Top of page

You’re Invited! Announcing September Events.

Share this post:

You are invited to join us for three exciting events in September that highlight our newspaper and comic book collections.

September 6: Chronicling America: “Turning Points in History” (Virtual)

On Wednesday, September 6, 2023, from 1:00-2:00 p.m. EDT, join Library of Congress Digital Conversion Specialist Mike Saelee and Reference Librarian Amber Paranick to learn how to search for primary source materials in Chronicling America.* The freely available digital collection of more than 20 million pages from American newspapers published between 1770 and 1963 is highly valuable for National History Day research. The presentation will cater to this year’s theme, “Turning Points in History,” and will discuss the collection, its search interface, navigating known challenges of working with historic newspapers, and additional resources to assist students and educators.

This program will be streamed live on Zoom. For those unable to attend this program at the time, the recording will be available for viewing afterward in the Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room’s Webinar Videos collection. Please register for the event.

 

Young Black man wearing glasses, a vest over a short sleeved shirt, leaning over a desk to read a folded newspaper.
Citation: Young Man Reading Newspaper. Angelo Rizzuto, photographer. August 1956. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.69992

 

September 7: Live! At The Library: Kent State – Recreating History with Comics with Derf Backderf (on-site)

On Thursday, September 7, 2023, from 6:00-7:00 p.m., award-winning artist and author Derf Backderf will discuss his latest published graphic novel: “Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio”. He is most famous for his graphic novels, especially “My Friend Dahmer”, the international bestseller which won an Angoulême Prize, and earlier for his comic strip “The City”, which appeared in a number of alternative newspapers from 1990 to 2014.

In 2006 Backderf won the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for cartooning and has won awards for his other work including” Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio”, which received the Alex Award from the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) division of the American Library Association, the 2021 Eisner Award for best reality-based work, and the 2021 Ringo Award in the same category.

This event is free, but timed-entry passes are required to enter the Library of Congress. Click on this link and select a timed-entry pass for your preferred entry time.

Split image of author Derf Backderf with elbows resting on a desk and hands folded in front on the left side and cover of KENT STATE Four Dead in Ohio book on the right.
Image of author Derf Backderf from Kent State University (https://www.kent.edu/cas/news/graphic-novelist-derf-chronicles-may-4-tragedy).

 

September 20: Can Historical Newspapers Be an Antidote to the Environmental Crisis? with Kerri Arsenault (Virtual)

Our environmental crisis is tethered to an aesthetic and rhetorical crisis. So many institutions grant the public “free” access to archives, but what if—as an ordinary citizen—you can’t even find the door? This talk on Wednesday, September 20, 2023, from 4:00-5:00 p.m. EDT, jointly sponsored by the Library and the National Endowment for the Humanities, will consider barriers to information, how such obstacles may exacerbate the environmental crisis, and what newspapers can do that many resources cannot to help unlock knowledge for those who need it most.

Kerri Arsenault is a literary critic, co-director of The Environmental Storytelling Studio at Brown University, contributing editor at Orion magazine, and author of “Mill Town: Reckoning with What Remains (2020).” Recently, she was a Democracy Fellow at Harvard’s Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History and a fellow at the Science History Institute. Her writing has been published in the Boston Globe, the Paris Review, the New York Review of Books, the Washington Post, and the New York Times.

This program will be streamed live on Zoom and will not be recorded. Please register for the event.

Image collage of author Kerri Arsenault and black and white image or a frozen waterway framed by leafless trees on the left. On the right visible text reads: Kerri Arsenault CAN HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS BE AN ANTIDOTE to the Envicronmental Crisis?

Individuals requiring ADA accommodations for all of these events must submit a request at least five business days in advance by contacting (202) 707-6362 or [email protected]. The Serial and Government Publications Division hosts various events, lectures, and webinars on newspapers, comic books, and research orientations. For more information, please visit our News and Events page.

* The Chronicling America historic newspapers online collection is a product of the National Digital Newspaper Program and jointly sponsored by the Library and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Follow Chronicling America on Twitter @ChronAmLOC.

Add a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *