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Posted by: Marianna Stell
Is that mermaid holding a mirror? No, and yes. The lower border of the January calendar page from this fifteenth-century illuminated Book of Hours contains a Siren, who is holding a mirror. What is a Siren? Why it is in this Book of Hours? Learn more in this New Years post.
Posted in: Illuminated manuscript, Manuscript and Letterpress (Hand Press), Seasonal, Women in Book History
Posted by: Amanda Zimmerman
This post explores a set of mysterious manuscript volumes in the Harry Houdini Collection. These manuscripts were written by Frederick Hockley, noted participant in the British Occult Revival of the late 19th century, and they contain the results of his experiments with the art of crystal-gazing.
Posted in: 19th Century, Occult History, Seasonal
Posted by: Marianna Stell
Likely created in Tours in the 1470s in a workshop influenced by the French painter and manuscript illuminator, Jean Fouquet (c. 1420 - 1480), a Book of Hours in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress reminds us that Halloween is just around the corner.
Posted in: 15th Century, Manuscript and Letterpress (Hand Press), Seasonal
Posted by: Michael North
The Library of Congress owns two copies of the first printing of the Declaration of Independence, also known as the Dunlap Broadside, printed in Philadelphia on the evening of July 4 and the early morning of July 5, 1776. One copy was George Washington's, and the other came to the Library from collector Peter Force.
Posted in: 18th Century, 19th Century, American History, Seasonal
Posted by: Amanda Zimmerman
This blog discusses the first edition of Ralph Ellison's posthumous book, Juneteenth, housed in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division.
Posted in: 20th Century, Seasonal
Posted by: Mark Manivong
A Pride Month post featuring the life and work of gay Greek-Alexandrian poet Konstantinos Petrou Kavafis, better known to English readers as Constantine Cavafy, or just C.P. Cavafy, and connecting him to materials in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress.
Posted in: Seasonal