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Hand tinted lantern slide photo of an elaborate garden with a rectangular swimming pool at the center of the photo.

Free to Use and Reuse — Gardens

Posted by: Neely Tucker

The Library's Free to Use and Reuse set of photographs are a copyright-free collection of photographs, posters and graphics that are available to everyone to use as they wish. Here, we look at three garden photographs with short essays on each. We begin with Frances Benjamin Johnston's famous "Blue Garden."

Head and shoulders photo of Ada Limon. She is turned slightly to her right, looking to the right of the camera.

Ada Limón Gets Second Term as Poet Laureate

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

Ada Limón, named the U.S. Poet Laureate last year, will serve two more years, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden has announced, making the California native the third laureate to serve for as long as three years. Limón is composing a poem that will be engraved on NASA's Europa Clipper mission. The spacecraft will travel 1.8 billion miles to explore Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons.

Color photograph of a young Wynton Marsalis in suit and ite, holding a trumpet

Wynton Marsalis, “Black Codes” and Thoughts on the Highway

Posted by: Neely Tucker

It is midafternoon on a recent weekday and jazz legend Wynton Marsalis is driving across the Southwest, taking the call on speakerphone that his 1985 album, “Black Codes (From the Underground),” has been inducted into the 2023 class of the National Recording Registry. With endless desert spreading about behind and before him, he took a few minutes to talk about the album and its pointed political statement.

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

Veterans History Project in the News

Posted by: Erin Allen

As has been the case every year since its inception, the Veterans History Project receives an increased amount of media coverage during the Veterans Day season, both prior to and after the holiday. This year’s coverage included a segment on Washington’s NBC affiliate, NBC4, which aired on Nov. 8. The segment featured VHP Director Bob …

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

Abraham Lincoln’s “Blind Memorandum”

Posted by: Erin Allen

(The following is a guest post by Michelle Krowl, a historian in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division.) Could George B. McClellan have become the seventeenth President of the United States? It certainly appeared to be a possibility as Abraham Lincoln assessed the military and political landscape of the United States in the summer of …

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

Pic of the Week: En Pointe

Posted by: Erin Allen

Last week, the Library of Congress opened the exhibition “American Ballet Theatre: Touring the Globe for 75 Years,” which highlights the dance company’s distinguished history and its collection here at the Library. Shortly after the opening, ABT alum Sue Knapp-Steen (1969-1974) stopped by to view the exhibition and reminisce on her time as a professional dancer …

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

Global Gathering

Posted by: Erin Allen

The sun truly never sets on collecting at the Library of Congress. At any given hour, somewhere on the planet, an employee is acquiring material to add to the world’s largest library. Scattered across 11 time zones, from Brazil to Indonesia, the Library’s six field offices acquire hard- to-get publications from developing nations for its own collections and …

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

America’s Other Anthem

Posted by: Erin Allen

O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain! America! America! God shed his grace on thee And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea! Pikes Peak is one of America’s most famous mountains. Rising more than 14,000 feet, the mountain has been …