Havin’ a Capitol Time

WASHINGTON—I thought I knew D.C. I’d been there on family vacations at least three times, and on school trips twice. I knew the National Mall wasn’t actually a mall, I had vague recollections of the Metro, and I even met Ruth Bader Ginsburg once and almost cried. I thought I knew D.C.

How wrong I was.

Five minutes in, and I was already lost. I told the cab driver my summer address, and I noticed there was something strange after the street name: SE. What on earth does that mean? I assumed it wasn’t important, so I didn’t mention it. “Southwest?” my cab driver barked at me. “Yes,” I responded. I had no idea what he was talking about, but I told him the street address, didn’t I? 20 minutes later I found myself in a part of the city that I definitely did not sign up to live in.

And that was the day I learned about the quadrant system.

And the quadrant system isn’t the only thing that has surprised me this summer. I’m living on Capitol Hill and interning at the Library of Congress (conveniently located two minutes away from my place of residence). My official title at the LOC is “junior fellow,” which just goes to show that Harvard’s not the only institution with an unhealthy penchant for the word “fellow.”

On my first day of work, I showed up at the Jefferson Building, which is very grand and majestic. Do a Google image search for “Library of Congress,” and that’s what you get. I walked in and announced myself. I was promptly turned away and redirected to the building across the street, which I hadn’t even noticed before. The Madison Building is gray, boxy, and strongly reminiscent of Mather House. The inside of the Madison is equally underwhelming. Something about D.C. just makes people want to divide things into four sectors, apparently, because the Madison is also divided in fourths, each one color-coded.

I work in the Serial and Government Publications division. This summer, my project is to research any topic that interests me and create an online guide (called a topics page) directing prospective researchers into our Chronicling America database, which contains digitized historical American newspapers. It’s pretty neat, and I’ve already written pages on Margaret Sanger and Victoria Woodhull. The coolest part is digging through the library’s microfilm collection and using the scanner to peruse the pages of old newspapers preserved on reels of microfilm. In these moments, I truly feel like I embody the word “researcher.”

Work aside, it’s been quite the adventure here. I’ve toured the monuments at night, shopped in Georgetown, gone to the Congressional baseball game, explored D.C. nightlife (extensively), and officially spent all my money on food. But the best experiences I’ve had have been simple ones: hanging out with all the amazing people here this summer from my roommates to my coworkers, other interns on Capitol Hill, and, of course, my fellow Harvardians.

I still have so much to learn—such as how to do laundry, how to feed myself without spending my life savings, and how to survive this crippling heat and humidity. But things are looking good so far, and I expect that they will only get better as the summer goes on.

Nian Hu ’18, a Crimson editorial writer, lives in Mather House.