Renowned photographer Carol Highsmith donated her entire collection of photographs (approximately 150,000, and that number is still growing) to the Library of Congress. One subset of this collection are her extraordinary photographs of libraries across the US.

Ms. Highsmith has gifted these photos, copyright-free, to the American people. An index of these libraries is below the slideshow.

(Click on photo to slide to the next one—some computers might require a double-click to move to next photo)

• Interior of the William H. Welch Medical Library Baltimore MD (photo with long rectangular table, glass cabinets filled with books on either side)

• The John Work Garrett Library, part of the Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries. Baltimore, MD (red-upholstered chairs and couch, fireplace in room)

• Welwood Murray Memorial Library: Once the main branch of the Palm Springs, California, public library system, the 1940 Welwood Murray building became a private, non-profit library run by volunteers

• Library on the Go and Read Rover, part of the mobile library service for the Public Library System in Baltimore County, MD

• The Carnegie Public Library in Bryan, the oldest existing Carnegie Library in Texas

• George Peabody Library, formerly the Library of the Peabody Institute of the City of Baltimore (interior of library, looking at several floors of walkways and books)

• San Francisco Library, San Francisco, California (woman sitting outside, looking at library building)

• Stained glass details at the William H. Welch Medical Library, the library of the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland

• The Muncie Public Library building in Muncie, Indiana

To see more of Ms. Highsmith’s collection of libraries and other U.S. locales, click Highsmith (Carol M.) Archive, Library of Congress.

Have a great week, Colleen