THi; MAIN RUADING-ROOM IN THE; LIBRARY OF CONGRESS (SKE PAGE 273) 



With art, architecture, and sculpture lending their purest conceptions to its beautification, 

 the main reading-room of the Library of Congress is unsurpassed among the reading-rooms 

 of the world's libraries, both in size and splendor. It constitutes the great central rotunda 

 of the Library. Above it rises the gold dome, capped with its ever-burning torch of learning. 

 The most famous colored marbles in the world — dark from Tennessee, red from Numidia, 

 and yellow from Siena — give it its rich color effects. Truly, as the great Vedder mosaic 

 outside the reading-room proclaims, "Minerva was at her best when she builded this monu- 

 ment, more enduring than bronze." 



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