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Posted by: Joanna Colclough
Lintoypes brought speed to a new level of the newspaper printing process and ruled the composing rooms for 100 years. Read more about these incredible machines and take a look at how they worked!
Posted in: Digitized Newspapers, Newspapers
Posted by: Malea Walker
The following is a guest post from Meg Metcalf, a reference librarian in the Main Reading Room, currently on detail in the Serial and Government Publications Division. “Margaret Jessie Chung has Aspirations,” the Los Angeles Herald headline read on October 10, 1905. Margaret was a 16-year-old, first-generation Chinese American who was teaching English in the …
Posted in: Asian American History, Biography, Digitized Newspapers, LGBTQ+, Newspapers, Women's History
Posted by: Heather Thomas
Dr. Chien-Shiung Wu (1912-1997) was a Chinese-born American physicist who worked on the covert Manhattan Project developing the first nuclear weapons for the U.S. during WWII and later conducted a landmark experiment that established her as one of the premier experimental physicists in history.
Posted in: Asian American History, Biography, Digitized Newspapers, Newspapers, Women's History
Posted by: Mike Queen
Only recently have the exploits of Negro Leagues players been officially recognized by Major League Baseball (MLB). These players along with their statistics, records, and teams are now considered Major League. A wrong has finally been righted, so let’s get to know some of these greats and have some fun at the same time with a trivia quiz!
Posted in: African American History, Baseball, Digitized Newspapers, Newspapers, Sports, Trivia
Posted by: Amber Paranick
Happy Birthday to the Newspaper & Current Periodical Reading Room! The reading room, located in the James Madison Building of the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, opened to the public on May 11, 1982.
Posted in: Digitized Newspapers, Newspapers
Posted by: Thomas Beheler
What do whale hotels, cat pianos, and malaria pills all have in common? They represent an era when medicine was less of a science and more of an art (for better or for worse). One of the things I do as a reference librarian is answer questions from researchers all over the world. This tends to be rewarding work and sometimes, I even stumble across articles throughout history riddled with fun facts. So today, I'm going to share some stories I've found featuring some of the strangest medical (mal)practices of the past few centuries.
Posted in: Digitized Newspapers, Newspapers
Posted by: Malea Walker
How did U.S. newspapers report on the events of the Holocaust? What is History Unfolded? Read more about it and how you can contribute, become a researcher, and learn how to use the historic newspapers in Chronicling America!
Posted in: Digitized Newspapers, Jewish American History, Newspapers
Posted by: Heather Thomas
160 years have passed since the Battle of Shiloh was fought over April 6-7, 1862, and what we do know is that the Confederates were driven back and away from the battlefield on April 7, leading to a Union victory, and though the casualty numbers were alarmingly high, the estimated total for both sides was closer to over 23,000.
Posted in: Civil War, Digitized Newspapers, Newspapers
Posted by: Heather Thomas
Skies at sunset blazed unearthly shades of chartreuse and crimson throughout the Fall of 1883. Newspapers from around the world reported the eerie phenomenon and described how the strange sight captivated the masses. Public response varied from the dumbfounded, to the delighted, to the dismayed. Years later, scientists finally uncovered the truth behind the anomaly and connected it to the cataclysmic eruption of Krakatoa, a small volcanic island in the Sunda Strait.
Posted in: Digitized Newspapers, Newspapers