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Library of Congress - view of foundation, looking toward the Capitol – Historic Photograph Print

Library of Congress - view of foundation, looking toward the Capitol, 1889 — historic photograph
Library of Congress - view of foundation, looking toward the Capitol, 1889. Historic photograph from the Library of Congress collection.

(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

Library of Congress - view of foundation, looking toward the Capitol comes to life in this historic photograph, reproduced from the original with every detail intact. The original is held by the Library of Congress, so what you hang is a true record of its time.

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Library of Congress - view of foundation, looking toward the Capitol

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Few views show the Library of Congress before its walls rose, and this 1889 photograph looks back from the foundation work toward the Capitol. Congress had authorized the library's own building in 1886 because its collections had long been crowded into rooms inside the Capitol. The foundation work shown here was the first stage of a project that would not be finished until 1897, and the picture records the site before the stone structure that now stands at Ten First Street Southeast took shape.

Created / published1889
Medium1 photographic print.
Subjectscf. Ten First Street, Southeast. Congress Builds a Library, 1886-1897, cat. no. 57. Washingtoniana Collection (Library of Congress). This record contains unverified, old data from caption card. Caption card tracings: Wash. D.C.--U.S. Cap.--Ext.; Shelf.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan1,536 × 1,266 px · prints to 5 × 4 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-146809

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