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Happy 220th Birthday to the Library of Congress!

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This piece was co-written by my colleague Megan Halsband.

To celebrate the 220th anniversary of its founding, on Friday, April 24, 2020, the Library of Congress is highlighting some of the many gifts and resources we have been able to provide because of your contributions. 

“For me? Oh Boy! Happy Birthday,” The Sunday Star. February 10, 1952, This Week Magazine section,  p. 6.

Your creativity and knowledge help us build our Web Archiving collections like Webcomics, SPX Web Archive, Comics Literature and Criticism, and General News on the Internet.

Comics Literature and Criticism Web Archive, “About this Collection.” April 24, 2020.

Institutions from your state* have helped us to provide access to over 16 million pages (and counting!) in Chronicling America, jointly sponsored by the Library and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Chronicling America All Digitized Titles (Map). April 24, 2020.

*Currently 48 states and 2 territories are partners in the National Digital Newspaper Program.

Your time and interest help us build crowdsourcing projects like Beyond Words, an experimental project to enhance access to images in WWI newspapers, which is set to close in June 2020:

Beyond Words at labs.loc.gov April 24, 2020.

We’ve been working hard to digitize more of our collections and make them accessible to you from anywhere you are! Collection highlights include:

“Our Paper and Its Prospects,” The North Star, December 3, 1847, p. 2.

Frederick Douglass Newspapers 1847-1874, which presents three newspaper titles edited by Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), the African American abolitionist who escaped slavery and became one of the most famous orators, authors, and journalists of the 19th century. In-depth looks at this collection are available through two previous blog posts available here and here. 

 

 

 

 

“New York’s ‘Hell Fighters,’ Men of the 369th Infantry,” The New York Times, Feb. 23, 1919, Rotogravure Picture Section 5, p.1.

 

 

World War I era collections including:

Read more about these collections here, here, and here!

Other online collections include:

All of our digital collections can be viewed here. We continue working to build both our online and print materials and make them available to you. Coming soon look for an updated newspaper directory, more web archive materials, and more digitized newspapers in Chronicling America!

Read more about our 220th Birthday:

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