The LOC.GOV Wise Guide : Eye Candy

"Eyes of the Nation," a magnificent one-volume pictorial and narrative history of the United States with more than 500 exceptional illustrations, many reproduced for the first time, has just been issued in soft cover by Knopf, in association with the Library of Congress.

Martha Graham and Erich Hawkins starred in the premiere of Appalachian Spring at the Library's Coolidge Auditorium in 1944.

Travels in the Interior of the North American Continent.

Never before has America's past been made so intriguingly accessible, both to the eyes and to the mind. Eyes of the Nation features seven chapters of lucid historical commentary by the distinguished historian Alan Brinkley. A bountiful narrative-in-pictures is drawn from the millions of maps, prints, photographs, posters, manuscripts, motion picture stills and other treasures in the nonbook collections of the Library of Congress. The book proceeds from the first encounter of Europeans and Indians, through colonial days and the founding of the nation, industrialization and westward expansion, the transformations of the 19th and 20th centuries, to the present day. The brilliant selections of Vincent Virga and the Library's curators document every stage of the nation's development. Each chapter is introduced by an essay by the National Book Award-winning historian Alan Brinkley.

If you love baseball, then you must have "Baseball's Book of Firsts." Or perhaps a Library of Congress baseball. The Library holds an extraordinary collection of early baseball cards, viewable online in "Baseball Cards: 1887-1914."

The "Children's Corner" of the Sales Shop features books ranging from Olivia the pig to puzzles, T-shirts and an assortment of Dr. Seuss puppets.

In the Prints and Images section hundreds of images from the incomparable collections of the Library are offered for sale in archival-quality prints. And don't miss the newly available collection of historic paintings of North American landscapes and Plains Indians created by artist Karl Bodmer on his travels through North America in 1832-34.

A. Cover, "Eyes of the Nation" (2004). Reproduction information: Not available for reproduction.

B. Image from a three-volume rare book in the Library of Congress, " Voyage dans l'int_rieur d'Am_rique du Nord" ["Travels in the Interior of the North American Continent"], 1832-1834], by Alexander Philipp Maximilian, Prinz of Wied-Neuwied (1782-1867), a German scientist. Reproduction information: This image and others from this book available from the Library of Congress Sales Shop at http://www.loc.gov/shop/