Washington, its sights and insights [1909]Monroe, Harriet Earhart
History
Washington, its sights and insights [1909]
Monroe, Harriet Earhart
Washington (D.C.) -- Description and travel
In the Library is a perfect copy of Eliot's Indian Bible, published in
Cambridge in 1661, the last copy of which brought $1,000. Here, too, may
be found the works of Cotton and Increase Mather (1671 to 1735), and
leading journals, all publications of our country from 1735 to 1800.
Bound volumes of many of them can also be found here. The first edition
of the Mormon Bible, published in 1830, and printed at Palmyra, New
York; Archbishop Cramer's version of the Bible, 1553; Martin Luther's
Bible; and the Catholic version of the New Testament, 1582, are among
the rare volumes in the Library.
An extract from a copy of the Washington _Post_ of 1897 well describes
the official test of the device for sending books to and from the
Capitol:
An official test of the device for transporting books between the
Capitol and the new Congressional Library was made yesterday
afternoon. Mr. John Russell Young, the Librarian; Chief Assistant
Librarian Spofford, and Superintendent Bernard R. Green assembled in
the small receiving-room, just off Statuary Hall, about 2 o'clock.
Mr. Young had prepared for the test a list of books known only to
himself until they were ordered from the Library.
The first volume sent for was William Winter's poems. Mr. Young gave
out the name and Mr. Green wrote it on a slip of paper. This was
placed in the pneumatic tube, which flashed it to Mr. David
Hutcheson, who is in charge of the reading-room of the new Library.
The book was ordered by Mr. Hutcheson from the shelf-clerk and sent
to the desk in the center of the reading-room by the Library
carrier. It was then taken to the big carrier in the basement and
started on its journey to the Capitol. The time consumed from the
moment of sending the order by pneumatic tube until the leather case
containing the desired volume deposited its cargo before Mr. Young
was exactly ten minutes.
Mr. Young then sent for a copy of "Faust" in German, Hugo's "Les
Châtiments," and Hildreth's "History of the United States," vol. i.,
all on one order, and for the London _Times_ of 1815, the year of
the battle of Waterloo, on a separate order. The "Faust" and the
history arrived in eight minutes and "Les Châtiments" on the next
carrier. The order for the London _Times_ was an extreme test, as
the volume is so large that the carriers in the Library connecting
with the shelves would not accommodate it, and a messenger had to be
sent from the main desk to the top deck of the south stack, where
the newspaper files are shelved. When the messenger returned he just
missed the carrier, which had been sent off with one of the other
volumes ordered, and he had to wait the four minutes consumed by the
transit of the carriers before he could start the _Times_ on its
journey. It arrived at the Capitol just thirteen minutes after the
order for it was sent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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