Churchill and the Great Public Exhibition

On D-Day, 2004, the Library will open a landmark public exhibition on the remarkable life and career of Sir Winston Churchill. The exhibition will feature, for the first time in the United States, the Churchill Papers, Sir Winston's own enormous archive, containing everything from his childhood letters and school reports to his final writings. After the premiere at the Library of Congress, the exhibition will be available for presentation in up to three additional venues across the United States.

The National Book Festival

Building on the tremendous success of the first National Book Festival, the Library will again join forces with the first lady to present a second festival celebrating reading and literacy for learners of all ages. This year's festival will be held on the West Front Lawn of the United States Capitol and the lower end of the national Mall, and will feature distinguished authors and illustrators from all genres, storytelling, musical performances, storybook characters, informational clinics on copyright and conservation, demonstrations by the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, digital learning experiences and an array of other activities and experiences for young and old alike.

The Waldseemuller Map

The only known surviving copy of the first map to bear the name of America, often called "the baptismal certificate of the New World," will be the crown jewel on the library's already unparalleled collection of globes and atlases. The world map, a woodcut print on paper in 12 sections, 8 by 4½ feet altogether, is thought to be the first cartographic depiction of the Americas as a land mass separate from Asia.
The Dream of Flight: Romance and Realization

In 2003, the Library of Congress will commemorate the first century of powered flight with an exhibition celebrating the Wright Brothers' historic powered flight of December 17, 1903. The Library will draw upon its unparalleled collection of aeronautica (documents, letters, prints, rare books, maps, photographs, motion pictures and selected artifacts from other institutions) to present a major exhibition that will examine mankind's nearly universal dream of flying and how it was suddenly transformed from an aspiration to a reality by the Wright Brothers. The exhibition will be presented in the Library's magnificent Jefferson Building.