Top of page

Category: Collections

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

Inside the March on Washington: Bayard Rustin’s “Army”

Posted by: Erin Allen

(The following is a guest post by Kate Stewart, processing archivist in the American Folklife Center, who is principally responsible for organizing and making available collections with Civil Rights content in the division to researchers and the public.) The planning and execution of the March on Washington in 1963 stands as an extraordinary testament to the …

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

Inquiring Minds: Alan Lomax Goes North

Posted by: Erin Allen

(The following is a guest post by Guha Shankar, folklife specialist with the Library of Congress American Folklife Center.) A fall landscape of orange and red foliage rushes by a car winding down a long road…a stern-faced singer draws his bow across a single-stringed lute and sings a ballad in Serbian about the 1389 Battle …

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

Inside the March on Washington: A Time for Change

Posted by: Erin Allen

(The following is a guest post by Kate Stewart, processing archivist in the American Folklife Center, who is principally responsible for organizing and making available collections with Civil Rights content in the division to researchers and the public.) For many Americans, the calls for racial equality and a more just society emanating from the steps of …

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

InRetrospect: July Blogging Edition

Posted by: Erin Allen

The Library’s blogosphere kept things cool in the July heat with a variety of posts representing the wealth and breadth of the institution’s collections and initiatives. Here are just a few selections. In the Muse: Performing Arts Blog Ben-Hur and Music to Race Chariots By Robin Rausch talks about musical adaptations of Lew Wallace’s well-known …

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

The “Essential” Opera

Posted by: Erin Allen

There are so many things about the upcoming Library of Congress exhibition, “A Night at the Opera,” that I feel personally connected to. Several of the operas highlighted in the 50-item display are like a program of operas I have sung in my last few seasons as part of The Washington Chorus. Each season, we …

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

LC in the News: July Edition

Posted by: Erin Allen

News of Library of Congress acquisitions and initiatives led the headlines in July, with stories on the recent donation of the Lilli Vincenz papers and work of the Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation to preserve television. “History is written by the victors, but also by the scrapbookers, the collectors, the keepers, the pack rats. By those …

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

Experts Corner: Civil Rights Collections

Posted by: Erin Allen

(The following is an interview from the July-August 2013 edition of the Library of Congress Magazine, LCM. You can read the issue in its entirety here.) Adrienne Cannon, African American history and culture specialist for the Manuscript Division, discusses the scope of the Library’s civil rights collections. When did the Library of Congress begin collecting …

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

Hands to the Skies

Posted by: Erin Allen

In palmistry, a person’s personality traits, talents and interests are revealed through the topography of his or her hands. Amelia Earhart, born July 24, 1897, had her palm prints analyzed by palmist Nellie Simmons Meier four years before her mysterious disappearance. According to Meier’s analysis, the length and breadth of the famed aviator’s palm indicated …