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By: Cait Miller
The following is a guest post from Music Archivist Chris Hartten who will be presenting a High Noon Lecture in the Whittall Pavilion on Tuesday, February 24. The talk is free and open to the public – see the flyer below the post for more details. If ever there was a blue chip prospect among …
Posted in: In The Muse
By: Peter Armenti
When most of us consider the relationship between U.S. presidents and poetry, we’re likely to conjure up scenes of poets reading at presidential inaugurations or of presidents quoting lines of verse in public speeches and addresses. Few of us, however, give any thought to the achievement of presidents as poets. Yet a look at the biographies …
Posted in: From the Catbird Seat
By: Erin Allen
(The following is a guest post written by Meg McAleer, senior archives specialist in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division.) Archivists have wonderful jobs. Four colleagues – Kimberly Owens, Tammi Taylor, Tracey Barton and Sherralyn McCoy – and I shared nods of understanding, delight and awe often during the last two months of 2014 as …
Posted in: Timeless
By: Jennifer Gavin
A few years ago – around 2001, 2002 – I had a cannon in my basement in Rockville, Maryland. You could see it through the front windows, where it was aimed. I wondered if the mailman would report us to Homeland Security. It wasn’t a real one, but it was incredibly realistic and man-o’war-size (about …
Posted in: Timeless
By: Erin Allen
February is African American History Month, an annual celebration that has existed since 1926. This year’s theme, according to the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) is “A Century of Black Life, History and Culture.” This year also marks the centennial of ASALH, which was established in 1915 by Carter G. …
Posted in: Timeless
By: Erin Allen
(The following is a guest post by Lee Ann Potter, director of Educational Outreach for the Library of Congress.) Born Rosa Louise McCauley on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Ala., the civil rights activist would have been 102 years old today. It is impossible to imagine how many birthday wishes she received in her 92 …
Posted in: Timeless
This Week @ Concerts from the Library of Congress Wednesday, February 4, 2015 – 8:00pm (Coolidge Auditorium) CALEFAX REED QUINTET After more than 25 years of touring as an ensemble, the Calefax reed quintet is known world-wide for its unique instrumentation and arrangements. Playing music ranging from early Baroque to Ellington and Gershwin, Calefax has …
Posted in: In The Muse
By: Erin Allen
(The following is a story written by Stephen Winick, folklorist and writer-editor in the American Folklife Center, for the January/February 2015 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine, LCM. The issue can be read in its entirety here.) A century after his birth, folklorist Alan Lomax is remembered for his preservation of the nation’s cultural …
Posted in: Timeless
By: Erin Allen
A tiny, handwritten “T” at the bottom of page 113 offered a clue that this book – long part of the Law Library collections – needed a new home: the permanent exhibition of Thomas Jefferson’s library. Every four months, Anna Bryan and other catalogers in the U.S./Anglo Division’s Rare Materials Section work on an ongoing …
Posted in: Timeless
By: Erin Allen
Two hundred years ago today, President James Madison approved an act of Congress appropriating $23,590 for the purchase of a large collection of books belonging to Thomas Jefferson in order to reestablish the Library of Congress. Under Madison’s leadership, the United States went to war with Great Britain in 1812. After capturing Washington, D.C. in …
Posted in: Timeless