[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.