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Events at the Library of Congress

Monday December 8, 2025

  • Event | exhibits and tours Treasures from the Stephen Sondheim Collection
    • Monday, December 08, 2025 8:30 am - 5:00 pm EST
    • James Madison Building, Performing Arts Reading Room
    In 2025, the Library of Congress acquired the papers of Stephen Sondheim, one of the most celebrated figures in twentieth-century musical theater. This small display in the Performing Arts Reading Room features highlights from the collection, including lyrics and music from his musicals "Into the Woods," "Sunday in the Park with George," "Merrily We Roll Along," "Sweeney Todd" and "A Little Night Music."

Tuesday December 9, 2025

  • Event | courses and workshops An Introduction to Congress.gov
    This orientation is designed to give a basic overview of Congress.gov. While the focus of the session will be searching legislation and the Congressional member information attached to the legislation, the new features of Congress.gov will be highlighted.
    More information at zoomgov.com.
  • Event | exhibits and tours Treasures from the Stephen Sondheim Collection
    • Tuesday, December 09, 2025 8:30 am - 5:00 pm EST
    • James Madison Building, Performing Arts Reading Room
    In 2025, the Library of Congress acquired the papers of Stephen Sondheim, one of the most celebrated figures in twentieth-century musical theater. This small display in the Performing Arts Reading Room features highlights from the collection, including lyrics and music from his musicals "Into the Woods," "Sunday in the Park with George," "Merrily We Roll Along," "Sweeney Todd" and "A Little Night Music."
  • Event | exhibits and tours Art of War: Artwork from the Veterans History Project
    • Tuesday, December 09, 2025 10:00 am - 5:00 pm EST
    • Thomas Jefferson Building, Great Hall - 2nd Floor (LJ-200-E)
    Since 2000, the American Folklife Center’s Veterans History Project has collected, preserved, and shared the stories of American veterans. In addition to oral histories, photographs and documents, the Veterans History Project collects works of art. This small display features artworks reproduced from the collection.
  • Event | exhibits and tours Collecting Memories: Treasures from the Library of Congress
    • Tuesday, December 09, 2025 10:00 am - 5:00 pm EST
    • Thomas Jefferson Building, Northwest Gallery
    The Library of Congress preserves collective memories representing entire societies as well as intimate records of important moments and rites of passage in individual lives. The inaugural exhibition in the David M. Rubenstein Treasures Gallery draws from the Library’s rich Americana and international holdings in more than 450 languages and in forms created across time and continents.
  • Event | exhibits and tours Here to Stay: The Legacy of George and Ira Gershwin
    • Tuesday, December 09, 2025 10:00 am - 5:00 pm EST
    • Thomas Jefferson Building, George and Ira Gershwin Room
    Experience the glamour and sophistication of the 1920s and 1930s in this permanent tribute to brothers George and Ira Gershwin, who helped provide a musical background to the period. The exhibition contains a wealth of materials that provide insight into their careers and personalities.
  • Event | exhibits and tours The Music of Oz: Treasures from "The Wizard of Oz" (1939), "The Wiz" (1978) and "Wicked" (2003)
    • Tuesday, December 09, 2025 10:00 am - 5:00 pm EST
    • Thomas Jefferson Building, Great Hall - 2nd Floor (LJ-200-E)
    2025 marks the 125th anniversary of L. Frank Baum’s novel "The Wizard of Oz." This small display features music and lyric manuscripts, costume designs, and photographs from films and musicals inspired by the book, including "The Wizard of Oz" (1939), "The Wiz" (1978) and "Wicked" (2003). Highlights include a reproduction of the only lyric sketch for “Over the Rainbow” known to exist.
  • Event | exhibits and tours Thomas Jefferson’s Library
    • Tuesday, December 09, 2025 10:00 am - 8:00 pm EST
    • Thomas Jefferson Building, Southeast Pavilion
    Take a trip through this major exhibition, a re-created version of Jefferson’s library, which assembles 6,487 volumes that founded the Library of Congress, and learn how one of America’s greatest thinkers was inspired through the world of books.
  • Event | exhibits and tours The Two Georges: Parallel Lives in an Age of Revolution
    • Tuesday, December 09, 2025 10:00 am - 5:00 pm EST
    • Thomas Jefferson Building, Southwest Gallery
    Our understanding of George Washington and King George III of Britain is clouded by myths that have accumulated over centuries. This exhibition explores the lives and legacies of the two adversaries during America’s war for independence. The Library of Congress brings their papers together for the first time to reveal the real men behind the myths.
  • Event | exhibits and tours United States Marine Corps Turns 250
    • Tuesday, December 09, 2025 10:00 am - 5:00 pm EST
    • Thomas Jefferson Building, Great Hall - 2nd Floor (LJ-200-E)
    This small display from the American Folklife Center’s Veterans History Project celebrates the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Marine Corps through photographs, documents, posters, and more reproduced from the Library of Congress collections.

Wednesday December 10, 2025

  • Event | lectures and symposia The Water Test and Witch Trials in Renaissance Germany
    • Wednesday, December 10, 2025 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm EST
    • James Madison Building, Montpelier Room (LM-619)
    Nathan Dorn, Library of Congress Staff Fellow at the Kluge Center, and Rare Books Curator at the Law Library of Congress, will discuss the practice of dunking people who were accused of the crime of witchcraft in water to determine their guilt or innocence.
  • Event | exhibits and tours Treasures from the Stephen Sondheim Collection
    • Wednesday, December 10, 2025 8:30 am - 5:00 pm EST
    • James Madison Building, Performing Arts Reading Room
    In 2025, the Library of Congress acquired the papers of Stephen Sondheim, one of the most celebrated figures in twentieth-century musical theater. This small display in the Performing Arts Reading Room features highlights from the collection, including lyrics and music from his musicals "Into the Woods," "Sunday in the Park with George," "Merrily We Roll Along," "Sweeney Todd" and "A Little Night Music."
  • Event | exhibits and tours Art of War: Artwork from the Veterans History Project
    • Wednesday, December 10, 2025 10:00 am - 5:00 pm EST
    • Thomas Jefferson Building, Great Hall - 2nd Floor (LJ-200-E)
    Since 2000, the American Folklife Center’s Veterans History Project has collected, preserved, and shared the stories of American veterans. In addition to oral histories, photographs and documents, the Veterans History Project collects works of art. This small display features artworks reproduced from the collection.
  • Event | exhibits and tours Collecting Memories: Treasures from the Library of Congress
    • Wednesday, December 10, 2025 10:00 am - 5:00 pm EST
    • Thomas Jefferson Building, Northwest Gallery
    The Library of Congress preserves collective memories representing entire societies as well as intimate records of important moments and rites of passage in individual lives. The inaugural exhibition in the David M. Rubenstein Treasures Gallery draws from the Library’s rich Americana and international holdings in more than 450 languages and in forms created across time and continents.
  • Event | exhibits and tours Here to Stay: The Legacy of George and Ira Gershwin
    • Wednesday, December 10, 2025 10:00 am - 5:00 pm EST
    • Thomas Jefferson Building, George and Ira Gershwin Room
    Experience the glamour and sophistication of the 1920s and 1930s in this permanent tribute to brothers George and Ira Gershwin, who helped provide a musical background to the period. The exhibition contains a wealth of materials that provide insight into their careers and personalities.
  • Event | exhibits and tours The Music of Oz: Treasures from "The Wizard of Oz" (1939), "The Wiz" (1978) and "Wicked" (2003)
    • Wednesday, December 10, 2025 10:00 am - 5:00 pm EST
    • Thomas Jefferson Building, Great Hall - 2nd Floor (LJ-200-E)
    2025 marks the 125th anniversary of L. Frank Baum’s novel "The Wizard of Oz." This small display features music and lyric manuscripts, costume designs, and photographs from films and musicals inspired by the book, including "The Wizard of Oz" (1939), "The Wiz" (1978) and "Wicked" (2003). Highlights include a reproduction of the only lyric sketch for “Over the Rainbow” known to exist.
  • Event | exhibits and tours Thomas Jefferson’s Library
    • Wednesday, December 10, 2025 10:00 am - 8:00 pm EST
    • Thomas Jefferson Building, Southeast Pavilion
    Take a trip through this major exhibition, a re-created version of Jefferson’s library, which assembles 6,487 volumes that founded the Library of Congress, and learn how one of America’s greatest thinkers was inspired through the world of books.
  • Event | exhibits and tours The Two Georges: Parallel Lives in an Age of Revolution
    • Wednesday, December 10, 2025 10:00 am - 5:00 pm EST
    • Thomas Jefferson Building, Southwest Gallery
    Our understanding of George Washington and King George III of Britain is clouded by myths that have accumulated over centuries. This exhibition explores the lives and legacies of the two adversaries during America’s war for independence. The Library of Congress brings their papers together for the first time to reveal the real men behind the myths.
  • Event | exhibits and tours United States Marine Corps Turns 250
    • Wednesday, December 10, 2025 10:00 am - 5:00 pm EST
    • Thomas Jefferson Building, Great Hall - 2nd Floor (LJ-200-E)
    This small display from the American Folklife Center’s Veterans History Project celebrates the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Marine Corps through photographs, documents, posters, and more reproduced from the Library of Congress collections.

Thursday December 11, 2025

  • Event | courses and workshops Orientation to Legal Research: Tracing Federal Regulations
    This entry in the series provides an overview of U.S. federal regulations, including information about the notice and comment rulemaking process, the publication and citation of regulations, and the tracing of regulations from the Code of Federal Regulations to the proposed rule in the Federal Register, to the regulation’s docket.
    More information at zoomgov.com.
  • Event | courses and workshops Human Rights Day 2025
    To help celebrate the upcoming 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, this Human Rights Day event will draw on the Law Library's foreign, comparative, and international law expertise by highlighting the impact the Declaration had, not only domestically, but also in several foreign jurisdictions.
    More information at zoomgov.com.
  • Event | special events Live! At The Library
    • Thursday, December 11, 2025 5:00 pm - 8:00 pm EST
    • Thomas Jefferson Building, Great Hall
    The Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building and all exhibitions will be open for extended hours on Thursdays. Visitors are invited to enjoy happy hour drinks and food available for purchase in the Great Hall and the Jefferson Building’s beautiful architecture while immersing themselves in the Library’s exhibits, collections and programs.
  • Event | lectures and symposia Live! At the Library: U.S. Poet Laureate Inaugural Event Celebrating Arthur Sze Event has been updated
    • Thursday, December 11, 2025 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm EST
    • Thomas Jefferson Building, Coolidge Auditorium (LJ-G45A)
    Award-winning poet Arthur Sze will give his inaugural reading as the 25th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry at the Library of Congress. The historic reading marks the beginning of Sze's laureateship. Book signing to follow.
    This event will be livestreamed on YouTube.
  • Event | film and video screenings Sparrows (1926)
    • Thursday, December 11, 2025 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm EST
    • Culpeper, VA: National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, Packard Campus Theater
    Mary Pickford plays the oldest of a group of orphan children working on a farm deep in the Louisiana bayous. Fed up with the horrible conditions, she leads the kids on a perilous journey in search of a better life. Silent, with live musical accompaniment by Ben Model. Black & white, 109 min. (Film)
  • Event | exhibits and tours Treasures from the Stephen Sondheim Collection
    • Thursday, December 11, 2025 8:30 am - 5:00 pm EST
    • James Madison Building, Performing Arts Reading Room
    In 2025, the Library of Congress acquired the papers of Stephen Sondheim, one of the most celebrated figures in twentieth-century musical theater. This small display in the Performing Arts Reading Room features highlights from the collection, including lyrics and music from his musicals "Into the Woods," "Sunday in the Park with George," "Merrily We Roll Along," "Sweeney Todd" and "A Little Night Music."