Morning Adventure in the Capital

After making it through week one of FEMA orientation, I had the weekend off! As I said in my previous post, the Bolger Center has a really great shuttle system that goes to a local mall, a CVS, and the metro station in Bethesda. So I was able to catch a ride to the metro station from the Bolger Center at 8 am and made it into Washington DC a little before 9 am.

If you’re visiting Washington DC and decide to use the metro to get around, you will be required you to purchase a “metro card.” It costs $2.00 for the card plus whatever you put on the card to travel around. I believe there were options for like a day pass for a fixed fee or weekly passes, also for a fixed fee. I put just enough on the card to get me to Union Station in DC and back to the Bethesda Station because I was planning on staying around the National Mall for the day.

So Union Station was my first planned stop in Washington DC. You’re probably wondering why I would want to hang out at a train station and take photos. I’m glad you asked!

Union Station has just went through some major restoration work through the partnership of the National Trust of Historic Preservation, American Express, Ashkenazy Acquisitions Corp, and the Union Station Redevelopment Corporation. The work was in response to the 2011 earthquake that Washington D. C. experienced; the Station’s ceiling was damaged. Oddly enough, the week before I headed into D. C. I received an email from the National Trust about the work that had been done on Union Station, which is why I placed it on my Washington Adventure Itinerary!

I arrived at Union Station around 9ish and a majority of the shops were not yet opened. I took photos of the main hall were the restoration work occurred. In the “Further Information” section at the end of this post, there are some links with more information about the work that was done and old images of the Station from the Library of Congress’s website.

Union Station was finished in 1907 and designed by Daniel Burnham in the Beaux Arts Style.

This is the front entrance of Union Station. This leads into the main hall, which originally was an open floor plan. Union Station is used daily by roughly 100,000 people and has access to 14 different types of transportation.

This is a view of the main hall. It originally was an open floor plan, much like what is seen here. During the decades after 1907, the main hall gained ticket counters, a visitor center, and other obstructions that closed off the open floor plan. When restorations began after 2011, getting back to the original open floor plan was a key goal of the work.

These are some of the doors that lead out to Massachusetts Avenue, facing towards the National Mall.

This is a view of the ceiling in the main hall. More than 120,000 sheets of gold leafing was used in the restoration of the ceiling.

A view of the main hall looking towards the East Hall.

This is the East Hall, it is the original dining room of the Union Station. Today it can be rented and is used for a variety of events and activities. There were shops in there when I looked in.

After taking a bunch of photos of Union Station, I made my way to the Library of Congress. The Library offers free tours throughout the week and I wanted to check the place out because I love libraries! From the Station’s main entrance the walk to the Library is pretty simple: you just walk down First Street NE for a little ways and you hit the buildings of the Library of Congress!

Along the route I took some photos of the Senate Office Buildings and then detoured down Constitution Avenue where there were some nice houses and also the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument. I didn’t go into the building but I did take some photos! I then continued down Second Street NE towards the back side of the libraries, where I walked behind the Supreme Court of the United States. Then I walked along the side facade of the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress, where the free tour that I wanted to go to was held.

So this walk occurred between 9:30- 10:00 am and there was like no one out walking around outside. The only people I saw were joggers and a guy with his two little kids…oddly enough they too were making their way to the Library of Congress. There was a huge kids event at the Library.

This is the back view of the Russell Senate Office Building located on First Street. It is the oldest of the U. S. Senate buildings. It was designed in the Beaux Arts style and constructed from 1903-1909.

These are a set of doors on the eastern facade of the Russell Senate Office Building.

This is the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument. It was home to the Women’s Party for 90 years and the epicenter for the fight for women’s rights. On April 12, 2016, President Barack Obama, designated the home as a National Monument.

These are houses seen on 2nd Street. The street is located on the back side of the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court.

I’ll be honest, I had no idea what this building was when I took this photo. After researching 2nd Street, I discovered this is the backside of the Supreme Court. It was built in the early 1930’s and designed by Cass Gilbert in the Neoclassical style. The pediment, that triangular section at the top of the building, was designed by sculptor Herman Atkins MacNeil. MacNeil was a really famous sculptor from Massachusetts.

This is looking west towards the U.S. Capitol Building. To the left of this photo can be seen the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress. While on the right side of this photo, you can see part of the Supreme Court.

Located right across from the U. S. Senate Building, the Library of Congress, consists of three buildings: the Thomas Jefferson Building, the James Madison Memorial Building, and the John Adams Building. The tours are held in the Thomas Jefferson Building, which is the oldest building of the three. Down below I listed links to the “virtual tours” of the Jefferson Building and the other two buildings.

I made it to the Jefferson Building early. You do have to go through a security check: they check your bag and have you go through a metal detector. There is also a “coat room” where you can check your coat and bags, which I did so I didn’t have to carry around my stuff on the tour. The tour I made it to was the 10:30 am and the tours are first come- first served. You don’t need to sign up or anything, just be in the right place when it starts. There’s a short video that starts the tour that is about all the cool stuff the Library of Congress does.

There was about 30ish people who showed up for the 10:30 am tour. That large group of people was split up between a few different volunteer tour guides. The tour I was on was led by Cora, who is a retired English teacher and the group was about 15 people. Check out the photos from the tour I took; there’s history and other cool information with each photo!

This is a view of the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress. It was opened to the public in 1897. The architectural team that designed the original library consisted of John L. Smithmeyer and Paul J. Pelz; designed in the Italian Renaissance style.

This is a close up of the main facade of the Thomas Jefferson Building. While designed by Smithmeyer and Pelz, the lead architects that oversaw the final construction included Thomas Lincoln Casey, Edward Pearce Casey, and Bernard R. Green. The building only took 7 years to complete.

The original library was burned in the War of 1812, when the British sacked Washington. After the War, Thomas Jefferson offered to sell his library, which he had spent the majority of his life creating. Congress paid a little over $23,000 for Jefferson’s library.

This is a view of the South Corridor on the first floor of the Library. This corridor has murals by the artist Henry Oliver Walker; the murals relate in different ways to poetry.

This is the largest mural in the South Corridor by Henry Oliver Walker. The mural is named “Lyric Poetry.”

This is the Commemorative Arch by Olin L. Warner. It was built to celebrate the completion of the Library.

There is a lot of sculpture in the Great Hall, most of which was done by Philip Martiny. Along the main staircases are sculptures of putti, little boys, that represent different occupations of American life. Seen in this photo are the cherubs that represent the continents of America and Africa.

I’m standing in the Great Hall of the Library looking upwards to the second floor. The bronze statue is about 8 feet tall and is a “torchbearer” raising a “lamp of learning.”

This is a view of the stained glass ceiling that is roughly 75 feet above the main lobby.

This Bible is on permanent display on the first floor of the Library. This is the first book to be printed via movable metal type. In particular this book, is only one of three in the world that are perfect copies of the Bible. The other two perfect copies are kept by the British Library and the Bibliotheque Nationale in France.

There are many quotes and inscriptions throughout the Library in the ceilings and walls. This was one of the inscriptions I saw.

This is a mural seen above the door in the lobby that leads into the main reading room. This mural represents “Government” and was created by Elihu Vedder.

This is the Minerva mural seen on the second floor. It is right outside of the gallery that visitors can enter to view the Main Reading Room. The mural was created by Elihu Vedder.

A view of the Main Reading Room. It is 160 feet from the floor to the ceiling and is about 100 feet wide.

This is the ceiling of the Main Reading Room.

This is a close up of the Main Reading Room. The room is ornately decorated.

This is one of the paintings of the west corridor on the second floor. It is one of eight paintings by Walter Shirlaw, with female figures representing the sciences. This one is archaeology, the others include: physics, mathematics, geology, botany, astronomy and chemistry.

The floors on the second floor are a kaleidoscopic marble mosaic. They are amazing!

This is just a view of the ornate decoration seen on the Second Floor of the Jefferson Building. Where I am standing in this photo is a staircase to my left, leading back down to the main floor and to my right, is the exhibit, “Out of the Ashes.”

This is another example of the types of murals seen throughout the Library.

The Library also has exhibit rooms and changing exhibits. The exhibit I was able to check out was related to the Presidential Inauguration and it was on display until February 4^th. The exhibit had handwritten letters, speeches, and other artifacts from the inaugurations of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln. While all of the artifacts were cool, the one that I enjoyed seeing the most, was a photograph from President Lincoln’s 2^nd inauguration in 1865. That was the coolest thing in the exhibit, being able to see an actual photo of Lincoln from when he was alive. I also love seeing and using historic photos as a resource because its an actual window into history. This in a link to the photo I saw on display: https://www.loc.gov/resource/cph.3a04233/, Lincoln is somewhere in the center.

Another exhibit I was lucky to see was, “Out of the Ashes: A New Library for Congress and the Nation.” It is located on the second floor of the Thomas Jefferson Library and guess what the exhibit is about!?!?!

Thomas Jefferson’s actual library that he sold to Congress in 1815.

What a coincidence, right? An exhibit about a library within a library…. I’ll stop there.

So the interesting thing about this exhibit. I think I might have gotten really lucky, a sign said the exhibit was “open,” meaning it might not always be open to the public. The library is behind glass and is is a circular display. There are lots of little different colored ribbons sticking out from books and the colors represent different things.

This is the ceiling of the Southwest Pavilion, where the Jefferson Library is on display. The artwork fo the domed ceiling represents the four stages of the development of a nation.

The library is protected behind a glass casing. The books on display are in a circular display. In this photo I’m outside of the display looking in.

This is a mural representing “Discovery” which is related to the central painting in regards to the historical sequence of the development of a nation.

Can you see the little ribbons sticking out of books. Those ribbons mean different things: Green means they were part of Jefferson’s original library; Gold means the book has been recently purchased to reconstitute Jefferson’s library; No Ribbon means the book is identical to a book that Jefferson owned and were located in the Library of Congress collections; Book Box are representative of a book missing from the library, the Library is working on acquiring those missing books.

These books all have green ribbons, which means they were part of Jefferson’s original library.

The last thing I wanted to share with you all in this post about my morning adventures is the National Gallery of Art. I technically visited the museum in the early afternoon but my next post about my “afternoon adventures” is going to talk about the National Mall and a lot of the monuments I saw walking around the Mall.

The National Gallery is located right on the National Mall. The art museum has free admission. Free things are great! The Gallery is huge and consists of two buildings: the West Building and the East Building. I went to the West Building, where all the art created prior to more modern times is housed. There is a “coat check” room at the museum. I did not check my coat and bag here but I should have. My bag was heavy.

The cool thing about the Gallery is you can take photos of any piece of art according to the Gallery’s website. I double checked with a docent because I just wanted to make sure I could take photos and to paraphrase what he said, “You’re a tax payer right? You can take photos of whatever you want…”

I did take photos and yet, I still felt like I was breaking some unwritten code of not photographing art. The way I justified my actions of taking photos, is that I would be sharing these photos with people who may not have the chance to visit the Gallery and see these images in real life. On that note, the National Gallery of Art’s website does have the ability to search their collections and to see what highlights there are on display. Check out that link in the “Further Information” section below.

There were a few moments while walking around the galleries that I might have gotten lost…in time and art. I somehow skipped a number of galleries. I left gallery 11, walked through a courtyard and then walked into another gallery and discovered that was gallery 25. I think I finally found galleries 12-24 by back tracking through “art time.” A similar thing happened in the galleries for Flemish artwork. I managed to time jump from art dated from the 1500’s to artwork from the 1700’s. I’m still not sure how.

There’s a lot of galleries in the West Building and it is easy to get lost. I was on a huge time constraint so I skipped over to the other side of the West Building and went through a number of galleries over there, which consisted of galleries of early American art, Impressionism, Hudson River School art, etc.

These are some of the images I liked the most. I’m not sure what the copyright would be on these images since all of these paintings were created prior to 1923, which makes them fall into public domain… On that note, these paintings are all on display at the National Gallery of Art. You can check them out, in better quality at their website, which is listed below.

This is a view of the West Building of the art gallery.

This artwork dates to the Byzantine Empire c. 1250/1275. I saw this in the first gallery I went into.

This painting is by Leonardo da Vinci, painted c. 1474/1478. It is one of the highlights of the Gallery.

This is one of the courtyards in the Gallery. This is around the time I got lost in art history the first time.

This painting, Bianca Maria Sforza, was painted around 1493 by Ambrogio De Predis.

That’s the actual name of this artwork. The artist was listed as “Emilian 16th Century.” I don’t think that’s an actual artist’s name. I think Emilian is a location or a art style and the art dates to the 16th century. I thought it was a wonderful painting.

This is a bronze statue of Emperor Charles V, c. 1550/1568. The information and name tag indicates that it is probably Flemish and modeled after another piece of art by Leone Leoni. Anyways, it says it’s suppose to be Emperor Charles V but I pretty sure this is actually Ser Davos Seaworth, just sayin’.

This is just a view of a couple of galleries, which shows how the galleries are connected to each other.

This is that famous painting of George Washington painted by Gilbert Stuart. It dates to c. 1821.

These are right next to the painting of Washington. These two portraits are also by Gilbert Stuart, they date to 1821 too.

This beautiful painting is by Jasper Francis Cropsey. It dates to c. 1860. If you go to the National Gallery of Art’s website, you can search for this painting and can zoom in to get a better view of the artwork. The same can be done on the other paintings I’ve shared too.

So this is how I spent the morning in Washington D. C. There was a lot of walking! There’s also a lot more to talk about in my next post. If you have any questions or comments about the Library of Congress, Union Station, or the National Gallery of Art, let me know in the comment section below. Also, check out the links I shared, there’s a ton of cool things in those links.

Thanks for reading!

Further Information

Union Station:

The website for Union Station: http://www.unionstationdc.com/

This is an article from the National Trust of Historic Places about the Union Station restoration: https://savingplaces.org/press-center/media-resources/union-station-celebrates-a-fully-restored-main-hall#.WJ24M_krLIU

Another article about the work that was done on the Station: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/2016/10/14/8da96d34-91e9-11e6-9c85-ac42097b8cc0_story.html?utm_term=.b885212fdc85

Link to Photos of Union Station from the Library of Congress’s website:

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=Photograph:%20dc0254&fi=number&op=PHRASE&va=exact&co%20=hh&st=gallery&sg%20=%20true

Library of Congress:

This is the general website for the Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/

If you are interested in doing a “Virtual Tour” of the Thomas Jefferson Building or any of the other buildings of the Library of Congress, here is the link: https://www.loc.gov/visit/tours/online-tours/

This is a link to an online exhibit of President George Washington’s papers, some were on display in the exhibit I saw: https://www.loc.gov/collections/george-washington-papers/about-this-collection/

Thomas Jefferson Library, which is an exhibit on the second floor: https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/thomas-jeffersons-library/

National Gallery of Art:

This is the link to the National Gallery of Art’s website: http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb.html

An interesting article about public domain, artwork, and taking photos of art in museums: https://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/when-its-illegal-to-photograph-artwork/?_r=0

This link goes to the search engine on the National Gallery of Art’s website: http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collection/collection-search.html

Miscellaneous Websites:

Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument: https://www.nps.gov/bepa/index.htm

U. S. Supreme Court: https://www.supremecourt.gov/visiting/visiting.aspx

U. S. Senate: https://www.senate.gov/index.htm

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