13602 - A Poem in Marble Columns and Frescoed Walls, Congressional Library, Washington, D.C., U.S.A., 1903

Scope and content:

Keystone View Company, Manufacturers & Publishers, Copyright 1903 by B.L. Singsley. Meadville, Pa., St. Louis, Mo., San Francisco, Cal., Toronto, Can., New York, N.Y., London, England.

Verso reads: "It is a white gleam, gold and glory!" So one visitor exclaimed at the first sight of the interior of this matchless liberty. Dr. A.R. Spofford, the veteran Librarian of Congress, to whom the nation is greatly indebted for the persistent agitation and entreaty which brought about the erection of this greatest of libraries, wrote of the scene before us: "The superb apartment is constructed throughout of the finest Italian marble, highly polished. From its four sides rise lofty rounded columns with Corinthian capitals richly carved, and its heavy but very graceful arches are adorned with marble rosettes, palm-leaves, and foliated designs of exquisite finish and delicacy. The lofty height of this fine entrance-hall, rising 72 feet to the skylight of stained glass, with its ornate vaulted ceiling and grand double staircase, and its white marble balustrades leading up on each side to the galleries above, produces and architectural effect both harmonious and imposing. It had been called a vision in polished stone, and a dream of beauty but only readers who have seen it can be expected to appreciate such terms of praise."

Access and use