Madam C.J. Walker (1867-1919) was one of the first American women to become a self-made millionaire through her company, Madam C.J. Walker Manufacturing. Though she had no formal education, she gained a wide reputation as an African American entrepreneur in the cosmetics industry and manufacturer of a hair remedy, which she coined the “Walker System.” …
Gunfire erupts on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives on March 1, 1954, when four Puerto Rican nationalists shoot at random from the spectators' galleries, shouting "Viva Puerto Rico libre!"--"Long live free Puerto Rico!" Five members of Congress are injured, one seriously.
As COVID-19 changes our world, we rely on our medical community to care for us and our loved ones more than ever. But their names rarely make the headlines despite their tireless efforts and personal risk. So in honor of National Nurses Week, we are dedicating this issue to all of those nurses who are …
As April's National Poetry Month ends, here's your chance to read compelling poetry found in the millions of pages in our online historical newspaper collections.
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. Your creativity and knowledge help us build our Web Archiving collections …
Eileen Jakeway, an innovation specialist on the LC Labs team, first posted this piece to The Signal blog. In this post, Innovator in Residence Ben Lee talks about his aspirations for engaging the American public with the millions of images he extracted from Chronicling America. The Chronicling America historic newspapers online collection is a product of …
Tom Ewing, professor of history at Virginia Tech, focuses on epidemics as covered in late 19th and early 20th century newspapers that are digitized in the Chronicling America online collection.
While the Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room is closed during the pandemic, we are extending our chat hours to 12pm to 4pm, Monday through Friday! Chat with us live, send us a message, or give us a call. Read more about our resources and how we can help!
Rose Cecil O'Neill was an iconoclast in every sense of the word. A self-taught bohemian artist, who ascended through a male-dominated field to become a top illustrator and the first to build a merchandising empire from her work, with her invention of the Kewpie doll.
