provide a glimpse into the intricate wedding of art forms that bring drawings to life. This exhibition provides a small sample of the Library’s treasures that demonstrate the magic of animation and the music that makes it come alive.
The Musical Worlds of Victor Herbert
August 16, 2012–January 26, 2013
Explores the work of Victor Herbert (1859–1924), Irish-American composer, conductor, and activist, whose best-known work is Babes in Toyland (1903).
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On the Cutting Edge: Contemporary Japanese Prints
March 29-June 30, 2007
Marks an exceptional cross-cultural exchange and celebrates the generous donation of prints exhibited in the show to the collections of the Library by the College Women’s Association of Japan.
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Petal From the Rose: Illustrations by Elizabeth Shippen Green
June 28-September 29, 2001
Focuses on Green’s art and distinctive features of her illustrations and working methods. Although her work shares similarities with that of other women in the profession, it stands apart in its scope, quality, and originality.
Politics and the Dancing Body
February 16–July 28, 2012
Explores how American choreographers between World War I through the Cold War realized this vision, using dance to celebrate American culture, to voice social protest, and to raise social consciousness.
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The Red Book of Carl G. Jung: Its Origins and Influence
June 17–September 25, 2010
Features the preeminent psychoanalyst Carl G. Jung’s famous Red Book, which records the creation of the seminal theories that Jung developed after his 1913 split with Sigmund Freud, and explores its place in Jung’s work through related items from the Library’s collections.
Reflections: Russian Photographs, 1992-2002
September 14-December 27, 2003
Presents photographs from a larger group of pictures that were generously donated to the Library by the Moscow Times, the first English-language daily newspaper ever to be printed in Russia.
Revelations from the Russian Archives
June 15-July 16, 1992
Presented documents, photographs, and films from the highly secret internal record of Soviet Communist rule for the first time in a public venue.
Roger L. Stevens Presents
May 16-September 7, 2002
Examines Stevens’s career through the great number of stage productions that he presented or fostered indirectly, his involvment with the National Endowent for the Arts, and his role as in creating the John F. Kennedy Center
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Sakura: Cherry Blossoms as Living Symbols of Friendship
March 20–September 15, 2012
Offers an opportunity to deepen understanding of Japanese culture while celebrating the Washington cherry blossoms as symbols of the enduring friendship between the people of Japan and the United States. Coincides with the city-wide centennial celebration of the 1912 gift.
Sigmund Freud: Conflict & Culture
October 15, 1998-January 16, 1999
Examines Freud’s life, his key ideas, and their impact on the twentieth century. The exhibit includes photographs, prints, manuscripts, first editions, home movies, and materials from newspapers, magazines and comic books.
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Thomas Jefferson
April 24-October 31, 2000
Draws on the Library’s Thomas Jefferson materials to examine the influence Jefferson’s thoughts and interests had on his own life, the American republic, and the world.
Thomas Jefferson’s Library
Ongoing exhibition, opened April 11, 2008
Draws on the Library’s Thomas Jefferson materials to examine the influence Jefferson’s thoughts and interests had on his own life, the American republic, and the world.
Timely and Timeless
September 15, 2011–March 10, 2012
Celebrates the development and growth of the comic art collections at the Library of Congress.
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Voices from Afghanistan
February 24–May 8, 2010
Highlights letters sent by citizens of Afghanistan to Radio Azadi, the Afghan branch of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. These letters capture the concerns and hopes of ordinary citizens in Afghanistan living under the extraordinarily difficult conditions of conflict and war.
Voices of Civil Rights
February 24-March 26, 2005
Documents events during the Civil Rights Movement in the United States through personal stories, oral histories, and photographs collected by the "Voices of Civil Rights" project, as well as marking the arrival of these materials to the Library.
Voices, Votes, Victory: Presidential Campaign Songs
October 9, 2008–March 7, 2009
Presents a sampling of the rich collection of campaign songs housed in the Music Division of the Library of Congress. From pocket-sized songsters to sheet music, the wide variety of subjects reflect virtually every party platform and national issue on which presidential elections have focused.
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The Water-babies: Illustrations by Jessie Willcox Smith
June 10-September 18, 1999
Presents the artist’s drawings created for book The Water-Babies in 1916. She bequeathed all twelve drawings to the Cabinet of American Illustration, which is preserved within the Library’s Prints and Photographs Division.
West Side Story
September 26, 2007-March 29, 2008
Draws on the Library’s rich music materials, especially those from the Leonard Bernstein Collection. When the show opened on Broadway in 1957, it changed the nature of the American musical and challenged the country’s view of itself.
With an Even Hand: Brown v. Board at Fifty
May 13-November 13, 2004
Commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the landmark judicial case, which declared that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." This decision was pivotal to the struggle for racial desegregation in the United States.
With Malice Toward None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition
February 12–May 10, 2009
Commemorates the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of the nation’s revered sixteenth president. The exhibition reveals Lincoln the man, whose thoughts, words, and actions were deeply affected by personal experiences and pivotal historic events.
The Wizard of Oz: An American Fairy Tale
April 21-September 23, 2000
Looks at the creation of this timeless American classic and traced its rapid and enduring success to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the book’s publication.
The Work of Charles and Ray Earmes: A Legacy of Invention
May 20-September 4, 1999
Explores how this famous couple shaped America’s culture in the twentieth century. Charles and Ray Eames’s work represented defining moments in American history, such as the economy’s shift from making goods to producing information.
World Treasures of the Library of Congress: Beginnings
June 7, 2001-March 15, 2003
Looks at how various cultures explained the beginning of the world, depicted the first human beings, and defined the heavens and the earth by drawing upon unique items from the Library’s international collections in more than 450 languages.
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