We hold these truths to be user-accessible and in hypertext…
Overdue...
“When in the course of human events,”
the well-known text begins, “it becomes
necessary for a people to advance from that subordination in which they have
hitherto remained …” Wait a minute. That’s not quite right.
And Thomas Jefferson must have known it too, which is why brackets surround the
unfamiliar words. Two lines are drawn through them and, above, with a firm hand,
are written the corrections: “it becomes necessary for one people to
dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another
…”
Corrections were also made in the next paragraph: “We hold these truths,” it begins, “to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equal & independent.” Again, wrong. Men are not really created independent: they are born in a state of complete dependence. Condense and clarify: “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal.”
And the world begins to change…
Two kiosks offer the chance to look more closely at the Library of Congress Gutenberg Bible and examine selected pages; others explain the mythological and literary references in the ornaments of the Italian Renaissance-style Jefferson Building. The exhibition “Thomas Jefferson’s Library” also uses such kiosks to help look inside a few 18th-century books. And yes, these kiosks are what allowed me to see the changes in the Declaration so clearly, even identifying the different handwriting on the document.
These screens are partly meant to attract more visitors, and now their features and information will also be reproduced at the library’s new Web sites - loc.gov/experience and myloc.gov.
Read something new - and old - this weekend.
Corrections were also made in the next paragraph: “We hold these truths,” it begins, “to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equal & independent.” Again, wrong. Men are not really created independent: they are born in a state of complete dependence. Condense and clarify: “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal.”
And the world begins to change…
Two kiosks offer the chance to look more closely at the Library of Congress Gutenberg Bible and examine selected pages; others explain the mythological and literary references in the ornaments of the Italian Renaissance-style Jefferson Building. The exhibition “Thomas Jefferson’s Library” also uses such kiosks to help look inside a few 18th-century books. And yes, these kiosks are what allowed me to see the changes in the Declaration so clearly, even identifying the different handwriting on the document.
These screens are partly meant to attract more visitors, and now their features and information will also be reproduced at the library’s new Web sites - loc.gov/experience and myloc.gov.
Read something new - and old - this weekend.
Posted: Sun - April 13, 2008 at 12:55 PM