November 20, 2009 by Matt Raymond
The Library’s Prints and Photographs Division has added 116 photocrom travel views of the Netherlands from 100 years ago to our Flickr page, bringing the total number of photochroms on Flickr to 773.
Photochroms, published primarily from the 1890s to 1910s, are prints that were created by the Photoglob Company in Zürich, Switzerland, and the Detroit Publishing Company in Michigan. The richly colored images look like photographs but are actually ink-based photolithographs, usually 6.5 x 9 inches. You can learn more about them here.
The Library is looking toward the power of crowd-sourcing to help enhance our records about these images:
“Your addition of current place names is much appreciated! Some locations have changed names or even countries since 1900. And, the titles we had to work with from the photochrom publishers based in Detroit and Zurich tended to be English or German versions of the place names.”
(The included image, “Native girls, Marken Island, Holland,” from the Library’s Prints and Photographs Online Catalog and also online at Flickr.)
Posted in: Collections, Curators, History, LC Web site, Photos, Social Media
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November 17th, 2009 by Matt Raymond
With Thanksgiving just around the corner, the new Science, Technology and Business blog has a timely post: “Candied Yams or Candied Sweet Potatoes?”
Posted in: Blogging, Curators, science
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November 16th, 2009 by Matt Raymond
Have you ever had to keep a secret? A huge, exciting secret?
A few weeks ago the head of our Music Division called to inform me that the third recipient of the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song would be Sir Paul McCartney. I’m fairly certain that they heard my reaction in the office …
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Posted in: Concerts, Events, Music, News
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November 12th, 2009 by Jennifer Gavin
A cartoon can be engaging and funny and tell a story without any audible sound at all; even newspaper cartoons of the 20th century featured characters such as Ferd’nand and The Little King, (external links) who went through their paces, frame-by-frame, with little or no dialogue to move the story along.
But sometimes, more is more, as Walt …
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Posted in: Audiovisual, Collections, Exhibitions, Music, Uncategorized, film
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November 10th, 2009 by Jennifer Gavin
This guest post comes from Audrey Fischer of the Library’s Communications Office:
Generations of former kids who learned their ABCs on PBS will be celebrating today’s 40th anniversary of the show “Sesame Street.” (external link)
The Library’s been a fan right along! In April 2000, for example, when the Library of Congress celebrated its bicentennial, Big Bird …
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Posted in: Collections, Education, Events, National Book Festival
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November 3rd, 2009 by Matt Raymond
This feels a little like a birth announcement: The Library of Congress has launched its second official blog since the one you’re now reading took the blogosphere by storm in April 2007. (Hyperbole much?)
The Library’s Science, Technology and Business Division is an excellent addition to our growing social-media family. The very name of the division …
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Posted in: Blogging, Collections, Curators, News, Technology, science
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November 3rd, 2009 by Matt Raymond
Legendary comedian Carl Reiner spoke to a standing-room-only audience at the Library the other day, and I had the very good fortune of attending.
I guess I should not have been surprised that this 87-year-old man was every bit as funny and incisive as he always has been. He spun terrific yarns, was always quick with …
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Posted in: Books, Events, Video
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October 28th, 2009 by Jennifer Gavin
Friday evening at the Library of Congress, our ongoing “Music and the Brain” lecture series will tackle a truly fascinating phenomenon: people whose senses sometimes cross-stimulate, causing them to “hear a color” or “taste a shape.” This phenomenon, known as synesthesia, has been identified in a surprisingly large number of people over the years, …
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Posted in: Events, Music
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October 23rd, 2009 by Jennifer Gavin
Carl Reiner, whose influence on comedy in the U.S. may be unsurpassed, will speak at the Library of Congress’ Madison Building in the 6th-floor Montpelier Room on Monday, Oct. 26 at 1:30 p.m.
Doors open one hour earlier! Don’t miss it!
Posted in: Books, Capitol Hill, Events
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October 22nd, 2009 by Matt Raymond
Now that we have a couple of years or more of using social media to benefit the Library’s missions, we’re letting other folks around the institution get in the act.
The “Books and Beyond” series in the Center for the Book launched a Facebook page, which is essentially an online book club, with the recent National …
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Posted in: Law Library, Libraries, News, Social Media
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The Library’s Prints and Photographs Division has added 116 photocrom travel views of the Netherlands from 100 years ago to our Flickr page, bringing the total number of photochroms on Flickr to 773.