…And we’re back! With the next installment in the Library’s series of short films celebrating the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States! Like in the first installment, these videos present items from the Rare Book and Special Collections Division that highlight aspects of American history and culture.
Special thanks to the Library’s Multimedia Group for their skill and expertise in bringing these films to life!
We will continue to add to our America 250 series in the runup to July 4th, 2026, but here are the pieces that we have produced in our most recent filming sessions:
Baseball was a popular game from the very beginning of the United States, but it was played by local rules that varied across the country. The mid-19th century explosion of print culture, however, allowed for standardized rules to turn a neighborhood game into a shared national pastime. This film presents a few of the Library’s earliest printed items related to baseball’s rules and cultural importance.
Charlotte Temple: America’s First Bestseller
Originally published in London in 1791, Susanna Rowson’s tragic novel Charlotte Temple became one of the most popular books in the early United States. The Library of Congress’s Charlotte Temple collection reflects the enduring popularity of the book and the deep emotional connection that generations of readers felt to this story of a young English girl seduced and abandoned by a British soldier during the American Revolution. This film introduces this novel and presents a few of the Library’s most interesting copies.
The First American Architectural Handbook
Printed in Deerfield, Massachusetts in 1797, The Country Builder’s Assistant by Benjamin Asher is the first architectural handbook written by an American author specifically for rural American builders. This film explains how Asher’s little book offered a uniquely American approach to architecture.
Thomas Jefferson’s Mouldboard Plow
Thomas Jefferson was a statesman, farmer, and Enlightenment thinker. These three parts of his identity come together in his innovative design for a mouldboard plow and his publication of the plans for how to build it. This film explains the ideals and practical application of Jefferson’s “mouldboard plow of least resistance.”
The Sky’s the Limit: Amelia Earhart and the National Woman’s Party
Written by American aviator Amelia Earhart (1897-1937) but compiled and arranged by her husband after her fatal flight, the copy of “Last Flight” in the National Woman’s Party Library in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division has a special provenance linking Earhart to the women’s suffrage movement. This film tells the story of Earhart as a writer, aviator, STEM educator, and advocate for women’s rights.
The French and Indian War and the Shaping of American Identity
The French and Indian War is often cited as a prelude to the American Revolution, and items from the Library of Congress’s collections reveal how the colonists’ experience of that conflict began shaping, and sharpening, a uniquely American identity. This film explores a few printed artifacts from the beginning of the French and Indian War.
Tiny Creatures, Big Impact: Bugs and American Science
Discover how the study of insects helped establish American science on the global stage. From Thomas Jefferson’s defense of American nature to Thomas Say’s groundbreaking American Entomology, this video explores how bugs shaped U.S. history and identity in the 19th century.
Parents in the colonial period were eager to teach their children to read. The New England Primer taught children their ABCs, entertained them with illustrations, and taught them about the world around them. This film explores the content and methods of this very popular early American teaching tool.