Snapshots of the Past

Congressional Library, U.S. Capitol – Historic Reproduction

Congressional Library, U.S. Capitol, [ca. 1880] — historic photograph
Congressional Library, U.S. Capitol, [ca. 1880]. Historic photograph from the U.S. Capitol 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

This rare historic photograph captures Congressional Library, U.S. Capitol in remarkable detail. The original is held by the Library of Congress, so what you hang is a true record of its time.

Choose the framed print, ready to hang the day it arrives, or the unframed print for a frame of your own. A fine choice for anyone who loves history, and a gift that gets noticed. Free shipping in the lower 48 states. Snapshots of the Past has been bringing history to the wall since 2001, for tens of thousands of customers worldwide.

Congressional Library, U.S. Capitol

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Before 1897, the nation's growing library occupied rooms inside the Capitol itself, and this stereograph records that setting around 1880. Photographer W.M. Chase of Baltimore issued it in his *Metropolitan and Suburban Scenery* series, numbered 1031, and the caption names the room as the old Library of Congress. The collection's foundation was Thomas Jefferson's personal library, which Congress bought in 1815 after British troops burned the Capitol's earlier holdings in 1814. Stereographs like this were meant to be viewed through a lens, which gave the scene depth and made distant places familiar to households across the country.

Created / published[ca. 1880]
Medium1 photographic print.
SubjectsStereo by W.M. Chase, Baltimore, MD. This record contains unverified, old data from caption card. From the series: Metropolitan and Suburban Scenery, Washington, D.C., no. 1031. Title from caption on back of stereograph. Caption card tracings: Photog. I; DC. Wash.--Capitol; DC. Wash.--Library of Congress--Old Library of Congress; Shelf.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan1,425 × 1,536 px · prints to 5 × 5 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-135320

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