In 1894, construction of the Thomas Jefferson Building, the oldest of the three buildings that make up the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, was almost complete. Once the exterior was well mastered, the architects turned to the interior, commissioning large murals from renowned artists. The sponsors of these murals deliberately wanted to "personify the ideals of the [American] people" through government-sponsored art, and provide a relatively young nation with a story about itself - a visual "literature" which would link them back to the distant past.1 Among the most famous of these murals is Edwin Blashfield's The Evolution of Civilization which occupies the massive dome of the main reading room; Twelve cultures are represented in the circle, each credited with a unique contribution to Western civilization.2 In one case, ancient Egypt is depicted as having contributed to civilization through "written records", represented by a figure wearing a typically Egyptian headdress.3 However, various researches, some of which actually took place at the end of the 19th century, call this particular choice into question; ancient cuneiform records from Mesopotamia date back to 5000 BCE4, while Egyptian hieroglyphics appeared around 3400 BCE5. This suggests that Mesopotamia should share with Egypt the honor of contributing to the written records of Western civilization, if not displacing it. The 19th-century British explorer Henry Rawlinson was one of the first archaeologists to draw attention to the importance of cuneiform writing. It can be said that his most valuable discovery was the monument of Bisitun, in present-day Iran; Bitisun is a huge memorial dedicated to Darius, famous king of ancient Persia. Accor...... middle of paper ...... to remind a young nation that it was not alone. In the context of 19th-century American history, what mattered was developing a connection to the past. Works of art such as the murals in the Thomas Jefferson Building tell one version of the truth and should be accepted and interpreted as such. It is unlikely that anyone would base a historical studies program on the evolution of civilization; after all, the fact that students learn the importance of both cuneiform and hieroglyphics in modern schools is what really matters. It is also worth remembering that the truly valuable act of writers or artists in any period of history is that they took the trouble to paint or write. However imperfect, humanity tells a story with its cuneiform alphabets, hieroglyphics and murals; the fact that we have a story to tell about ourselves is worth celebrating.