Library of Congress opens once-hidden items to the public

Correction: Plans to build an oculus in the Library of Congress’s main reading room were scrapped in 2022.

Curious what was in President Lincoln’s pockets on the day of his assassination? The contents — along with some 120 historical artifacts — are now on public display at the Library of Congress for the first time. 

The inaugural exhibit, “Collecting Memories,” in the brand-new David M. Rubenstein Treasures Gallery is set to open on June 13. The gallery is a part of an initiative from the library to increase the public’s engagement with its collections, which hold more than 178 million items. 

The Treasures Gallery is the first of a three-part expansion of visitor experience programs at the Thomas Jefferson Building. Plans for the exhibit date back to 2019 when Congress first approved a $60 million private-public partnership to build “A Library for You” — which originally included plans for an oculus looking into the main reading room and a youth center. The Library has since scrapped the plans for the oculus due to design issues, opting to install only the orientation gallery from the original design.

Lawmakers appropriated $40 million to the project, with the remaining $20 million to be matched by private donors. Philanthropist David M. Rubenstein made a lead gift of $10 million to support the gallery, which is now named in his honor.

“Now, the Library of Congress will be increasingly recognized as a place where you don’t have to just be a scholar to come,” Rubenstein explained at a media preview of the gallery Monday.

“Collecting Memories” was chosen as the gallery’s first entry to draw together items across the library’s vast collection — a selection that spans millennia and continents. 

Among the collection are oral histories documenting the COVID-19 pandemic, photos of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s first test of the nuclear bomb, cuneiform tablets dating back to 3,200 BCE, and a copy of the golden “Sounds of Earth” discs hurtling into deep space on the Voyager missions.

Library officials hope the collection will draw visitors to explore the library’s holdings and delve into the nation’s history.

“That’s what’s so wonderful about Washington D.C.: you have a number of cultural institutions, and the Library of Congress is one of those. And, we also have the aspect of people being able to get a reader’s card at 16,” Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden told The Hill. “They can actually come and do research, so now they can see the treasures that might spark an interest.”

Mila Hill, a junior fellow at the library and rising senior at Howard University, stumbled across a slice of her own family’s history at a preview of the collection Monday. On the far-right side of the exhibit lies a tapestry of the Blackwell Kinsfolk Family Tree — a one-of-a-kind canvas tracing the lineage of a Black family to their first ancestors on the American continent. 

After a few moments scanning the tapestry, Hill, a relative of the most famous Blackwell — tennis great Arthur Ashe Jr. — found her great-great grandmother Mary Reese.

“For it to be here while I happen to work here, it just feels fake. It’s like a movie, it feels so special,” Hill said. 

Hill’s experience echoed the aspirations Rubenstein and library officials have for the largest library in the world.

“That’s what we want our visitors to feel,” Hayden said. “We want people to see themselves.”

Visitors to the District of Columbia can take a detour off the National Mall and add the Library of Congress as a spot to catch a glimpse into the nation’s history. Timed tickets to the gallery are available at loc.gov/visit.

The exhibit will run for 18 months, followed by an exhibit celebrating the United States Semiquincentennial ahead of the anniversary date on July 4, 2026.

So what was in Lincoln’s pockets? A chamois lens polisher, silk-lined leather wallet, and a crisp Confederate five-dollar bill.

Updated 10:01 a.m. ET, June 11.