Statue of Minerva, with lamp.Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. March 2007.
The Jefferson Building's Great Hall opened in 1897, when the Library of Congress was almost a century old, and I like to think Jefferson would have loved the relentless symbolism with which the room nearly drips. It's the only place I know where even I respond to the heavy-handed effort to inspire awe and reverence. And if you have to fill the place with god-figures, they could have hardly have chosen better than to place statues of Minerva/Athena, goddess of Wisdom, all about the room.
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