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Cannon House Office Building and Library of Congress Postcard

Color postcard featuring a printed illustration of the Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building on the left and the Cannon House Office Building on the right, perpendicular to each other. In front of both buildings is a circular green space with trees. Text reads, “Library of Congress and House Office Building, Washington, D.C. Greetings from Robert L. Bacon, Congressman from Long Island.”/tiles/collection/6/6328.xml
Reverse of postcard, unsent, with maker’s information, and a printed caption that reads, “This view of the Library of Congress and House Office Building from Dome of the U.S. Capitol is looking southeast and gives the stranger to the Capitol City, an idea of the artistic plan of treatment, instituted by Major L’Enfant, the great French engineer, who laid out the city at the solicitation of George Washington.”/tiles/collection/1/15611.xml
Color postcard featuring a printed illustration of the Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building on the left and the Cannon House Office Building on the right, perpendicular to each other. In front of both buildings is a circular green space with trees. Text reads, “Library of Congress and House Office Building, Washington, D.C. Greetings from Robert L. Bacon, Congressman from Long Island.”
Reverse of postcard, unsent, with maker’s information, and a printed caption that reads, “This view of the Library of Congress and House Office Building from Dome of the U.S. Capitol is looking southeast and gives the stranger to the Capitol City, an idea of the artistic plan of treatment, instituted by Major L’Enfant, the great French engineer, who laid out the city at the solicitation of George Washington.”
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Date

ca. 1928

Publisher

B.S. Reynolds Co., Washington, DC

Dimensions

3 1/2 x 5 1/2 in. (8.9 x 14 cm)

Accession Number

2008.278.000

Credit Line

Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives

Object Details

The completion of the first House Office Building in 1908 was part of a transformation of the Capitol complex that took place around the turn of the century. The changes began with the construction of the Library of Congress Jefferson Building which opened in 1897, and continued with this building a decade later. The two structures helped modernize work on the Hill, providing space for Congressmen and the Congress’s books, all of which were long crowded together in to the Capitol. Here, the two newer buildings are shown from an aerial perspective on a postcard sent by Congressman Robert L. Bacon.

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