Ida B. Wells was 30 years old in 1892, living in Memphis and working as a newspaper editor, when a mob lynched one of her friends. Distraught, the pioneering journalist set out to document the stories of lynching victims and disprove a commonly asserted justification — that the murders were a response to rape. Wells’ …
Robert Cornelius, a Philadelphia photographer, is believed to have taken the world's first self-portrait -- the first selfie -- in 1839. The Library, which already had the world's large collection of his work, in December acquired a donation from Cornelius’ great-great-grand-daughter, Sarah Bodine, of more of his photographic materials. Preservationists are now at work on the new donation.
The Library today announced a new, multiyear initiative to connect more deeply with Black, Hispanic, Indigenous and other minority communities by expanding its collections, using technology to enable storytelling and offering more internship and fellowship opportunities, supported by a $15 million investment from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The Library of Congress houses a multitude of papers, blueprints, recordings, drawings, images and artifacts that document the dazzling era of American invention, from the 1850s to the 1910s.
Thomas Jefferson, future president, designed a macaroni-making machine, one of his many inventions drawn and described in his papers at the Library of Congress.
The Library's latest crowdsourcing project is the papers of Alan Lomax, whose legendary field recordings documented much of American folk music, most notably the blues.