Arts and Humanities Division

The Arts and Humanities Division is a vital hub for the study and exploration of the many forms of human expression. Staff members who specialize in visual arts, music and other performing arts, literature and languages, and religion are available to assist you with a superb, continuously evolving collection of materials and information sources in these subject areas. The division is located in two reading rooms on the second floor of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. The literature, foreign languages, philosophy and religion collections are housed in Room 220. Visual arts, music and other performing arts, sports and recreation collections are housed in Room 207.

The staff of the Arts and Humanities Division is here to assist you with your learning needs. In addition, the division regularly offers programs, book discussions, concerts, and exhibits, and collects information about community events. Please visit or call to learn more.

Visual Arts

Room 207, Phone: 202-727-1291

The art collection includes materials on all types of visual arts history, theory, criticism, and techniques—including fine arts in a variety of media, decorative arts, architecture and design, photography, fashion, graphic arts, collectibles, crafts, calligraphy and cartooning. In addition to books, the collection includes vertical files about individual artists (especially local artists) and art topics, museum catalogs, encyclopedias and other art reference sources, auction records, art journals, and online indexes to articles and images.

Music, Performing Arts and Recreation

Room 207, Phone 202-727-1291

The music collection includes books, scores (printed music), compact discs of classical music, and LPs (vinyl). Downloadable music is also available on the library’s Web site. Book topics include music history, theory, world music traditions and musical instruments. Music scores include operas, librettos, musical theater works, choral music and hymnals, classical song books, popular songbooks, orchestral scores, chamber music with scores and parts, piano and other instrumental solos, method books for learning an instrument, fake books, scholarly sets of complete works of some composers, and miniature scores for study. The Kindler Collection is a special collection of sets of orchestral parts for registered local orchestras to borrow. Books on other arts and recreation include motion pictures (history, production and screenplays), television, radio, theater craft, classical and social dance, games, and all individual and team sports.

Literature and Language

Room 220, Phone 202-727-1281

The literature collection includes works of poetry, drama (stage plays, monologues and dramatic works other than screenplays), humor and essays. Literary history and criticism are well represented both in print sources and online, as are books on the art of writing and publishing. Also included are books on journalism, library science, book collecting and grammar. Dictionaries in English and other languages are available. The foreign language collection includes all fiction and nonfiction books held by the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in languages other than English, books for learning select languages and dictionaries/grammars for foreign languages. Downloadable language learning is also available.

Religion

Room 220, Phone 202-727-1281

The religion collection is also in Room 220. It includes a wide breadth of subject matter, both popular and scholarly. The collection is particularly strong in biblical studies, historical theology, Christian church history, major world religions (Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism), and spirituality.