America - Science
160 feet above the floor of the Main Reading Room, the Library of Congress' dome has a collar of allegorical paintings around the lantern.
12 figures represent either epochs or countries that were deemed (at construction, in 1896) to have contributed the most to human civilization.
Here, the face of the figure for America is modeled on Abraham Lincoln. He contemplates a mechanical problem, sitting at a dynamo which
represents America's contribution to the advancement of electricity. Science then, is the overall contribution credited to America.
(France, at left, represents Emancipation.) The 12 collar figures around the lantern were designed and painted by Edwin Blashfield in 1896.
The dome's plasterwork, visible at the bottom left, is remarkable; gilded garlands, lyres, putti, birds, lamps, rosettes, crests, egg-and-dart...
© Chris Budny
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