WASHINGTON. The United States Library of Congress houses more than just books, as highlighted by a new exhibition that opens this week and sample some of the most diverse and symbolic ‘treasures’ of the history of the country
From the contents of Abraham Lincoln’s pockets on the night of his assassination to the first prints of Spiderman, a hundred rare objects that span the history of the United States and beyond are on display starting Thursday in the prestigious building in the heart of Washington in the exhibition titled Collecting Memories (collecting memories).
Also on display are one of the first maps of the newly independent United States, printed in 1784 by Abel Buell, a Connecticut engraver, and photographs of the first atomic explosion in the New Mexico desert, witnessed by the father of the bomb, Robert Oppenheimer.
Revealed some for the first time to the general public: “these objects reflect our collective history,” said Carla Hayden, president of the institution.
Founded in 1800, the Library currently has more than 178 million items: books, audio documents, photographs, but also objects of all kinds, including many musical instruments.
“The institution houses the largest collection of flutes in the world,” said Carol Lynn Ward Bamford, in charge of its conservation. However, only one is on display in this exhibition, a glass flute that belonged to former US President James Madison, who lived between 1751 and 1836.
This musical instrument is especially symbolic because it was rescued from the White House, burned by British troops in 1814. Entrusted to the Library by the president’s family, it was exceptionally taken out in 2022 to be played by the American singer Lizzo.
Lincoln’s glasses
Also on display are the belongings of another president, Abraham Lincoln – his glasses, his handkerchief and his wallet – which were recovered after his assassination in a theater in April 1865.
Stephanie Stillo, of the library’s rare books division, called the objects “definitely some of the most iconic in the exhibit.” “There’s a kind of mythology around Abraham Lincoln, and I think all of this makes him very human,” she added, pointing to the pair of gold glasses, patched with a small piece of string.
The 16th president of the United States, who emerged victorious from the Civil War, also carried several newspaper clippings with him. “They were newspaper articles praising him, so he always carried them with him,” Stillo explained.
These cuts, which are not exposed to the public for conservation reasons, could be shown within a few months, he added. But this hodgepodge of objects also and above all embodies the lives of people like you and me throughout the centuries, he noted.
From images filmed at a wedding in 1944 to contemporary accounts of the covid-19 pandemic, a family tree hand-painted over 25 years that tells part of African-American history and the experience of a Japanese professor who survived the bombing of Hiroshima, the Library analyzes how individual and collective memory is preserved.
FUENTE: AFP
