Overview

Artifacts like the 1507 Waldseemüller map (the first to include the name "America"), the rough draft of the Declaration of Independence, the Gutenberg Bible and original volumes from Thomas Jefferson's Library will be virtually at your fingertips.

Begin your Library of Congress Experience by sampling two of their exhibits:

Exploring the Early Americas

About the Exhibition

Exploring the Early Americas features selections from the more than 3,000 rare maps, documents, paintings, prints, and artifacts that make up the Jay I. Kislak Collection at the Library of Congress. It provides insight into indigenous cultures, the drama of the encounters between Native Americans and European explorers and settlers, and the pivotal changes caused by the meeting of the American and European worlds. The exhibition includes two extraordinary maps by Martin Waldseemüller created in 1507 and 1516, which depict a world enlarged by the presence of the Western Hemisphere.

Pre-Contact America

Carved Mirror-Back With Hieroglyphs
Guatemalan Lowlands. Early Classic Maya, AD 200–600.
Greenish slate with red cinnabar.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (34.1)
Photo © Justin Kerr, Kerr Associates

To learn about the indigenous peoples of the Americas, scholars draw on the rare texts that survived the European encounter, as well as objects used by indigenous peoples. The richest source of Pre-Columbian historical information comes from the ancient Maya, who developed the most sophisticated writing system in the Americas. The Maya and other native cultures often embellished their texts with illustrations, recording or carving them on objects of stone, ceramic, wood, and other surfaces. This section of the exhibition draws on select artifacts in the Kislak Collection and presents them as objects that, like books or documents, provide us with information about ceremonies, wars, court life, alliances, astronomy, calendars, and the reigns of kings. Reflecting the strengths of the Kislak Collection, this area deals principally with the pre-contact cultures of Mesoamerica, a territory that includes most of the modern countries of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, western Honduras, and El Salvador.

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Explorations and Encounters

Columbus's Voyage and the New World
Christopher Columbus (1451–1506).
De Insulis nuper in Mari Indico repertis in Carolus Verardus: Historia Baetica.
Basel: I.B. [Johann Bergman de Olpe], 1494.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (48.1)

Christopher Columbus's voyages began a centuries-long series of encounters between peoples of the Americas and Europe. The Kislak Collection includes a selection of dramatic objects and records that reflect this complicated and extraordinary epoch. This section presents materials from the voyages of exploration of Christopher Columbus (1451–1506), Hernán Cortés (1485–1547), and Francisco Pizarro (ca. 1475–1541) and material about the natives of the Americas they encountered. It also features the Conquest of Mexico paintings, created in the seventeenth century, which depict the cataclysmic encounter between Cortés and the conquistadors and Moctezuma and his people.

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Aftermath of the Encounter

1507 World Map
Martin Waldseemüller. Universalis cosmographia secunda Ptholemei traditionem et Americi Vespucci aliorum que lustrations. [Strasbourg?]: 1507.
Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress (142)

The encounters between the Americas and Europe altered the civilizations of both deeply and irrevocably. Among the many dramatic changes resulting from the encounters are the three covered in this section. "Language and Religion" documents the efforts of Spanish missionaries to convert natives and to record their languages. "Competition for Empire" reveals how other European powers, and eventually the newly created United States as well, vied for position and control in the Americas. Finally, in "Documenting New Knowledge," the exhibition examines two disciplines, natural history and geography, in which post-encounter Europe recorded the abundant New World information that often challenged their earlier conceptions and worldview.

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Creating the United States

About the Exhibition

Gain a deeper understanding of the collaborative and creative process our Founding Fathers pursued in creating this nation. The exhibition enhanced with innovative technology will reveal how historic drafts of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and Bill of Rights were forged out of insight, invention, creativity, collaboration and compromise. The exhibition will further provide you a context for understanding how these founding documents continue to play significant roles in our nation today.

The Articles of Confederation

Benjamin Franklin, Plan for a Confederation, July 21, 1775.
Printed document annotated by Thomas Jefferson.
Thomas Jefferson Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress

Shortly after the revolutionary war began at Concord and Lexington, Benjamin Franklin submitted this plan for a united colonial confederation or American republic to the Continental Congress on July 21, 1775. Thomas Jefferson, a fellow delegate, annotated his copy of Franklin's plan which began a national debate on the creation of an American Republic.

Declaration of Independence Rough Draft

Thomas Jefferson. Rough Draft of the Declaration of Independence, June–July 1776.
Manuscript.
Thomas Jefferson Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress

The Declaration of Independence, drafted by Thomas Jefferson and heavily amended by the Continental Congress, boldly asserted humanity's right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as well as the American colonies' right to revolt against an oppressive British government. Jefferson's "original Rough draught" illustrates Jefferson's literary flair and records key changes made by Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and the Continental Congress before its July 4, 1776, adoption.

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Plan for the Future Capital District

Thomas Jefferson. Map of the Capital District, 1791.
Manuscript map.
Thomas Jefferson Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress

This plan for the United States capital district, which became known as Washington or the District of Columbia, was drawn by Thomas Jefferson in 1791. As secretary of state, Jefferson was one of the leaders in planning the capital district. Jefferson's rough map shows the Capitol and president's house before final placement decisions were made. The federal government did not move to Washington until November 1800.

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