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Archive: May 2017 (23 Posts)

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

New Finding Aid: Asian-American and Pacific-Islander Resources

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

This is a guest post by Andrew Gaudio, reference librarian and classics, medieval studies and linguistics specialist in the Humanities and Social Sciences Division. The Library of Congress collects materials on most subjects, excluding agriculture and medicine. In a collection of over 160 million items, finding what you are looking for can be challenging. To …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Form Follows Function: Diverse Collections Require Diverse Modern Storage

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

(The following is an article by Jennifer Gavin from the May/June 2017 issue of LCM, the Library of Congress Magazine. Gavin is senior public affairs specialist in the Library’s Office of Communications. Read the entire May/June issue here.) The phrase “form follows function,” long associated with the design movement, isn’t a bad starting place when …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Celebrating Yiddish American Popular Song

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

The Library’s collection of Yiddish American sheet music is an unusual one for the Library of Congress, mostly because of the way it came together: It started not with acquisition of materials that were then cataloged, but with a catalog. Lawrence Marwick retired as head of the Library’s Hebraic Section in 1980. Soon afterward, he …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Recognizing the Service of Asian-Pacific-American Veterans

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

The following is a republication of a post by Andrew Huber, liaison specialist for the Veterans History Project. It was first published on the Library’s “Folklife Today” blog. Throughout the month of May, we celebrate Asian-American and Pacific-Islander heritage and remember the contributions made by people of Asian-Pacific descent. Those contributions are numerous, from Duke …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Free to Use and Reuse: Gorgeous Gardens, Breakthrough Buildings and Notable Designs

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864–1952) loved beautiful gardens. From 1915 through the 1930s, she shared her enthusiasm in lectures to garden club members, museum groups and horticultural societies. No doubt her listeners valued her knowledge of gardens—but they may have enjoyed her visual examples even more. Johnston—one of the first women to achieve international prominence as …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Pic of the Week: Inspiring a Sense of Service

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

The Peace Corps and its ideals—service to country and the cause of peace—was the subject of discussion at the Third Annual Daniel K. Inouye Distinguished Lecture, held in the Coolidge Auditorium on May 18. Elaine L. Chao, U.S. Secretary of Transportation, and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings reflected on their Peace Corps service, their leadership experiences, …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Brigadier General Franklin Pierce

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

This is a guest post by Peter A. Wallner, author of a two-volume biography of President Franklin Pierce consisting of “Franklin Pierce: New Hampshire’s Favorite Son” (2004) and “Franklin Pierce: Martyr for the Union” (2007). It is often forgotten that Franklin Pierce, the 14th president of the United States, was also a brigadier general in the …