[Reading Room, Prints Division, Library of Congress]

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Few reading rooms in Washington were as specialized as the one serving the Prints Division at the Library of Congress. The Library had moved into its Jefferson Building in 1897, and its collections of engravings, drawings and photographs were kept for readers who came to study them in person. The record dates this view to about 1900 to 1909, and Library staff devised the title, so the room is identified by its purpose rather than by a caption from the time. Views like this show how researchers worked with original prints long before digital files made them available from a desk at home.

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