World History and Cultures

The Cultures and History of the Americas: The Jay I. Kislak Collection at the Library of Congress
Celebrates the donation of the Jay I. Kislak Collection by featuring fifty highlights from the more than 3,000 rare books, maps, documents, paintings, prints, and artifacts.

A Heavenly Craft: The Woodcut in Early Printed Books
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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Creating French Culture: Treasures from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France
September 8-December 31, 1995
Explores how the relationship between culture and power in France shaped the growth of the the country’s national library.

The Cultures and History of the Americas: The Jay I. Kislak Collection at the Library of Congress
April 20-October 1, 2005
Celebrates the donation of the Jay I. Kislak Collection by featuring fifty highlights from the more than 3,000 rare books, maps, documents, paintings, prints, and artifacts.

Danny Kaye and Sylvia Fine: Two Kids from Brooklyn
February 14–July 27, 2013
Explores the many talents of the powerful entertainment duo Danny Kaye (1911–1987) and Sylvia Fine (1913–1991), both raised in Brooklyn, New York.

Dresden: Treasures from the Saxon State Library
April 11-July 13, 1996
Displays treasures from Dresden in order to provide an insight into the cultural riches of Central Europe—from the Middle Ages through the nineteenth century.

The Empire That Was Russia: The Prokudin-Gorskii Photographic Record Recreated
April 17-August 31, 2001
Features the work of a pioneering Russian photographer who photographically surveyed the Russian Empire. The exhibit uses digital technology to reproduce Prokudin-Gorskii’s images, which were originally created in color on glass plates.

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.

The Floating World of Ukiyo-e: Shadows, Dreams, and Substance
September 27, 2001-January 19, 2002
Showcases the Library’s spectacular holding of Japanese "Ukiyo-e" prints, books, and drawings dating from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries.

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 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.

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.

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.

In the Beginning Was the Word: The Russian Church and Native Alaskan Cultures
October 7, 1994-March 4, 1995
Presents objects from a relatively unknown archive of significant documents. The exhibit explores the moving human exchanges that took place between the Russian Orthodox Church in Alaska and Native Alaskans between 1794 and about 1915.

John Bull & Uncle Sam: Four Centuries of British-American Relations
November 18, 1999-March 4, 2000
Brings together for the first time treasures from the two greatest libraries in the English-speaking world—The British Library and the Library of Congress—in order to illuminate the relationship between the two countries.

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.

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.

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.

Monstrous Craws & Character Flaws: Masterpieces of Cartoon and Caricature at the Library of Congress
February 25-July 6, 1998
Reveals how for centuries great graphic artists have created enduring images that demonstrate the power of art as a vehicle for social and political commentary.

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.

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.

Rome Reborn: The Vatican Library and Renaissance Culture
January 8-April 30, 1993
Documents how the Vatican Library became a center for the revival of classical culture known as the Renaissance.

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.

Scrolls from the Dead Sea: The Ancient Library of Qumran and Modern Scholarship
April 29-August 1, 1993
Presented twelve scrolls and archeological materials from Israel. It told the fascinating story of the scrolls’ discovery and explored their archeological and historical context.

Serge Diaghilev and His World: A Centennial Celebration of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, 1909–1929
June 4, 2009–October 10, 2009
Features material concerning Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, one of the most influential dance companies of the twentieth century, including objects from the Library's Bronislava Nijinska collection.

Share the Perspective of Genius: Leonardo's Study for the Adoration of the Magi
December 7-8, 2006
Presents a single drawing, in which Leonardo da Vinci meticulously created a refined perspective grid in order to place architectural structures, human figures, and animals in a realistically proportioned way.

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.

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.

To Know Wisdom and Instruction": The Armenian Literary Tradition at the Library of Congress
April 19 – September 26, 2012
Commemorates the 500th anniversary of the first Armenian printing press and book at Venice in 1512 and the designation of Yerevan, Armenia, as UNESCO's Book Capital of the World 2012.

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.

Witness and Response: September 11 Acquisitions at the Library of Congress
September 7-October 26, 2002
Features the collections that the Library amassed during the year following the attacks of September 11, 2001. The exhibit is the story of how the materials arrived and how they reflect what America experienced in the aftermath of the attacks.

Women Come to the Front: Journalists, Photographers, and Broadcasters During WWII
September 28-November 18, 1995
Features women journalists who were chosen because of the strength and variety of their collections in the Library. Like their male counterparts, the women followed various paths to their wartime assignments.

Words Like Sapphires: 100 Years of Hebraica at the Library of Congress, 1912–2012
October 25, 2012—April 13, 2013
The Library’s Hebraic Section is one of the world’s foremost centers for the study of Hebrew and Yiddish materials. Its beginnings can be traced to Jacob H. Schiff’s gift in 1912 of 10,000 items.

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.