Exhibitions

Collecting Memories: Treasures from the Library of Congress

June 14, 2024–December 2025
David M. Rubenstein Treasures Gallery, Thomas Jefferson Building

The Library of Congress gathers and preserves our collective memories and shares them with you. The inaugural exhibition of the David M. Rubenstein Treasures Gallery brings together voice and video recordings, scrolls, diaries, manuscripts, art, photographs, maps, books, and more. This collection inspires us to consider our stories, collective memories, and recorded history. What do they have in common? How do they differ?

Not an Ostrich: & Other Images from America's Library

Opened March 23, 2022
Southwest Gallery, Thomas Jefferson Building

Organized by the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles and drawn from the photography collections of the Library of Congress, presents a taste of this institution’s spectacular holdings of more than 14 million photographs. The images reproduced for this exhibition, made between 1839 and today, trace the evolution of photography, from daguerreotypes and other early processes to contemporary digital technology.

Thomas Jefferson's Library

Southwest Pavilion, Second Floor, Thomas Jefferson Building
April 11, 2008–Ongoing

Take a trip through a re-created version of Jefferson’s library, which assembles 6,487 volumes that founded the Library of Congress, and learn how one of America’s greatest thinkers was inspired through the world of books.

Here to Stay: The Legacy of George and Ira Gershwin

Gershwin Gallery, Ground Floor, Thomas Jefferson Building
December 11, 2008–Ongoing

The exhibition celebrates the lives and work of George and Ira Gershwin through music manuscripts and other documents from the Gershwin collection that chronicle their lives and careers. The display includes George’s piano and desk, Ira’s typing table and typewriter, and self-portraits in oil by each brother.

Herblock Gallery

Online Only

Celebrates the work of editorial cartoonist Herbert L. Block—better known as "Herblock"—with items drawn from the Library's extensive Herbert L. Block Collection.

From the Home Front and the Front Lines

Consists of original materials and oral histories drawn from the Veterans History Project collections at the Library of Congress.