With Collectible Objects

Thomas Jefferson’s Library
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.

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

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: 50 Years Cultural Ambassador to the World
May 8–September 6, 2008
Draws from the Music Division’s rich collections to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of this acknowledged treasure of American modern dance.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Down to Earth: Herblock and Photographers Observe the Environment
September 22, 2012–March 23, 2013
Offers new perspectives with which to view our planet through Herblock's editorial cartoons paired with the work of photographers recording the environment.

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.

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.

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.

The Gibson Girl’s America: Drawings by Charles Dana Gibson
March 30, 2013–August 17, 2013
Celebrates the work of Charles Dana Gibson and traces the art of the artist's career, highlighting the rise of the Gibson Girl from the 1890s through the first two decades of the twentieth century.

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.

Hope for America: Performers, Politics and Pop Culture
Ongoing exhibition, opened June 11, 2010
Explore the interplay of politics and entertainment, focusing on the careers of Bob Hope and other entertainers who were involved in the political climate of their times.

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.

The Last Full Measure: Civil War Photographs from the Liljenquist Family Collection
April 12, 2011–August 13, 2011
Features 379 Civil War-era ambrotypes and tintypes of enlisted Union and Confederate soldiers.

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.

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.

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).

NAACP: A Century in the Fight for Freedom

Presents a retrospective of the major personalities, events, and achievements that shaped the NAACP’s history during its first 100 years.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.