Visiting Library of Congress and more during mini-break in DC while Barb attends her work conference.
For years, and much against her wishes, Barb had to attend an annual three-day management conference in DC, which brought together HHS department heads from around the country. Each time, she complained bitterly about having to commute into town for early meetings three days in a row, especially when other folks were staying in hotels on per diem. This year, she decided to get a hotel in town (on her own dime), and invited me to stay for a short getaway.
Laurie happened to be in town the week before the conference so we got a head start the Thursday before to visit the Library of Congress. Laurie had never been there before and it had been decades since I’d been. Besides, there was a special exhibit on baseball that I wanted to see.
Thursday, April 25, 2019
We parked at Greenbelt and took Metro into town. I always feel a little virtuous and a little more like a grown up when I take Metro. It’s an odd thing. I’m also always reminded that Metro opened in 1976 for the bicentennial, just before I arrived in town, now more than 40 years ago. I think it’s aged rather gracefully. The underground stations are still interesting arched temples to transportation. Metro gets a lot of flak these days for its operational and financial struggles, but I still think it’s one of the best things about DC and I wish it extended further into the suburbs, like to Columbia. That said, getting in and out of the Greenbelt station off the Beltway is not too bad.
We arrived at the Capitol South station and walked the couple of blocks to the Capitol and Library of Congress, pausing for inevitable tourist shots. Congress was not in session and the area was eerily quiet, with more streets blocked to traffic than I recalled, and the Cannon House Office Building going through major renovations.
Once inside the Library, we looked at some of the ground floor exhibits, including Abel Buell’s first official map of the United States and a Gutenberg Bible, before gathering for a guided tour. Note that you have to assemble for the tour about 20 minutes ahead of the tour time, and you get to see a short video about the Library. The tour offers a useful overview of the beautiful building and is the best way to see the main reading room, if only briefly and from a balcony viewing area. By nature, it’s a little hard to hear the guide among the throngs of visitors and school groups coming and going through the building. But it’s good to get explanations of the history and multitude of detail in the building’s elaborate decorations.
Library of Congress Foyer 
Main Reading Room
In discussing the Gutenberg Bible, the tour guide commented on the explosive growth and revolutionary effect of the printing press on the medieval world. She credited (and Laurie confirmed) the Protestant Reformation in no small part to the rapid availability of published bibles in vulgate languages that could be read by much larger audiences. This echoed a discussion Laurie and I had about major inflection points in human history driven by communication. There was the early development of language itself perhaps 100,000 years ago, development of written languages starting maybe 5,000 years ago, widespread publication of books a bit over 500 years ago, and the advent of digital communications and the Internet over the past (generously) 50 years. Each of these inflections reflect vast increases in the amount of information available to individuals and in turn had major impacts on human society. We are still very much living through the current phase and I think under-appreciate the effects and changes to come. I’m sure this is not novel thinking, but I haven’t yet searched for more thorough analysis from greater minds. The subject of further consideration and posts, perhaps.
I wondered about the Library’s response to the digital revolution — what happens to their mandate to track and copyright “publications”? What is a publication anymore? To the extent the guide could answer, she focused on the Library’s efforts to digitize material and make it available to users through the web. This is a commendable effort and there really is a lot more on the Library of Congress website than can be seen during an actual visit to the Library. That’s a good thing, generally, but doesn’t really address the questions I had. I’m sure others at the Library and in academia are thinking about the effects of the digital revolution, but it was beyond the scope of our immediate tour and guide.
When the tour concluded at 1:30, neither of us wanted a full lunch but thought it would be good to get a little snack, at least. I’d heard there were some cafes in the Library complex, so we asked and were directed toward the Madison building via the basement walkways. We headed into the labyrinth of tunnels that connect the three buildings of the Library and walked for what seemed a long time before coming upon a Subway and Dunkin Donuts cafe. Suitably fortified, we ventured back for more exploring. Wandering the tunnels was like seeing a bonus behind-the-scenes exhibit of the Library.
We made our way to the Exploring the Early Americas exhibit where we spent nearly three hours going through the exhibits of Pre-Columbian, Columbian and post-Columbian exploration. This permanent exhibit is based on objects collected by Jay and Jean Kislak who Laurie knew as Miami friends of her ex-mother-in-law, Lila. Laurie knows everyone. I was glad there was at least an attempt at equal representation of pre-Contact civilizations and what seemed like an even-handed discussion of European conquest. It brought to my mind John Leguizamo’s “Latin History for Morons.” Laurie had grappled more directly with the subject while teaching in Guatemala. She mentioned several books I ought to read, which I meant to write down but didn’t. But I think they’re referenced in this article, including Zinn’s “People’s History of the US” and Mann’s “1491.” More for the reading list.
The exhibit culminates in the Waldseemuller map, with its first use of the label “America.” The map is magnificent, but unfortunately the explanatory video display was out of order. Though we didn’t know it at the time, the video material is available online, so it’s almost better than being there. But seeing the large scale map, and the neighboring Carta Marina in person is impressive.
There was a special exhibit on Baseball Americana, but when I went to check it out, the exhibit was full of student groups hanging around and clogging up every display. This is a case where the material online is truly superior to navigating this crowded displays in person. I’ve spent more time and seen more detail in the exhibit online than I could have in person. It’s a scattershot but entertaining overview of baseball memorabilia and considerations of the game’s impact.
We learned during our tour that there are additional reading rooms dedicated to various subjects and media. One needs a reading room card to get into them. We didn’t have time for that, but it gave me a mission for the following week.
Tuesday, April 30, 2019
On Tuesday, Barb drove to DC for her conference. I came down at midday via Metro, leaving my car at Greenbelt. I learned you can leave your car in the Metro lot for 24 hours or can park in one the 20 or so long-term parking places for up to 10 days. Next to the Capitol South station, I started with a decent but not very remarkable pork belly bahn mi lunch at the Luwich Cafe.
Once in the Library, I headed first to the Gershwin gallery, a smallish room dedicated to material and artifacts from George and Ira Gershwin. After commending the Library’s website, this is one topic area that seems unfortunately missing on the site. I spent nearly an hour going through the exhibits, including a couple of stations that played audio and visual clips. I particularly enjoyed seeing clips from films of Fred Astaire and others performing Gershwin songs. I was reminded how prolific George was in his unfortunately abbreviated career, and learned more of Ira’s contributions with George and other composers. I’d like to find more, but the search will have to involve non-Library sources like Wikipedia, YouTube and Apple Music — I’m certain there are tons of material available, but it would be nice if it were curated and expanded upon what was in the Library exhibit.
I wish the Library had resources to give this much attention to other American greats. The Gershwins certainly deserve the attention, but what about other musical, film or literature greats? Rotating, curated exhibits on other notables, even if it’s only online, would be tremendously interesting. To begin with, they could put the Gershwin stuff online.
Next, I headed to “Hope for America“, a larger set of rooms that feature Bob Hope but cover a much broader landscape of humor, entertainment and politics. There were many more listening/viewing stations and a great deal more content than in the Gershwin exhibit (only a portion of it is posted online, but it’s plenty). I spent more than two hours in this exhibit, and exhausted myself long before I explored all the material.
With an hour or so before the Library closed, I wanted to try to get a reader card that would give me access to the various specialized reader rooms. I was pointed on another convoluted trek through the Library’s bowels to the proper room. It was a quick process to fill out an online form and get my photo taken, and within 10 minutes or so I had my card, good for two years.
I decided to seek out the Map room which had been recommended during our tour. I found it with about a half hour remaining before closing. I didn’t really know what to look or ask for, and it felt awkward at the end of the day to ask for a general tour. There were a few people in the room making copies of various large scale maps; I couldn’t tell if these folks were library employees or researchers. It seemed like they were on a mission, in any case. I scanned the bookshelves, found a section dedicated to different states, and grabbed a 1911 book on Maryland counties. I spent the remaining time flipping through that book, learning a bit about the development of Maryland counties over time — Howard County is a post-Civil War creation — before they kicked me out at 5pm. I know I didn’t scratch the surface of the map room, but again the truth is that far more is available online than I would ever be able to see in person. This page alone leads to literally tens of thousands of digitized maps available. The reading rooms are really set up for deeper research, not general browsing by the public.
I had a couple of hours to kill before Barb would be done with her reception. I started wandering by Capitol Hill, admiring the trees and Spring plantings which really are lovely when they’re not crowded with people. I was reminded from a sign that the Capitol Hill grounds were designed by Frederick Law Olmstead beginning in 1874.
I lingered near the Capitol Reflecting Pool and the Grant Memorial before deciding to seek out a Happy Hour somewhere.
Artsy, no? 
Grant Memorial
After a long online search, I decided the best choice was to head to our hotel, the Hyatt Place, and the rooftop CityBar for a drink. Turns out, despite being rated #1 on Yelp for Happy Hours in the area, CityBar doesn’t actually have a Happy Hour (“It’s always Happy Hour,” they said). So I whiled away a couple of hours with gin and tonics, waiting for Barb. She finally showed up, much later than planned; we checked in and she re-parked her car back at HHS. As anticipated, she filled up at the reception so I was on my own for dinner.
I walked 10 minutes to the relatively recently (well, opened October 2017, so only a year and a half ago) redeveloped Wharf area. I hadn’t been before, and took the chance to wander the several blocks of restaurants, hotels and condos. The development is certainly ambitious and trendy; it’s an improvement over what was there before, but I wonder how well it really integrates and benefits the surrounding community. I didn’t ponder it too hard before deciding to have dinner at Kaliwa, a Filipino-Thai-Korean fusion restaurant. Based on the waiter’s recommendation, I had Tocilog, a dish with garlic rice, pork belly and a fried egg, washed down with San Miguel Dark. It was tasty, but perhaps I had a little too much pork belly for one day.
I wandered the Wharf a bit more after dinner, scouting other potential restaurants for the next night, but not really finding any that seemed great for Barb. The Wharf is then caught a cab for the short ride back to the hotel. The Southeast area may generally be safe, but I wasn’t quite up to a solo walk after dark.
Wednesday, May 1, 2019
Similar to our recent Washington mini-break over Christmas, we arranged this one with the idea that I’d counter-commute back home to pick up papers and tend to the cats. I headed back to West Friendship about 9:30am, got there about 11am, did my chores, and then headed back to Greenbelt and DC.
I took Metro to the Archives station and walked a couple of blocks up 7th Street to have lunch at Oyamel. This is Jose Andres’ take on Mexican cuisine that I’d never actually been to. I tried two dishes, Camarones al mojo de ajo negro (wild caught Gulf Coast white shrimp sautéed with shallots, árbol chile, poblano pepper, lime and sweet aged black garlic) and Papas al mole (José Andrés’ favorite potato fries in a mole poblano sauce of almonds, chiles and a touch of chocolate, topped with Mexican cream and queso fresco). Both were delicious, especially the fries. I took my time and savored the meal as the lunch crowd thinned out. It was fun eavesdropping on nearby DC movers and shakers planning their next assaults on liberty.
After lunch, I went one more block up 7th Street to the National Portrait Gallery. It had been a few years since I’d been there, but it’s long been one of my favorite DC museums. I hadn’t seen the Obama portraits, unveiled about a year earlier, so they were my nominal targets but mainly I looked forward to killing a few hours wandering the museum. I went through most of the current exhibitions, starting slowly on the first floor with American Origins and accelerating as I worked my way up. The museum is still terrific, but it’s a hodgepodge of different topics and themes. Often you walk into a gallery and have to guess what it’s about or seek out an explanatory panel.
One set of paintings I was looking for were Thomas Moran’s monumental landscapes of Yellowstone. We would visit Yellowstone later in the year and I wanted to soak in Moran’s vision.
Eventually, I made it to the Presidents exhibit, and here I must commend the museum website for perhaps surpassing the experience of walking through the exhibit. In real life, the exhibit is nearly overrun with student groups and others bouncing between portraits, taking pictures and gabbing with each other. The Obama portrait is indeed vibrant, moving and draws a line of people wanting a selfie. In contrast, the Clinton portrait is resolutely weird; it’s hard to believe he would approve of it as his official memory, but there’s something apt about it as well. What was he thinking? At the moment, the Obama portrait is the culmination of the exhibit. It’s hard to contemplate that it will soon be followed by a rendering of Trump. As will all history books. Forever. Ughhhh.
Upstairs, in the 20th Century Americans exhibit, is the other current star of the museum, the Michelle Obama portrait. It, too, draws a crowd but I was underwhelmed. When I saw photos of the unveiling, I liked it far better than her husband’s, but in real life it seems flat and a bit colorless. In the same room is a stunning photo of Beyonce. As I’m sure they do almost daily, folks were taking selfies with her, saying “Here’s the real Queen.”
After nearly four hours in the museum, I ran out of steam and decided to head back to the hotel. I napped for a bit until Barb eventually showed up. We headed out to CIRCA at Navy Yard which kept coming up highly rated on Yelp and had a reasonable menu for us both. Barb had shrimp bisque soup and a mushroom flatbread while I had their steak frites and shared the fries. It was fine, hardly special but more than adequate for two tired folks. If I’d been more ambitious I might have planned some other evening entertainment — a movie, play or music somewhere in DC — but honestly I didn’t even think about it. Just getting back and crashing at the hotel seemed plenty appealing. After all, we’re old.
Thursday, May 2, 2019
We woke up early, took advantage of the full breakfast, then checked out of our hotel in time for Barb to get to work. She dropped me off at HHS and I strolled back toward the Library of Congress, stopping for a while to enjoy the Bartholdi fountain and natural garden between HHS and Capitol. It’s a nice, quiet spot that deserves more attention (“a favorite ‘secret’ garden of many Washingtonians,” says the website). The garden focuses on plantings native to the region and is maintained by the neighboring US Botanic Garden.
Bartholdi Fountain with Barb’s HHS HQ in background 
I entered the Madison Building of the Library of Congress as if I were a worker bee, then sought out the Movie/TV reading room. I was the only visitor and got a lesson in searching digital archives from a friendly and very helpful reference librarian. She reinforced the notion that the reading rooms are not really set up for visitor browsing, but I was welcome to search and request anything, particularly if it was already digitized.
Not really having anything specific in mind, I had a hankering to search for folk music performances. My search turned up a 1962 TV recording of Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Bernice Johnson (Reagon) and others in a living room hootenanny setting. It was fun and I haven’t been able to find any evidence of it online. I watched the first of its two hours, then switched to a 1971 documentary of Earl Scruggs playing with Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Doc Watson, the Byrds and many others. This one I have found on YouTube.
Both of the videos were a lot of fun, and I probably wouldn’t have found them if I hadn’t gone down to the Library to wander, but the truth is the Library puts a tremendous amount of material online, and at least as much historical material is available on YouTube, for better or worse. All it takes is time to search and more time to view or listen. Who has enough for all?
I asked my friendly reference librarian whether the Library has a copy of Len’s book, “Coming to Terms with PMS” since it has an ISBN identifier. She looked it up. Nope.
It was time for me to get back home to check on the cats.
Barb’s management conference culminated in an award ceremony where some of her folks where honored, including Don Kosin. Here are a few shots from the ceremony, shared later with Barb, the proud manager.
Don Kosin and General Counsel Charrow 
Don gets a hug 
It was fun exploring the Library of Congress, getting a reader card and feeling free to access the various public reading rooms, but the truth is, these rooms are not set up for the public to browse. They’re for researchers working on specific projects. Fair enough.
It was likewise fun to take a break and explore DC, but the experience was a reminder of the increasing inconvenience for us to travel. We are creatures of our routines, and we have all the stuff we want at home. It’s getting harder and harder to justify leaving home. It’s hard deciding where to have meals. And then there’s Manny.
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