![]() ![]() Capitol features nine prominent busts of Great Men as selected by Ainsworth Rand Spofford in accordance with Gilded Age ideals. The second-floor portico of the front entrance facing the U.S. ![]() On the exterior, sculptured portrait heads that were considered typical of the world's races were installed as keystones on the main storey's window arches. The central block is broadly comparable to the Palais Garnier in Paris, a similarly ambitious expression of triumphant cultural nationalism in the Beaux-Arts style that had triumphed at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, 1893. The Thomas Jefferson Building, containing some of the richest public interiors in the United States, is a compendium of the work of classically trained American sculptors and painters of the " American Renaissance", in programs of symbolic content that exhibited the progress of civilization, personified in Great Men and culminating in the American official culture of the Gilded Age the programs were in many cases set out by the Librarian of Congress, Ainsworth Rand Spofford. The Library opened to the public in 1897 and the finishing work was completed in 1898. Casey is credited for the completion of the interiors and the artistic supervision of the building's unique decorative program. While Smithmeyer was instrumental in securing the commission, Pelz appears to have been the main designer of the building and oversaw most of the exterior work. Army Corps of Engineers, who at the time was in charge of the building's construction. ![]() Pelz was himself dismissed in 1892 and replaced by Edward Pearce Casey, the son of Brig. In 1888, Smithmeyer was dismissed and Pelz became the lead architect. The start of the project was delayed by congressional debates until a vote in 1886. Pelz won the competition for the architectural plans of the library in 1873. The Great Hall, View of first and second floors, with Minerva mosaic in background
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