Descriptive Record 
Enlarge Image1945
February 13
Letter from Archibald MacLeish to Franklin D. Roosevelt, February 13, 1945.
Papers of Archibald MacLeish, 1907-1981, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress
Archibald MacLeish sends President Franklin D. Roosevelt a confidential letter in which he offers a list of possible successors as Librarian of Congress. He recommends Vannevar Bush of the Carnegie Institute, Theodore Christian Blegen of the University of Minnesota, Kenneth Murdock of Harvard University, and Wilmarth Lewis, bibliophile and the editor of the Horace Walpole correspondence.
June 18
Portrait of Luther Harris Evans, June 18, 1945.
Library of Congress Archives (Series: Photographs, Illustrations, Objects), Manuscript Division, Library of Congress
The appointment of a new Librarian of Congress is delayed upon the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt on April 12, 1945. His successor, President Harry S. Truman, nominates Luther Harris Evans as Librarian of Congress on June 18, 1945.
June 30
Luther Harris Evans takes the oath of office and becomes the tenth Librarian of Congress.
July
With the approval of the War Department, a special Library of Congress “mission in Europe” begins its task of obtaining “multiple copies of European publications for the war period for distribution to American libraries and research institutions.”
September 2
Japan formally surrenders aboard the U.S. battleship Missouri.
1947
March 12
Report from the Library of Congress Planning Committee, March 12, 1947.
Library of Congress Archives, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress
Chaired by Keyes DeWitt Metcalf, Harvard University, the Library of Congress Planning Committee sends Librarian Evans a report addressing the Library’s future role in the nation’s affairs. The Committee proposes that “the actual status of the Library as a National Library should be officially recognized in its name and that it should be designated The Library of Congress, the National Library of the United States of America.” The Committee also recommends that “the Library undertake additional duties and services, which, as presently constituted, it can neither undertake nor perform, but which are properly the functions of the national Library.”
1948
December 7
Photograph of the "Library of Congress World War II Memorial,” December 7, 1948.
Library of Congress Archives (Series: Photographs, Illustrations, Objects), Manuscript Division, Library of Congress
The Library unveils a memorial in honor of staff members who lost their lives in World War II.
1953
July 1
Selected by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) General Council to become its new director general, Librarian Evans submits his resignation as Librarian of Congress, effective July 5, 1953, to President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
July 4
Verner W. Clapp, Chief Assistant Librarian, becomes Acting Librarian of Congress.
