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Posted by: Jennifer Harbster
As you walk through the main center door of the Science and Business Reading Room, you see the Book Service Desk straight ahead. Because the Library’s books stacks are closed to the public, this is where researchers turn in paper call slips to retrieve items from the General Collections and pick up delivered items. Thousands …
Posted in: John Adams Building, Pic of the Week
Posted by: Ellen Terrell
This blog post looks at the history of the board game Monopoly and the game it was borrowed from.
Posted in: Business, Heritage Months, Holidays, and Today in History, Inventions
Posted by: Jennifer Harbster
In the spirit of the holiday season, we are highlighting another Everyday Mystery relevant to this time of the year: Who invented electric Christmas lights? The short answer is Thomas Alva Edison and Edward H. Johnson. After all, Edison created the first practical light bulb and successfully strung together the first strand of electric lights …
Posted in: Heritage Months, Holidays, and Today in History, Inventions
Posted by: Jennifer Harbster
We decided to follow the lead of our Law Library colleagues at In Custodia Legis with a Picture of the Week series. In this series we will show you interesting things we see in and around the Library of Congress John Adams Building. With that said, our first photo features one of the John Adams Building owls that greets vistors …
Posted in: John Adams Building, Pic of the Week
Posted by: Jennifer Harbster
While winter has not yet officially arrived, some of us have been given a taste of the season to come with cold temperatures, frigid winds, frost, ice, and even powdery snow. When I think of winter, I think of twinkling ice crystals falling from the sky and colliding to become intricate snowflakes. Each winter there …
Posted in: Weather
Posted by: Ellen Terrell
Post featuring photographs of Flat Stanley's visit to the Library of Congress' Adams Building, its collections and reading room.
Posted in: John Adams Building
Posted by: Jennifer Harbster
The earliest cultivation records of the sweet potato date to 750 BCE in Peru, although archeological evidence shows cultivation of the sweet potato might have begun around 2500-1850 BCE.
Posted in: Cookbooks and Food, Heritage Months, Holidays, and Today in History
Posted by: Ellen Terrell
In the 1987 movie Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Steve Martin’s character is desperately trying to get home for Thanksgiving. While working at the Library of Congress, I have answered many questions which might have interested Steve Martin’s character, from how people traveled, to how much a trip cost, to how long a certain trip was …
Posted in: Favorites From the Fifth Floor, Heritage Months, Holidays, and Today in History, Travel
Posted by: Jennifer Harbster
K-rations, better night vision binoculars, and synthetic rubber are just a few examples of innovations resulted from scientific research during World War II. The story of science during World War II is one of partnerships and prolific research. On June 28, 1941, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8807which established the Office of Scientific Research and …
Posted in: Favorites From the Fifth Floor, Heritage Months, Holidays, and Today in History, Inventions, Military science, Technical Reports and Standards