Inflation of the balloon Intrepid to reconnoiter the Battle of Fair Oaks; Lowe, not visible in this image, is standing to the right of the balloon.

Last week I had the fantastic opportunity to give a gallery talk in the Library’s Civil War Exhibit Hall about the role of technology during the Civil War  There were many technologies or tools in use or being developed at this time, such as the telegraph, ironclad steamships (e.g. Merrimack and Monitor), railroads, Minie balls, and medicine. However, the focus of my gallery talk was on Civil War aeronautics and Professor Thaddeus Sobieski Coulincourt Lowe.

My fascination with Civil War aeronautics and Professor Lowe began last summer as the U.S.began honoring the sesquicentennial (150^th) anniversary of the Civil War. I collected all sorts of materials about this topic which resulted in the creation of a  Civil War Aeronautics guide.

Civil War aeronautics was the use of balloons for military aerial reconnaissance, mostly by the Union (Federal Army) from 1861-1863. The men who ‘flew’ the balloons were called aeronauts and was assisted by a crew or squad of military men under the command of a commissioned officer. The squad assisted in escorting and taking care of the balloon, as well as holding the balloon in place, inflating it, and transporting it. They also helped in relaying observations to the field commanders. In general this semi- military branch was called the Aeronautical Corps or the Union Army of the Balloon Corps.

Most historians agree that the history of the military balloon in the U.S.began in the spring of 1861 when President Lincoln learned about the skills and expertise of Professor Thaddeus Lowe, a scientist and expert balloon maker. President Lincoln summoned Lowe to Washington for a demonstration of his ballooning skills and to investigate the possibility of using balloons in aerial reconnaissance. Lowe inflated and wired his Enterprise balloon on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.and sent Lincoln a telegram:

Balloon view of Washington, D.C., May 1861. Wood engraving in Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War, p. 134.

This point of observation commands an area near fifty miles in diameter– The city with its girdle of encampments presents a superb scene– I have pleasure in sending you this first dispatch ever telegraphed from an aerial station and in acknowledging indebtedness to your encouragement for the opportunity of demonstrating the availability of the science of aeronautics in the military service of the country

 That night, Professor Lowe became the first Chief Aeronaut of the Union Army of the Balloon Corps and today he is known as the father of the Air Force.

Military balloons were aerial stations in which the aeronauts would document, map, plan, and assist in the movement of troops. The aeronauts relayed their observations from above in a variety of ways- there was the basic ‘shouting’ down to the crew below, the sketching and taking notes while aloft, or using the telegraph (which was a bit tricky since the balloon would have to be stationary and wired). So hand signals were also developed to quickly relay messages when shouting or the telegraph was not an option.

There were at least 10 named Union balloons- Eagle, Excelsior,Washington, Constitution, Intrepid, Enterprise, Pioneer, North America, United States, and General Scott. However, there were other balloons that were used but were not named. These balloons, depending upon size, would reach heights from 200- 1,000 feet.

The balloons were made of silk and typically filled with hydrogen gas. Keep in mind the balloons would have to be filled out in the field, so the Navy Yard constructed two tanks mounted on wheels for each balloon. The hydrogen gas was created in these tanks by mixing iron, sulphuric acid, and water.

The war balloon was not a perfect system for reconnaissance- some officers found the Balloon Corps a hindrance, while others found the aerial observations of great service. Many of the aeronauts did not have military training, so communication of their observations might not have been quite accurate. Likewise, military men were not used to flying or floating in mid-air, nor were they always readily available to go aloft in the balloons. However, there are instances of Generals going up in the balloons to make observations. 

Photograph of Prof. T.S.C. Lowe, Civil War balloonist

Professor Lowe was a wizard- a wizard in science and ballooning-  which to the uninitiated he might be seen as possessing magical qualities. Perhaps he was the inspiration for the character of the wizard in  Frank L. Baum’s Wizard of Oz?  After learning about Lowe’s life, the similiarities between the two are uncanny.

Before becoming Chief Aeronaut, Professor Lowe traveled as a scientific showman assisting Reginald B. Dincklehoff’s Wonders of Science Show. When Dincklehoff retired, Lowe took his laboratory on the road and dubbed himself the Professor of Chemistry. During this time Lowe began experimenting with hydrogen gas to fill balloons.

He was inspired by the ballooning pioneer John Wise and quickly became an expert balloonist himself. Knowing the science behind how balloons worked and moved, he held outdoor shows where he would ‘predict’ the movement of the balloon. He also built, sold, and took passengers on rides in his balloons.

Professor Lowe’s interests turned to the study the atmosphere and weather, so he joined up with Joseph Henry from the Smithsonian to help ‘fund’ his investigations. During this time he invented numerous weather and flying instruments such as the altimeter, which measures height above sea level.

The ambitious Lowe set a goal to fly to the Atlantic coast (near Washington) from Cincinnati, by balloon. Call it fate, or bad luck, but Lowe never reached the coast. Instead he landed in South Carolina in Confederate territory (note the Civil War had begun a week before). He was held as a Union spy, but was soon released because he convinced his captors that he was a man of science. After this incident, he began to imagine the use of balloons in the war effort.

Professor Lowe resigned as Chief Aeronaut in 1863 and Aeronautal Corps was disbanded. But this was not the end of Lowe’s scientific curiosities. He opened the Lowe Manufacturing Company inPennsylvania where he experimented with ice- having became fascinated with ice crystals during his balloon ascents. Lowe invented an ice machine and created the first-ever refrigerated ship that could transport perishables items. Unfortunately, citizens were not ready, nor did they trust this invention- so  it failed.

Photograph of Mt. Lowe Railway, cable incline, c1899

But this did not stop Lowe from experimenting. This time he discovered a method to process water into hydrogen gas for use in lighting and heating. At the time, most utilities used coal gas to power cites. He became successful with this venture and his method powered over 30 Eastern cities. He also manufactured stoves, heaters, and fireplaces that also operated by his hydrogen gas method.

In 1888, Lowe headed west and settled in Pasadena,California. Always looking up to the sky, he decided to build a railway- the Mt. Lowe Railway- up the side of the San Gabriel Mountains to a scenic park. His scenic park included a hotel, amusement park, tavern, zoo, and miniature golf course. After negotiations this mountaintop was officially named Mt.Lowe , which still bears his name today. He also had a grand plan to build a flying balloon hotel that would carry 20 passengers from Los Angeles to New York.

You might be wondering if the Confederates had also built a balloon. Yes- they built only one which became a legend and was popularly known as the silk dress balloon. The story goes that this balloon was made of the silk dresses donated from the loyal ladies of the South. However, official records report it was not made of collected silk; rather it was made of newly purchased silk. It was completed in mid June 1862 and on July 4 1862 the boat (named the Teaser) in which the inflated balloon was attached went aground during low tide. Federal troops witnessed the incident and captured the balloon and the boat.

If you are looking for more information about Civil War aeronauts I recommend checking out the  Civil War Aeronautics guide of books, articles, and additional resources- such as History Channel’s DVD Man, Moment & Machine. Lincoln and the Flying Spy Machine (2006).

The symbolism of the torch – often a symbol of knowledge, learning, and enlightenment, is obvious and makes sense in the context of the Library. After all, torches, lamps, and other symbols of light are used quite a bit around the Library – we even have a torch on top of the Jefferson Building dome.  However, the two serpents on the medallion confused me.  They did bring to mind two well known symbols that are remarkably similar, so it was there that I looked for enlightenment.

First, I investigated  symbols used by the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Family Physicians, and many other professional medical organizations.  Their symbols have a single serpent wrapped around what looks to be a staff.  This is the Rod (or Staff) of Aesculapius (Asclepius), the Greek god associated with healing and medicine.

Since the Rod of Aesculapius  has one serpent instead of two,  that didn’t seem to be the answer for the medallion.  Then I looked to a second symbol – one that is often confused with the Rod of Aesculapius.  It is the Caduceus which was carried by Hermes (and Mercury in Roman mythology) and it has two serpents facing each other twined around a staff.  This seemed much more likely. Hermes is the Greek god of transitions and boundaries and acted as the messenger of the gods,  as well as being considered the patron god of invention and trade–and he does appear on the bronze doors of the Adams Building.  His Roman counterpart Mercury was known as the patron of commerce.

Seen in that light, what is on our vestibule floor makes a bit more sense.  The artist used the more known mythological symbol of the Caduceus and modified it for the mission of the Library by using the torch symbolizing knowledge.  This doesn’t really explain the serpents facing outward, but I wonder if the artist chose to have them facing away from the torch to symbolize the Library’s mission to spread knowledge.

After the creation of the Science & Business Reading Room on the 5th floor of the Adams Building, this medallion took on additional meaning.  The Rod of Aesculapius and the Caduceus can also be seen to symbolize the subject areas of the reading room itself – science and medicine on one side and communication, trade, and commerce on the other.

Pouring the frosting or sheathing the Texas sheet cake. Photograph by K8southern. Used under Creative Commons license

This week I am celebrating a birthday, and although I am more of a pie or tart kinda gal, a birthday calls for cake- and that cake must be the one that- in my opinion- rules over them all. Drum roll please, the thin, chewy, chocolate and nutty Texas Sheet Cake. I wish to thank a family friend who made me one for my birthday many years ago, and completely changed my world. Yes, this cake can do that to a person!

Texas sheet cake, it turns out, is very popular throughout  the U.S., and I found it listed in Jean Anderson’s American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20^th Century (2005). But food historians are not quite sure who is responsible for the cake’s original recipe or even its name. With the help of the Library’s culinary specialist, Alison Kelly, and the incredible cookbook and periodical collection in the Library of Congress, I wanted to see how far back I could trace the name of this cake.

Mrs. Lyndon Baines Johnson portrait (ca. 1962)

I also wanted to discover why Texas claimed it as its own- is it because the cake is big like the state of Texas? Or is it because of the use of pecans in the icing that changed this ordinary chocolate sheet cake into the Texas sheet cake? (Pecans are indigenous to south central North America, which includes parts of Texas). It has been suggested that Lady Bird Johnson was involved in creating or naming the cake. But historians scoured Lady Bird’s recipes at the LBJ archives in Austin and found no evidence to support this claim.

Reference librarian Lynee Olver’s wonderful Food Timeline provides a good jumping off point to learn about the history of the Texas sheet cake. Olver writes that chocolate cake and brownie recipes are products of the early 20^th century- that is when the price of chocolate declined and became a “common cooking ingredient.” For more about this topic see Walter Baker &  Company’s Cocoa and Chocolate; a short history of their production and use, 1917 revision edition. Olver continues, “cooking instructor and cookbook author Lenny Angel says she got her recipe for Texas Sheath Cake in 1963 two years before she moved to Texas from Nebraska.” Also of great interest are Olver’s references for a chocolate cake (large sheet cake) in a shallow pan published in the Galveston Daily News (Helping the Homemaker, May 30, 1936) and a 1967 recipe for Mrs. Elkin’s Sheath Cake published in the Huntsville Heritage Cookbook (note this recipe is from Alabama) that includes the use of pecans in the frosting.

Though I did not discover who named this cake or when the name originated, what I did find, after consulting many cookbooks and the published recipes, is that the Texas sheet cake goes by many names: buttermilk brownies, brownie sheet cake, chocolate brownie cake, chocolate sheet brownies, Mexican chocolate cake, Texas brownie cake, Texas cake, Texas sheath cake, and “plain old” chocolate sheet cake. The commonality I found among all these recipes is the use of buttermilk,  and most importantly, the cake is baked in a cookie/baking sheet or a jelly roll pan- so it is large in size, but the height is a mere one inch. Most of the recipes I found called for pecans (or nuts) while some called for cinnamon.  I even discovered a recipe for a White Texas Sheet Cake in Texas Ties: Recipes and Remembrances from the Junior League of North Harris County, Inc (1997). 

There was also an interesting summary of the Texas Cake published in the Santa Ana Orange County Register (Texas Cake turned 3-layer into a sheet, 4/24/1986) that adds even more mystery to the origins of this cake. The author suggests that this cake began to appear in the 1950s throughout the South and that it is a “revival, with adaptations, of an old-time favorite, Sweet Chocolate Cake, also known as German’s Sweet Chocolate Cake (the brand, not the country) or simply German Chocolate Cake.” The author goes on to say this cake started out as three layers, and ultimately became the one layer Texas Cake. In all my research, this was the first recipe I have come across a recipe that calls for the use of coconut.

One of my past birthdays in which I was presented with Texas sheet cake baked into cupcakes.

This recipe also called for sour cream instead of buttermilk. It became clear that the use of sour cream was becoming more common, because I began to see it in many more recipes such as the 1974 recipe published in the Washington Post (Any Cake at All, as Long as It’s Chocolate, 5/30/74), which calls for sour cream, not buttermilk.  And nuts were an option. One can deduce that by the 1970s, this cake had already hit the big time, and alternative ingredients had evolved.

Today, there are many variations of the Texas Sheet Cake recipe. In fact, my mother and friends like to bake the batter into cupcakes. Now this makes me wonder, what do we call them since the cake is delivered in a smaller package?

By the way, the Library of Congress also celebrated a birthday this week, see the Law Library’s In Custodia Legis blog post 213 Is a Lot of Candles: Happy Birthday Library of Congress.

Landsat 7 image of Mississippi river from May 28, 2003. From the Earth as Art Collection, USGS EROS Data Center.

In 1984, the U.S. launched an Earth remote sensing mission to extend the observational record of our planet’s land masses begun 12-years earlier by the first Earth Resource Technology Satellite, later renamed Landsat 1.  By the time Landsat 5 was launched, on March 1, 1984, expectations were for a 3-year design life and the hope was that it might collect Earth observations for at least 5 years.  Twenty-nine years and a Guinness Book of World Records award later, Landsat 5 is just now ending its historic flight after firmly establishing itself as the Grande Dame of remote sensing; setting a standard of productivity and discovery that future missions will be building on for decades to come.

On Wednesday May 22 Steve Covington, the U.S. Geological Survey’s Flight Systems Manager for Landsat 5, will lecture on the remarkable story of this mission, explaining how these Earth-Observing missions are operated and telling the inspirational story of how the Flight Operations Team on the ground used equal parts engineering, determination and luck, to propel Landsat 5 into the record books. 

NASA drawing of Landsat 5 satellite.

Steve Covington started his career literally in the middle of a corn field in South Dakota working at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center .  It was at this world-class science and satellite data processing and distribution facility in 1984 that he watched the launch of Landsat 5 on closed circuit TV, not realizing the role it would play in his future.  After several more years at EROS, Steve moved back east and discovered how risky a venture company could actually be before spending several years as the Production Director for a French satellite company’s U.S. subsidiary.  Since 1995, Steve has worked at the Aerospace Corporation on contract to the USGS first as the liaison between the USGS and NASA during the development and launch of the Landsat 7 mission, then as a Landsat 7 Flight Systems Manager before adding Landsat 5 to his portfolio in 2001.  Twelve years later, Steve now finds himself as the longest-running Flight Manager for Landsat 5 in its 29-year history, now working with the flight team to ensure a dignified end to a remarkable mission.

How is a spacecraft’s orbit determined and maintained? 

Who decides what images of the Earth will be taken?

 How do you manage a spacecraft flying across the sky at 17,000 miles per hour?

Come to the lecture and find out!

How to Manage a Satellite Going 17,000 MPH: The Historic Flight of Landsat 5  will be held on Wednesday, May 22 at 11:30 a.m  at the Pickford Theater, 3^rd floor, James Madison Building, Library of Congress

To start, it is basically a look at industry in the United States as of 1914, but with just enough historical information to show its growth for the previous 60 or so years. Emery used Census data, but he also used his own calculations. Most of the volume covers the various industries which are organized under tabs using the Dewey Decimal System. Thankfully, there is a rather nice “How to Use” section which made understanding the data just a bit easier.  I will try to describe the book without getting into too much detail.

“Profits on all manufactures of carriages, wagons & repairs in U.S. since 1849″ “from Emery’s Charts and Maps Showing Growth and Distribution of United States Manufactures (Image Y)

Each tab, or industry grouping, covers several different aspects of the overall industry with individual pages devoted to each particular area of that group. For instance, under the Vehicles tab (4,900) there is information on the manufacture of automobiles and automobile bodies and parts as well as information on the manufacture and repair of carriages and wagons; manufacture of electric and steam  railroad cars; manufacture of motorcycles and bicycles and their parts; and wheelbarrows.

Most industries have a graph of the profits for that industry, as well as the historical numbers for industry totals in a chart including information on sales, materials, wages profits, and capital.  While the years used often vary and data wasn’t always available, the earliest is 1849 (see image Y).  Following that page is usually a page with a bubble map of the United States indicating those places where that industry made the biggest profits, along with a bar graph with the equivalent percentage numbers (see image X).

“Manufactures of carriages, wagons & repairs – Total value of products by states 1914″ from Emery’s Charts and Maps Showing Growth and Distribution of United States Manufactures (Image X)

I found that in 1914 Massachusetts accounted for almost 70% of the manufacture of combs and hairpins (not made of metal); over 80% of the artificial flowers were manufactured in New York; and most asbestos products were made in Pennsylvania (Illinois a far distant 2nd). Sometimes where an industry was in 1914 tracks with where industry is in later years:

• Chewing/smoking tobacco and snuff was big in North Carolina, Missouri, Virginia, Kentucky.
• The manufacture of automobiles and automobile bodies was concentrated in Michigan, though it seems to also have been popular in Ohio, New York, and Indiana.
• For distilled liquors, Illinois was the state with the biggest profits, followed by Kentucky, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and New York. Vinous liquors mostly came from California.

There are a number of other tables that are of interest, but one other thing that is amazing is the fact that these tables are all hand-written.

• 1200 Profit % (alphabetical by industry)
• 1300 Employees % (alphabetical by industry)
• 1400 Gross Profit Totals (alphabetical by industry)
• 1500 Net Profit Totals (alphabetical by industry)
• 1600 Employees Totals (alphabetical by industry)
• 1700 Order Highest Profits

There is a lot of detail packed into a chart (see image Z). Each table has different data but all have page numbers indicating those pages in other charts where that industry was mentioned. Charts in the 2,100-2,900 tab revolved around industries that were important  to Civil War Reconstruction.  The presentation of this data was most often line graphs and bubble charts, but the information and its presentation vary.  It seems to have depended on what the author felt was the best presentation.  Last was tab 6,000 which included graphs on various imports from Britain.

Employee Totals chart from “Emery’s Charts and Maps Showing Growth and Distribution of United States Manufactures” (Image Z)

While researchers in the 21st century might use this volume for other reasons, there were some enjoyable pages in the “How to Use” section where the author goes into detail as to “special uses” that would have been very appropriate for people in 1919.  For example, advertisers may have wanted to use this to make better mailing lists, manufacturers might have wanted to use this to compare their budget to others in the same industry, and investors might have considered using it to pick good investments by looking at those industries that were doing well. All that for $100!

Even after spending time with this tome while writing this post, I still don’t feel that I have quite captured it completely.

Flyer for Extraterrestrial Real Estate Assessment: Measuring Habitability on Mars with the Curiosity Rover with Dr. Pamela Conrad.

I do not need to convince you that the interest in the Mars Curiosity Rover is sky-high!  On Tuesday April 16, 2013 we are hosting a lecture at the Library with NASA’s Dr. Pamela Conrad who will discuss habitability on Mars based on findings from the Curiosity Rover. For those of you who cannot attend, our Twitter account @librarycongress will live tweet Dr. Conrad’s April 16^th talk at the Library from 11:30-12:30 EST using the hashtag #LCCuriosity.  

If you have questions for Dr. Conrad we invite you to tweet them using #LCCuriosity.  We can’t promise that all questions will be answered live at the event, however we will write another post that will answer as many questions as reasonable in a follow up here on Inside Adams. If we use your question during the lecture, we’ll state your question you posed and it will be recorded as part of the webcast. Some questions may be consolidated for the purpose of streamlining answers.

The event is being digitally captured for later broadcast on the Library’s website and other media. To keep up to date on What’s New in Science (such as new webcasts or upcoming lectures) you can sign up for our RSS/ Email Subscription feed.

The Earth belongs always to the living generation. They may manage it then, and what proceeds from it, as they please, during their usufruct. They are masters too of their own persons and consequently may govern them as they please.

Science and Business Reading Room mural with quotation from Thomas Jefferson about the living generation. Mural by Ezra Winter. John Adams Building, Library of Congress.

When researchers walk into the Science and Business Reading Room, not only are they inspired by the collections of the Library, but they can also receive a lesson from one of our founding fathers by gazing upward at the art and words that surround them.

The quote I am highlighting in this blog post  is extracted from a letter written on September 6, 1789 by Thomas Jefferson, while in Paris, to James Madison. It can be seen at the top of the back wall of the Science and Business Reading Room (South Reading Room) and is accompanied by a mural painted by the artist Ezra Winter. You can read the transcript of the letter here and view a digital copy of the original letter here.

Brochure for The Thomas Jefferson Murals by Ezra Winter. Science and Business Reading Room previously known as the Thomas Jefferson Room), Library of Congress.

When you visit the Science and Business Reading Room, you will notice that this space is dedicated to Thomas Jefferson and a selection of his words encircles the reading room walls, while a vignette of Jefferson watches over us.

In recognition of [the] relationship in which Jefferson stands to the Library of Congress, the South Reading Room [Science and Business Reading Room], in the Annex [ John Adams Building] has been dedicated to him as the Thomas Jefferson Room…[it]  was dedicated by Atttorney General, the Honorable Francis Biddle, on December 15, 1941, in ceremonies which, appropriately enough, also commemorated the sesquicentennial anniversary of the Bill of Rights (From the Thomas Jefferson Murals in the Library of Congress brochure)

For as long as I have worked in the Science and Business Reading Room, this Living Generation quote has always made me pause. Since I will have been here 12 years this October, I have had a lot of time to contemplate its meaning.

In all honesty, I did not like this quote at first.  It could be my 21^st century mentality, progressive California upbringing, or my studies of Native peoples of the Americas, but I grew up thinking that the Earth doesn’t belong to us, we belong to it. I also didn’t like the idea that we are to manage as we please.  I wondered if Jefferson was giving society the green light to take advantage of our Earth without thought to future generations.

Since the quote really bothered me, I thought I should examine it further.The first thing I did was look up the word usufruct- this is not a word you see everyday and I had no idea what it meant. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word usufruct relates to law. It can be defined as “the right of temporary possession, use, or enjoyment of the advantages of property belonging to another, so far as may be had without causing damage or prejudice to this.”

I then read the transcript of the original letter so I could understand the context from which the quote is taken. What I discovered was I had it all wrong. After reading the letter in full a few times, I believe that Jefferson was attempting to define the responsibility of a generation of people and at the same time define what a generation is, which he calculated to be 19 years (be sure to read in the transcript how he arrived at this number!)

In the letter he repeatedly drives home the idea that the Earth belongs to the living generation; he uses this phrase a few times in the letter, and that the “dead have neither powers nor right over it.”

He goes on to say

On similar ground it may be proved that no society can make a perpetual constitution, or even a perpetual law…Every constitution, then, and every law, naturally expires at the end of 19 years. If it be enforced longer, it is an act of force, and not of right.

These are some powerful and radical ideas, but what else would one expect from Jefferson?

So that got me thinking…perhaps Jefferson is telling us that our living generation must be active in taking care of the Earth and all it encompasses. The living generation is responsible for managing it based on its present needs and that generation should do no harm while it’s in their possession. More importantly, laws should be changed from one generation to the next to fit those needs. Jefferson even mentions in this letter that copyright and patents should be protected for 19 years.

Now that Jefferson and I are on the same page, I want to extend my wishes for a Happy Birthday on April 13.

If you want another lesson from Jefferson, my co-blogger Ellen has written about another one of his quotes found in the Science and Business Reading Room. Check out her post Educate and Inform the Masses of the People.

When I first started, the various directories, credit reference books, telephone books, and  salary surveys thrilled me.  Sometimes I felt that there was a book or journal on every topic. That feeling really hasn’t gone away.  There are two collection areas – manuscripts and microforms  – that continue to remind me of the wealth of business-oriented materials I have yet to “discover.”

When I wrote a post on the manuscript collection of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, it occurred to me that what we had gathered on our Business’ Special Collections: Business, Economic, and Labor History page was just the tip of the iceberg.  I made a concerted effort to identify other manuscript and microform collections to include on this page and eventually this developed into a project for one our interns, Joseph Etoo.

We have just updated the web page with many “new” discoveries. Without going into detail, here are just a few examples:

• Reports and summary proceedings of the World Bank, 1946-1974.
• Records of the Women’s Bureau of the Department of Labor, 1918-1965.
• Columbia Records paperwork collection, 1923-1964.
• The Extel records: archives of the Exchange Telegraph Co. Ltd., 1872-1966.
• Albert Gallatin papers, 1761-1880.
• Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway System records, 1849-1909.
• Henry Morgenthau papers, 1795-1941.
• Papers of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.

If you want to see more, just click on over.  While I have often included links to some of the various “special” collections in blog posts,  I really hope to focus on particular collections in future posts.

[Update- For those of you who cannot attend, our Twitter account @librarycongress will live tweet Dr. Conrad’s April 16^th talk at the Library from 11:30-12:30 EST using the hashtag #LCCuriosity.  If you have questions for Dr. Conrad we invite you to tweet them using #LCCuriosity.]

This self-portrait of NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity combines 66 exposures taken by the rover’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) during the 177th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity’s work on Mars (Feb. 3, 2013). Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.

Measuring the habitability potential of environments on Earth is not too difficult because life is everywhere, but to make this assessment on Mars with a robot is a challenge. NASA’s Curiosity rover is rising to this challenge, currently exploring and investigating Gale Crater.  An analysis of a rock sample collected by Curiosity shows that ancient Mars could have supported living microbes.  In this presentation, Dr. Pamela Conrad, Deputy Investigator for the Sample Analysis at Mars instrument suite on the Curiosity rover, will talk about what we’ve learned so far and plans for Curiosity to continue exploring this beautiful and intriguing location on Mars.

Pamela Conrad is an astrobiologist and mineralogist working at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. Her research focus is on understanding planetary habitability and on the development of approaches to its measurement in environments on Earth and on other planets, especially Mars. She is deputy principal investigator and payload investigation scientist for the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) suite. SAM is part of the Mars Science Laboratory science payload presently exploring  Gale Crater (Mars) on board the Curiosity Rover.

Dr. Conrad will be contributing a guest post to this blog in the near future, so watch for that!  Introducing Dr. Conrad at the April 16th lecture will be astrobiologist David Grinspoon–the first Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology in the John W. Kluge Center.

Put this event on your calendar! The program will be held on April 16  from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm in Dining Room A of the Madison Building, Library of Congress.

For more information about the program call (202) 707-7450.

Volumes of the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society stored in the Adams Building book stacks.

March 19 will mark the 5 year anniversary of the death of Sir Arthur C. Clarke.  I would not be writing this blog post if it were not for the curiosity of one of our volunteers, Richard Halada, a local high school physics teacher. Richard was retrieving a book for us in the Adams’ Building stacks last week when a title caught his eye- the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society (JBIS), which began publication in 1934. He just had to take a look inside, and what he discovered were papers by Arthur C. Clarke. He brought up his treasure trove and shared his bounty with me, and as soon as I saw the contents, I declared “I will write a blog post about Sir Arthur C. Clarke!”  I didn’t know at the time that the anniversary of Sir Arthur C. Clarke’s death would be this week. Do you think this was a mere coincidence or something from the great beyond?

The British Interplanetary Society (BIS) was founded by Phillip Cleator and other space flight enthusiasts in 1933.  Clarke joined the BIS in 1934 and was chairman (president) from 1946-1947 and again from 1951-1953.

Out of Clarke’s various authored works in JBIS, the early ones tended to be more about BIS business, such as technical committee reports. His later works reveal his scientific brilliance, for instance  Electronics and Spaceflight published in JBIS, v. 7, March 1948: 49-69. Rather than prattle on about the various works he published in JBIS, I will focus on one that provides insight into the vision and genius of Sir Arthur C. Clarke.

Arthur C. Clarke, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing right. Photograph by Fabian Bachrach, [1954].

This paper also provided his predictions as to when an important (astronautic) event should happen. He told the audience that a rocket would crash into the moon by 1950, and then in 20 years (1970’s) man will land on the moon. Man landed on the moon July 20, 1969, so he was on track with that prediction, and the rockets or spacecrafts to the moon came after 1950- the Soviet Union’s craft (Luna 2) landed (impacted) on the moon on Sept. 12, 1959 and the U.S. craft (Ranger 4) landed ( impacted) the moon on April 23, 1962.

He also said that the last quarter of the century- 1975- 2000- would be the age of space exploration and that we will have reached the major bodies of the solar system. I am not sure if Clarke meant ‘we’, figuratively or literally. People did not reach these major bodies, but satellites did- see a list of NASA Space Exploration Missions by Year for more information.

In this paper he also talked about the idea of stations that will circle the earth as refueling depots for spaceships, but thought that they might be better for meteorological observations of earth or even as a means to broadcast worldwide television. Many credit Clarke as one of the first to propose the idea of the communications satellite. He first published this idea in his article Extraterrestrial Relays: Can Rocket Stations Give World-Wide Radio Coverage, Wireless World, October 1945: 305-308. In it he writes “A true broadcast service, giving constant field strength at all times over the whole globe would be invaluable, not to say indispensable, in a world society.” He continued on to say that “Many may consider the solution proposed in this discussion too far-fetched to be taken seriously” (p.305).

Title page of Interplanetary Flight (Temple Press, London, 1950) by Arthur C. Clarke

The Library has all of Clarke’s published books, many of them first editions, as well as the revised editions. Naturally, I pulled from our book stacks a hefty pile of Clarke’s early works starting with his first published book Interplanetary Flight: An Introduction to Astronautics (1950). From 1950-1959, Clarke was prolific in his writing and published 23 original titles (this does not include published individual short stories, articles, reissued compilations, or  revised editions). The topics ranged from astronautics to science fiction, as well as titles about the sea.  By the 1960’s his work continued to be revised and reissued. He still wrote about science and science fiction, but his focus was more about the sea. And in the mid 1960’s Clarke began working with Stanley Kubrick on the epic film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

In my exploration of Clarke’s work I came across David Samuelson’s Arthur C. Clarke, a Primary and Secondary Bibliography (Boston, G.K. Hall, 1984). The hard work of bibliographers tends to often get ignored in this age of search engines and other electronic resources, but for librarians, bibliographies are invaluable when you need a looking glass into a topic or person’s work. For the Arthur C. Clarke scholars out there, this bibliography should be the centerpiece of your library. Samuelson’s bibliography contains a comprehensive list of works published by and about Clarke up until 1984, which was when Clarke announced his retirement. As we can tell from the published record, Clarke never really retired from writing after 1984. He continued to write and publish new material from time to time until near his death when he wrote The Last Theorem with Frederik Pohl (c2008).

A few of Arthur C. Clarke’s early books from the Library of Congress collection

The Library also holds other wonderful Clarkian treats and the following is just a small selection:

In the Library’s recorded sound collections we have Clarke reading a selection of his science fiction short stories:  Transit of Earth (first published in Playboy), The Nine Billion Names of God, & The Star. There is also a recording from WKCR in New York on May 7, 1970 of a discussion with Clarke, Alvin Toffler, and Margaret Mead titled 2001, Sci-fi or Man’s Future? and Arthur C. Clarke Reads From His 2001: A Space Odyssey.

My colleague in the Recorded Sound Reading Room pointed out that we have a 1961 recording of Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two). According to the National Recording Registry , “This recording, made at Bell Laboratories on an IBM 704 mainframe computer, is the earliest known recording of a computer-synthesized voice singing a song. The recording was created by John L. Kelly, Jr. and Carol Lochbaum, and featured musical accompaniment written by Max Mathews. Arthur C. Clarke, who witnessed a demonstration of the piece, was so impressed that he incorporated it in 2001: A Space Odyssey. When Clarke’s  fictional HAL 9000 computer is being involuntarily disconnected near the end of the story, as it devolves it sings Daisy Bell.”

In the Library’s moving images collection, I discovered that Clarke was a frequent guest of the CBS 1970’s series called Camera Three. Here is a selection from our collection:

Camera Three. The future isn’t what it used to be (1970). This episode features a conversation about the future with Clarke, R. Buckminster Fuller, and Alvin Toffler.

Camera three Arthur C. Clarke in Conversation (1971).  This episode features a conversation between Clarke and film critic Joseph Gelmis about the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Inscription from Arthur C. Clarke to Carl Sagan in The Coming of the Space Age edited by Arthur C. Clarke (1967). Carl Sagan Collection, Library of Congress.

For this blog post I sent an email to all LC reference staff inquiring if they knew of a one-of-a-kind Clarkian hidden gem in the Library’s collection. One of my colleagues shared with me a copy of The Coming of the Space Age (1967) edited by Clarke from Carl Sagan’s Library, which the Library acquired last year. In this book is an inscription to Sagan from Clarke.

There are more Clarkian works at the Library of Congress, which I will leave up to you to discover. I want to thank Richard for bringing the articles in JBIS to my attention, because without him I would never have gone on this fantastic journey getting to know all about Sir Arthur C. Clarke.