Washington, D.C

Libraries and Museums

Founded in 1896, the District of Columbia Public Library System serves 543,000 people, with an annual circulation of 1,476,935. Its book holdings total approximately 2,863,296 volumes. The library system also operates 25 neighborhood branches. The areas in which it holds special collections include Illustrators of Early English and American Children's Books, Local History and Local Authors, and the Washington Star Newspaper Collection.

The Library of Congress, which celebrated the bicentennial of its founding in 2000, is the world's largest library, with approximately 17 million books, 12 million photographs, two million recordings, and a multitude of other items housed on some 853 kilometers (530 miles) of shelves. Early in its history, the museum purchased the contents of Thomas Jefferson's personal library; much of this great treasure was lost, however, in 1851, when two-thirds of the collection was destroyed by fire (the museum's second major fire; most of its original holdings had been incinerated in an 1814 conflagration). Today the library owns books and periodicals published in some 460 different languages. Included within its collections are the world's largest law library; the largest rare book collection in North America; the papers of 23 presidents; the largest comic book collection in existence; the world's largest collection of American music; and the world's most extensive collection of films and television broadcasts produced both in the United States and abroad.

The Folger Shakespeare Library, a privately funded institution established in 1932, is home to the world's largest collection of the printed works of English playwright-poet William Shakespeare (1564–1616). Its 280,000 books and manuscripts also include thousands of other Renaissance books and manuscripts, and the library functions as a major academic research center for scholars and graduate students throughout the world. Every year the museum is opened to the public in April when Shakespeare's birthday is commemorated. The Folger also serves as a performing arts venue, with concerts and plays presented in its Great Hall and Elizabethan Theatre.

The Smithsonian Institution, established by the federal government in 1846, operates 14 museums in the nation's capital, nine of them located on the Mall, including the National Air and Space Museum; the Joseph H. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, which is dedicated to modern and contemporary art; the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, a museum of Asian art; and the National Museum of African Art. Among the museums located off the Mall are the National Portrait Gallery, which features portraits of persons who have made significant contributions to the country; the Renwick Gallery, which displays American crafts; the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum; and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, a memorial to the millions of Jews and non-Jews killed by the Nazis during World War II, and an international center for study and documentation of the Holocaust.

The privately operated Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington's oldest art museum, features American paintings but also includes European artworks dating as far back as the Middle Ages. Other private museums in the capital include the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the National Building Museum, and the Textile Museum.