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Archive: October 2017 (16 Posts)

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

Celebrating and Advocating #Preservation of America’s Audiovisual Heritage

Posted by: Gayle Osterberg

The advent of recorded sound and moving images has enriched our lives beyond measure. We have heard the voices of presidents and shared the beauty of piano concertos. We have watched tragedies unfold worldwide, and in our own backyards. We’ve been transported by movies that captivate, beguile, frighten and inspire. We have absorbed voices of …

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

New Online: Collecting Web Comics and Culture

Posted by: Mark Hartsell

This post first appeared in the September–October issue of LCM, the Library of Congress Magazine. The issue is titled “Comics: An American History!” and is available in its entirety online. Two new online collections capture contemporary culture as it is consumed, via the web. The millions of items in Library of Congress collections chronicle human …

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

Pic of the Week: Caring for the Library’s Oldest Poster

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

Library of Congress conservators use enzymes and small hand tools to gently remove the cloth backing from the verso of a giant poster created to advertise a 19th-century circus. The treatment is part of an effort to preserve the poster, the earliest surviving one in the Library’s Prints and Photographs Division. Titled “Five Celebrated Clowns …

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

New Online: Scary Stories and More

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

This is a guest post by Stephen Winick of the American Folklife Center. An earlier version was published on “Folklife Today,” the center’s blog. With Halloween just around the corner, the Library of Congress has released a new web guide to Halloween resources at the Library. It features select materials on the folk customs, fine …

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

Trending: Celebrating the World Series with Song

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

Baseball and music have a basic affinity, as any fan knows. . . . [E]very pitch ends either with the satisfying pop of the catcher’s mitt or the tension-creating crack of the bat. . . . It should surprise no one that a game with such inherently strong elements of musicality should have attracted scores …

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

A Ghostly Image: Spirit Photographs

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

This is a guest post by Kristi Finefield, a reference librarian in the Prints and Photographs Division. An earlier version was published on “Picture This,” the division’s blog. Can you take a photograph of a ghost? Will a spirit pose for your camera? Looking at “spirit photographs” from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s, you …

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

New Online: Ulysses S. Grant Papers

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

This is a guest post by Michelle Krowl, a historian in the Manuscript Division. On May 17, 1877, former president Ulysses S. Grant and his wife Julia departed from Philadelphia on an extended trip. Other former presidents traveled after retiring from public office, but none journeyed as far as Grant did. He and Julia spent …