The Library of Congress > Blogs > Inside Adams > Archive by category 'Pic of the Week'

Pic of the Week: Temple of Knowledge

November 30, 2012 by Jennifer Harbster

John Adams Building at Night, South Side (11/27/2013).

With the end of Daylight Savings Time my walk home after work is in the dark. During one of these walks I was captivated by the beauty of the John Adams Building all aglow with its outdoor lights and had to capture it with a photograph, well actually my iPhone.

I like to refer to the John Adams Building as a Temple of Knowledge. As you can see by this picture it resembles a structure from ancient times (replace the electric lights with oil lamps). In fact, the architecture of the Adams Building is modeled after a ziggurat with its receding levels and flat roof. Check out Theodor Horydczak’s photograph of the Adams Building (Annex) taken from the roof of the Jefferson Building which shows the ziggurat influenced design.

Pics of the Week: Sequoyah

November 21, 2012 by Ellen Terrell

We have visited the topic of the images on the bronze doors of the Adams Building in several posts – Itzamna, Quetzalcoatl, and Brahma. Today’s post celebrates Native American Heritage Month by featuring two pictures from the Adams Building. One image is of Sequoyah from the building’s bronze doors done by Lee Lawrie, the other …

Pic of the Week: National Ice Cream Days of the Past

July 18, 2012 by Ellen Terrell

In 2010 Jennifer Harbster, my co-blogger, did a post about ice cream that mentioned the beginning of National Ice Cream Month in 1984, but I ran across this advertisement in Chronicling America that ran in the Washington Times on May 26, 1920. This was long before Ronald Reagan designated July as National Ice Cream Month …

Pic of the Week: Scientific Treasures

June 28, 2012 by Jennifer Harbster

This week I participated in the Science at Risk: Toward a National Strategy for Preserving Online Science meeting hosted by the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP). During this two-day meeting the Library’s recently-retired manuscript specialist Len Bruno took us on a journey through the scientific treasures of the Library’s Manuscript Division. On display were items …

Pic of the Week: How to Get a Book at the Library of Congress – 1902

April 27, 2012 by Ellen Terrell

The pneumatic tubes which are used to send book requests at the Library are objects of interest to a number of us here. They have been featured in at least 2 blog posts – one from the Law Library’s blog and before that in my post A Short Visit from a Noted Gentleman where I …

Pic of the Week: Space Shuttle Discovery

April 17, 2012 by Jennifer Harbster

If you were in the Washington, D.C. area this morning (April 17), you were treated to a fly-by of the Space Shuttle Discovery riding piggy-back on a 747 as it made its way to the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center located near Dulles International Airport. I did not want to miss …

Pic of the Week: SEC! SEC! SEC!

February 24, 2012 by Ellen Terrell

And no, sports fans, I do not mean the Southeastern Conference of college athletics fame. In this case I am talking about the Securities & Exchange Commission. In the Science & Business Reading Room, we have a microfiche set of SEC company filings that is one of our more regularly used items. I have featured …

Pic of the Week: Pretty Maids all in a Row

January 27, 2012 by Ellen Terrell

This photograph of the bollards that run down 2nd Street SE next to the Adams Building was taken in late 2010. What caught my eye was how the bollards with just a bit of snow on top reminded me of the paintings of ladies wearing powdered wigs and ruffs, collars, or fichu. At first I …

Pic of the Week: I Don’t See This Every Day

January 13, 2012 by Ellen Terrell

I pretty much see the same thing every time I look out of my office window. Except one day last week! That’s when I glanced out and saw these two men working on the roof of the Jefferson Building. This photo makes the photos in two previous Pic of the Week posts – one of …

Pic of the Week: Black Friday

November 25, 2011 by Ellen Terrell

This black and white photograph of Christmas shoppers from the early 20th century made me think of the modern Black Friday shopping frenzy. But since Black Friday has already been a blog topic, I thought I would use this as an opportunity to re-feature posts from Inside Adams and the other Library blogs, posted in …