What does winter look like where you live? Do you have several feet of snow, or are you enjoying more temperate weather? Have you traveled to see family and friends, or are you enjoying a cozy season at home? Earlier this year, I asked my colleagues in the Informal Learning Office to describe what summer meant to them using images from the Library’s collection. As the days grew colder, I repeated the question: what does winter mean to you, and what at the Library represents that feeling? Perhaps not surprisingly, many members of our department associated winter with the holidays, but there was more to find. Keep reading to see what we came up with!
Holiday Baking With Rachel Gordon:
For me, both winter and the image above mean holiday baking. This starts early: as soon as cranberries appear and for as long as they are available, it’s cranberry bread season. I always scale up the recipe — why make just one loaf when you could produce three or four? After Thanksgiving, the kitchen turns into a mince pie factory. These traditional British Christmas delicacies look very much like the small pie in the picture. I make my own apple-based, meatless mincemeat (check out this similar recipe) and pastry enriched with almonds and egg yolks. They are incredibly time-consuming to assemble, but worth all the effort. A row of gingerbread house facades for our holiday mantel is a purely ornamental baking project. The design and decoration vary every year, but even the simplest gingerbread “street” looks and smells great for the whole festive season. After the holidays, it’s back to my standard cold weather baking repertoire — bread and focaccia, aromatic and gooey gingerbread, yeasted cakes and tea breads, and apple desserts served with plenty of cream. Yum!
A Trip to Snow-Covered New York with Dianne Choie:
Like many people, winter makes me think of the world covered in beautiful white snow. Having lived in cities, including Washington D.C. and New York City, I also think of the mess that happens when that snow is stepped on, driven on, and otherwise made into a slushy obstacle for all who encounter it. This scene of New York City after a snowstorm feels very familiar to me. You can see people bundled up for the cold but still fashionable in their boots and coats. Behind them, a city bus follows the trails in the snow left by other vehicles in the street. I’m drawn to the man in the foreground who is reaching out to the people walking toward him, offering them help with navigating over the piles of snow left by cars and plows. New Yorkers might have a reputation for being tough, but they’ll help one another to get where they need to go in any weather.
Researching Memes with Alli Hartley-Kong:
I am an aficionado of winter decorations—from beautifully-illuminated houses to tacky blow-ups, and even Christmas piñatas. When this meme popped up during my search for holiday decorations, I wondered: why exactly is there a treasure trove of safety-themed memes in the Library’s collection? From this blog post, I learned that the Library has collected materials created by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, an agency tasked with sharing public safety information. When the Library was approached about acquiring a social media campaign that began with this 2016 meme, our colleagues in Serials and Government Publications embraced the opportunity to share contemporary government communications in the most hilarious of forms! My journey reminded me that when you fall into a research rabbit hole you often find incredible collections that you didn’t know existed. Maybe the joy of research is the true meaning of the season for me—and every other time of the year for me, as long as I’m fortunate to be in this role.
Holiday Children’s Stories from Jennifer Ezell:
When I think of winter, I think of the all of the holiday books and movies that highlight the season. The Library of Congress houses some of the most iconic children’s books, including Hans Christian Anderson’s “Fairy Tales,” which features the “Snow Queen” and Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” Dickens tells the story of a miserly man named Scrooge who sees the errors of his ways and makes amends on Christmas. It also happens to be the source story for my favorite winter film, “A Muppet Christmas Carol,” which stars 2020 National Recording Registry inductee Kermit the Frog. Kermit and his muppet co-stars are well-known at the Library—you can even watch Kermit talk about his song, “The Rainbow Connection,” with Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. You can also find photos of Muppet creator, Jim Hensen in the Library’s collections. These stories and films never fail to make me think of the winter season.
Sledding with Katie McCarthy:
Growing up in Connecticut meant that every winter we were sure to get a few good snowstorms. We were lucky enough to live down the street from a park whose soccer field was surrounded by large embankments. When it snowed, those turned into perfect sledding hills! My family would bundle up and trudge five minutes down the road for a few good trips down the hill before our noses and fingers got too cold and we made the return journey. I was drawn to this photo because it embodied the joy of those exhilarating sledding trips. It didn’t hurt that this photo was taken only a 25-minute drive from my old house – although a good 65 years before I was going on my own snowy adventures! This photo was taken in November, a little early for a good snowstorm. How do you think the kids in the picture felt about it? What did their parents think?
Holiday Music with Monica Smith:
Even after the December holidays are over, I love to listen to sounds of the winter season as crooned by singers like Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, and Ella Fitzgerald (pictured above). As a young kid in Southern California, with sunlit palm trees waving in the ocean breeze, I would put classic records on the turntable and sing along to songs like “Sleigh Ride,” “Winter Wonderland,” and “Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow.” Now, I associate this music with family and friends coming over to my house in Maryland for festive fireside gatherings while it’s actually cold and wintery outside. For me, after the holidays it’s still the season to stream Ella and Louis singing “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm.”
Hockey Season with Lauren Windham Roszak:
Winter means it’s finally ice hockey season! I love watching my favorite team, the Washington Capitals, play all winter long. I chose this photograph of children playing ice hockey on a pond because it makes me think about the sounds and feelings I experience when I go to a hockey game. Can you imagine what it sounds and feels like to play on that ice? The children are wearing stocking caps on their heads and gloves on their hands. Do you think they are staying warm out there while they play? This photograph was taken by Lewis Hine, who documented the working and living conditions of children in the United States between 1908 and 1924. He snapped this shot in January in Massachusetts – I bet it’s cold! The blades on their skates might sound like they are hissing as they cut into the ice. The cold puck makes a hard “slap!” sound when it hits their wooden sticks. I love the way the game sounds and the cool temperature at the hockey rink – it’s one of my favorite things about winter!
Winterberries with Sarah Peet:
For me, winter equals winterberries! Winterberry bushes produce bright red berries that last the entire season. On a snowy day I love looking out into my yard and seeing cardinals feasting on the attractive fruit. Winterberries are native to most of the eastern United States. Another plant associated with winter and red berries is the American holly, which winterberries are related to. Unlike hollies, winterberries do not have sharp spiny leaves making them easier to use in festive decorations!
Now it’s your turn! What does winter mean to you? Can you find something in the Library’s collection that represents it? There are many places to start your search, from photographs and prints, to music, movies, and much more. We hope you have a fruitful search, and a peaceful winter.
Need help getting started? Take a look at these digital collections:
- Explore the Library’s Free to Use and Reuse Winter and Holiday sets for seasonal images.
- Dig deep into the Library’s general photography collections for rewarding finds, including: the Harris & Ewing Collection, the National Photo Company Collection, the Detroit Publishing Company Collection, and the Carol M. Highsmith Collection.
- For sounds of the season (and all others), listen to some of the music in the National Jukebox.
Comments
Nothing gives one the hunker-down feeling quite like images of Winter Days.