[1] Those allowed to take books from the building are: the
President; Vice-President; Senators, Representatives, and Delegates
in Congress; Cabinet Officials; the Justices, Reporter, and Clerk
of the Supreme Court; the Judges and Clerks of the Courts of
the United States in the District of Columbia; representatives
in Washington of foreign governments; the Solicitor General and
Assistant Attorneys-General; the Secretary of the Senate; the Clerk
of the House of Representatives; the Solicitor of the Treasury; the
Disbursing Agent of the Committee on the Library; former Presidents
of the United States; the Chaplains of the two Houses of Congress;
the Secretary and Regents of the Smithsonian Institution; the Members
and Secretary of the Interstate Commerce Commission; and the Chief
of Engineers of the Army. No one, however, not even these officials,
may take away any manuscript or map, or any book of special value and
rarity. Books are delivered to the order of any of the persons having
the special privileges of the Library, but only for their own use.
They have no authority to give an order in favor of another person.
Previous to the erection of the new building, one of the rules of
the Library had permitted the Librarian, at his discretion, to issue
books to the public generally, for home use, on the deposit of a sum
of money sufficient to cover the value of the volume applied for, but
this provision was found to be an embarrassment and has since been
abolished.
[2] The list of the previous Librarians of Congress, with the dates
when they were appointed, is as follows: John Beckley, 1802; Patrick
Magruder, 1807; George Watterston, 1815; John S. Meehan, 1829; John
G. Stephenson, 1861.
[3] Such as _Races and Peoples_, by Dr. Daniel G. Brinton.
[4] The three groups are reproduced as headpieces to the three
portions of this Handbook: the first, representing _Literature_, to
introduce the present general description; that representing _Art_,
over Mr. Caffin’s essay; and the third, representing _Science_, over
Mr. Spofford’s.
[5] Mr. W. C. Brownell, in _Scribner’s Monthly_.
[6] The panel of _The Family_ is shown in the view of the North
Corridor, given on the opposite page. The border referred to a few
lines below is reproduced in the Handbook on Page 21, as a heading to
the present description of the Main Entrance Hall.
[7] The following is the list, beginning, in each corridor, at the
left-hand end of the outer wall. The dates appended to the names
are from Mr. Roberts’s book: West Corridor--Wolfgang Koepfel 1523;
Fust and Schoeffer, 1457; Craft Mueller, 1536-62; Conrad Baumgarten,
1503-5; Jacobus Pfortzheim, 1488-1518; Cratander, 1519; Valentin
Kobian, 1532-42; Martin Schott, 1498; Melchior Lotter, 1491-1536;
Theodosius and Josias Rihel, 1535-1639. South Corridor--Rutger
Velpius (Flemish), 1553-1614; F. Estienne, 1525; Simon de Colines,
1520; François Regnault, early part of the sixteenth century; Simon
Vostre, 1488-1528; Sebastien Nivelle, latter part of the sixteenth
century; M. Morin, 1484-1518; Sebastien Gryphe, second quarter of the
sixteenth century; André Wéchel, 1535; Geoffroy Tory, 1524; Guillaume
Chandière, 1564; Pierre Le Rouge, 1488; Mathurin Breuille, 1562-83;
Etienne Dolet, 1540; Jehan Treschel, 1493; Jehan Petit, 1525. East
Corridor--Paul and Anthony Meietos (Italian), 1570; Gian Giacomo de
Leguano (Italian), 1503-33; Juan Rosenbach (Spanish), 1493-1526;
Andrea Torresano (Italian), 1481-1540; Valentin Fernandez (Spanish),
1501; Christopher Plantin (Flemish), 1557; Daniel Elzevir (Dutch, the
mark of the Sage), 1617-1625; the Brothers Sabio (Italian), early
part of the sixteenth century; Melchior Sessa (Italian), sixteenth
century; Ottaviano Scotto (Italian), 1480-1520; Giammaria Rizzardi
(Italian), latter part of the eighteenth century; Filippo de Ginuta
(Italian), 1515; Lucantonio de Giunta (Italian), 1500; Aldus Manutius
(Italian), 1502. North Corridor--D. Appleton & Co.; the DeVinne
Press; Charles Scribner’s Sons; Harper & Brothers; Houghton, Mifflin
& Co. (the Riverside Press); the Century Co.; J. B. Lippincott Co.;
Dodd, Mead & Co.; William Caxton, 1489; Richard Grafton, 1537-72;
Thomas Vautrollier (Edinburgh and London), 1556-1605; John Day,
1546-84; William Jaggard, 1595-1624; A. Arbuthnot (Edinburgh),
1580; Andrew Hester, 1550; Richard Pynson, 1493-1527. Of the marks
in this last corridor, those on the north are of American houses,
all contemporary, and on the south, of early English and Scottish
printers and publishers.
[8] The original cartoon for this mosaic is reproduced as the
frontispiece of this Handbook.
[9] From a tract entitled _Considerations on the East India Trade_,
1701.
[10] The accompanying illustration of Mr. Flanagan’s clock is taken
from a preliminary sketch in clay.
[11] In the South Gallery, or Print Room, the names are those of the
Signers of the Declaration of Independence. In the Southeast Gallery,
those of Inventors: Gutenberg, Daguerre, Schwartz, Montgolfier,
Watt, Cooper, Stevens, Newcomen, Trevithick, Hargreaves, Corliss,
Arkwright, Jacquard, Fitch, Fuller, Wood, Wheatstone, Whitney,
Morse, Vail, Goodyear, Ericsson, Hoe, McCormick, Howe, Bessemer,
Westinghouse, Edison, and Bell.
Architects and Engineers are commemorated in the Northeast Gallery;
Ictinus, Vitruvius, Anthemius, Palladio, Vignola, Sansovino,
Bramante, Brunelleschi, Michael Angelo, Lescot, Duc, Delorme-Labrust,
Mansard, Bulfinch, Wren, Jones, Walter, Richardson, Hunt, Archimedes,
Stephenson, Smeaton, Vauban, Lavally, Jarvis, Eads, Schwedler,
Roebling, and Barnard.
In the Map Room (North Gallery) the list is miscellaneous, including
Theologians, Physicians, Jurists, Scientists, Musicians, Sculptors,
and Painters: Lycurgus, Coke, Justinian, Blackstone, Montesquieu,
Marshall, Story, Hippocrates, Avicenna, Harvey, Paracelsus, Jenner,
Hahnemann, St. Augustine, Bowditch, Chrysostom, St. Bernard, Bossuet,
Pascal, Edwards, Channing, Euclid, Pythagoras, Pliny, Copernicus,
Darwin, Humboldt, Agassiz, Faraday, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Haydn,
Bach, Liszt, Wagner, Phidias, Apelles, Da Vinci, Giotto, Perugino,
Raphael, Titian, Guido Reni, Correggio, Dürer, Pallissy, Thorwaldsen,
Rembrandt, Rubens, Van Dyck, Murillo, Holbein.
[12] For a description of this map, see Justin Winsor’s _Narrative
and Critical History of America_, Boston, 1886, Vol. 2, p. 124; or
_Harper’s Monthly_ for December, 1882.
[13] The order in which the various paintings in the Library are
treated in the present essay is substantially the same as in the
preceding portion of the Handbook.