Library
Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave SE, Washington, DC 20540, USA
Reading room and national library holding the ten-million-dollar map that first named America.
This guide to the Library of Congress follows the Waldseemuller map of 1507, the first document to print the word America, from its three and a half centuries folded away in a castle library in Wolfegg, Germany, to its rediscovery by a Jesuit historian in 1901. You'll hear about Martin Waldseemuller's small team in Saint-Die piecing together reports of Amerigo Vespucci's voyages, and about the Waldburg-Wolfegg family who kept the map for generations. Listen for how word of a possible sale abroad reached Washington.
Audio guides are written and narrated by AI.