New Library Exhibition “Collecting Memories” Opens in new David M. Rubenstein Treasures Gallery
Treasures Include Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, Map from Lewis and Clark Expedition and Lyrics from ‘The Sound of Music,’ Among More Than 120 Items
“Collecting Memories: Treasures from the Library of Congress,” will open the evening of June 13 as the inaugural exhibition in the new David M. Rubenstein Treasures Gallery and will be on view through December 2025 in the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building.
“Collecting Memories” explores how cultures preserve memory, including the role of the Library in preserving collective memories representing entire societies, important moments in history and individual lives. The exhibition draws from the Library’s rich holdings of Americana and international collections, bringing together a mix of voice recordings, moving images, diaries, manuscripts, photographs, art, maps, books and more.
“The stories told by these items still inspire and amaze, decades or even centuries after they were created,” said Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. “The Library of Congress holds more than 178 million items in its collections – perhaps the most comprehensive collection of human knowledge ever assembled in one place. We invite you to experience the depth and breadth of what the Library collects, preserves and makes available in our new Treasures Gallery.”
The new gallery is devoted to ongoing exhibitions that showcase treasures from across the national library’s collections. It’s the first major component of a multiyear plan, known as A Library for You, to create a new visitor experience with new galleries, exhibitions and interactive spaces.
The Treasures Gallery will show visitors the Library is constantly collecting, preserving and serving a wide variety of collections for the American people. Philanthropist David M. Rubenstein made a transformational lead gift of $10 million to support the visitor experience project, and the Treasures Gallery has been named in his honor.
“I think it’s important to preserve America’s treasures because the human brain still operates more effectively when it sees something for real,” Rubenstein said. “I think Abraham Lincoln, to me, is the greatest American of them all, the greatest president for sure. He preserved the country, and he freed the slaves. So I think seeing the things from Abraham Lincoln’s collection that the Library of Congress has will really inspire people to want to come back, and I also think it will make people think more about how great this man was.”
More than 120 items are featured in the initial rotation of “Collecting Memories.” Additional treasures will be rotated into the exhibition over time through December 2025. New state-of-the-art cases were designed for the gallery to ensure the safety and stability of a variety of treasures in different formats and media.
Eight themes will guide visitors through “Collecting Memories.” Here are the themes and highlights of a few treasures featured in each section.
Memorialization and Commemoration
Around the world, monuments, memorials, hallowed places and objects have long been used as public expressions of values of a culture and to preserve memory. Treasures in this section include:
- Abraham Lincoln’s handwritten draft of the Gettysburg Address in 1863.
- The contents of Lincoln’s pockets on the night he was assassinated in 1865.
- Designs for the Washington Monument and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
- Photographs and writings from the AIDS Memorial Quilt archive.
Homeland
Language, memories and sometimes objects can provide a sense of connection to home and belonging to a community. Treasures in this section include:
- Audio recordings of contemporary Native poets discussing an original work on the theme of place and displacement, gathered as part of former U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo’s project “Living Nations, Living Words.”
- Photographs and stories of refugees from wars in Iraq, Syria, Cambodia and Vietnam, as well as the Holocaust.
- James Madison’s crystal flute, which may have been among the family treasures saved as British soldiers set the White House ablaze in 1814.
Collected Stories, Collective Experience
Collective memories of struggle and triumph are often recorded around the world for guidance, consolation, to seek justice or redemption, and to mark the place of people in the world. Treasures in this section include:
- Oral histories documenting the Civil Rights Movement.
- A letter to Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton from her father, documenting the threat of yellow fever in 1801, from the papers of Alexander Hamilton.
- Art and audio diaries documenting the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as letters and ephemera documenting the 1918 influenza pandemic.
Compendium of Knowledge
Humans have long created maps, atlases, encyclopedias and other documents to highlight new discoveries, driven by an impulse to collect and record knowledge about the world. Treasures in this section include:
- A landmark first map of the newly independent United States compiled, printed and published in America by an American – Abel Buell in 1784. The Buell map is on deposit to the Library from David M. Rubenstein.
- The first printed map showing reasonably accurate geographic information about the Western U.S., from the expedition of Lewis and Clark, published in 1814.
- A unique dress made of 45 paper scrolls containing poems and illustrations paying homage to Cuban and American women poets, created by Ruth Behar and Rolando Estévez Jordán.
Personal Narratives
Personal narratives, diaries and autobiographies can shape memories and crystalize experiences by revealing the personal side of history. Treasures in this section include:
- Omar ibn Said’s handwritten autobiography in Arabic from 1831, telling the story of how he was captured in West Africa, enslaved and brought to South Carolina – the only known memoir of its kind.
- Pioneering civil rights and women’s rights activist and educator Mary Church Terrell’s draft for her autobiography, “A Colored Woman in a White World.”
- Playwright Neil Simon’s notebook including “The War of the Rosens” and what appears to be his first notes for what would become “Brighton Beach Memoirs.”
Recording and Retelling
Sometimes memoirs, records and histories are made for particular audiences and show how memory is recalled, retold and recast. Treasures in this section include:
- Photos documenting the first nuclear bomb explosion overseen by J. Robert Oppenheimer – and a harrowing account of the bomb’s devastation from a Japanese teacher who survived the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima in 1945.
- An epic audio history covering the Great Depression and World War II by journalists Edward R. Murrow and Fred Friendly.
- A golden record of “The Sounds of Earth” identical to two records sent into space on NASA’s Voyager I and II missions in 1977.
Mechanics of Memory
Physical collections and data are often fragile and must be maintained for future researchers and future generations who may use formats and systems not yet imagined. Treasures in this section include:
- Sigmund Freud’s papers documenting his thoughts on how the brain processes memories.
- One of the earliest printed texts in a North American Indigenous language, a dual-language catechism written in both Spanish and Timucua, a complex and now extinct language, by Franciscan missionary Francisco Pareja in 1627.
- Groundbreaking photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston’s camera. She was among the first American women to achieve prominence as a photographer.
- Born-digital files containing records of history that can be difficult to maintain as technology evolves.
Guiding Memory
Some objects demonstrate the skill of memorization through visualization or the repetition of sounds – and the many ways to study and remember communal history. Treasures in this section include:
- Oscar Hammerstein’s lyric sheet working out the words for the song “Do-Re-Mi” during the creation of the musical “The Sound of Music.”
- Cuneiform school tablets on clay from between 2200 and 1900 BC, reflecting what is arguably the oldest writing system in the world with script invented by the Sumerians in Mesopotamia.
The Library of Congress is the world’s largest library, offering access to the creative record of the United States — and extensive materials from around the world — both on-site and online. It is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. Explore collections, reference services and other programs and plan a visit at loc.gov; access the official site for U.S. federal legislative information at congress.gov; and register creative works of authorship at copyright.gov.
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PR 24-049
05/22/2024
ISSN 0731-3527