The Division of Germany

At the Yalta Conference (February 4-11, 1945) Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin tried to work out arrangements for the postwar world, especially in regard to Eastern Europe, Central Europe, and the future of the United Nations. This hand-drawn map was intended for use in establishing occupation zones in Germany. Reluctant to make a hasty and final decision on this matter, Churchill said that the Big Three were "dealing with the fate of eighty million people and that required more than eighty minutes to consider." /
Manuscript map, 1945.
W. Averell Harriman Papers,
Manuscript Division (223)
/

For European Recovery: The Fiftieth Anniversary of the Marshall Plan

HOME - Introduction - Key Dates for the Marshall Plan - Learn More About It - Credits
Exhibition sections: Marshall Plan - Communist Domination - Truman Signs - Leaders - Countries - Promoting
Communist Critique - Soviet Opposition - Negative View - Dutch View - Benefits for U.S. - Shipping Abroad
Stuttgart--Before & After - Establishment of Fund - Danish Celebration

A Danish Celebration of the Marshall Plan

The title of this Danish-produced poster translates as "Peace Without Fear: Security and Cooperation." The poster was prepared to promote a display Copenhagen. The design incorporates the flags of the Marshall Plan countries, visually demonstrating how the plan fostered international cooperation.
Fred uden frygt: Sikkerhed Gennem Samarbejde.
Denmark: I. Chr. Sorensen & Co, ca. 1951. Poster.
Gary Yanker Collection. Prints and Photographs Division (15)
HOME - Introduction - Key Dates for the Marshall Plan - Learn More About It - Credits
Exhibition sections: Marshall Plan - Communist Domination - Truman Signs - Leaders - Countries - Promoting
Communist Critique - Soviet Opposition - Negative View - Dutch View - Benefits for U.S. - Shipping Abroad
Stuttgart--Before & After - Establishment of Fund - Danish Celebration
Exhibits Home Page - Library of Congress Home Page

The English Bible, Containing the
Old Testament and the New.
London: The Doves Press 1903-05.
Rosenwald Collection,
Rare Book and Special Collections Division (3) /

Opening Genesis

This elongated initial letter and bold rendering of "In the Beginning" in red ink make this one of the most powerful and evocative titlepages in printing history. T.J. Cobden-Sanderson, the founder of the Doves Press, commissioned Edward Johnston to design the first page of this typographical masterpiece. The Doves Press Bible is one of the monuments of the Arts and Craft Movement that swept Great Britain and America at the end of the nineteenthcentury.
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Exhibition Areas:Introduction - Creation - Explaining and Ordering - Recording the Experience


The Koran's First Chapter


Koran.
Hand-copied in Arabic by
Naskhi Ayyub 'Ali Muhammad
Rahim al-Nisawi, n.d.
African and Middle Eastern Division (1.2) /
Koran.
Hand-copied in Arabic by
Kohazadeh Ahmad Rashid Safi.
Page 2
Decorated by Adham Gharbaldeh al-Balawi.
Probably Persian, nineteenth century.
African and Middle Eastern Division (1)
This nineteenth-century hand-copied Koran in Arabic is open to the Fatiha, the opening chapter of Islam's holy book. In seven very short verses, the Fatiha sums up man's relation to God in prayer. The first verse "In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful" is said out loud by Muslims at the beginning of every major action they undertake each day: before a prayer, before a meal, before work, before travel, before a public speech, and so forth. It is one of the most important phrases in the Arabic language.
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Exhibition Areas:Introduction - Creation - Explaining and Ordering - Recording the Experience

Earth with its mountains, rivers and seas, Sky with its sun, moon and stars: in the beginning all these were one, and the one was Chaos. Nothing had taken shape, all was a dark swirling confusion, over and under, round and round. For countless ages this was the way of the universe, unformed and illumined, until from the midst of Chaos came P'an Ku....[H]e raised his great arm and struck out blindly in the face of the murk, and with one great crashing blow he scattered the elements of Chaos.
"Heaven and Earth and Man"
Chinese Myths and Fantasies, 1996

Creation Accounts and Depictions



Hamishah Humshei Torah
(The Five Books of the Torah).
Berlin: Soncino Gesellschaft, 1933.
Hebraic Section,
African and Middle Eastern Division (4) /

The Opening Word of the Bible

The Hebrew word Beresheet, which means "in the beginning," opens the Book of Genesis. This decorated initial word is from the first volume of a planned multi-volume edition of the Hebrew Bible. The volume was published by the Society of Jewish Bibliophiles, the Soncino Gesellschaft, in Germany in 1933. Hitler's rise to power prevented the Society from completing what would have been the first bibliophilic edition of the Hebrew Scriptures.