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Archive: 2019 (8 Posts)

Silver stylized owl with radiant circles around its head, surrounded by a gold frame

Alexander McCall Smith and the World of Mma Precious Ramotswe

Posted by: Jennifer Harbster

Alexander McCall Smith has been celebrated for his lead female detective and recently the Library of Congress celebrated him for his work. The associated display included early female detective works of fiction, comic books, and also the flora and fauna of the setting of Smith's famous The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency.

Print of side view of Raven facial features

The Raven Quoth

Posted by: Jennifer Harbster

It's hard for the raven to shake the association to doom and gloom found in literature, religion, art, vocabulary (e.g. raving mad), and legends- and it doesn't help their case that a group of them is called an 'unkindness' of ravens. There is so much more to the raven than omens of bad luck.

Silver stylized owl with radiant circles around its head, surrounded by a gold frame

IT IS ROCKET SCIENCE! Exploring Earth’s Escaping Atmosphere with NASA’s Douglas Rowland on October 17

Posted by: Jennifer Harbster

NASA's Dr. Rowland will talk about atmospheric escape, his adventures in Norway, and what is being learned from the VISIONS-2 data in his lecture, Exploring Our Escaping Atmosphere: Going above the Top of the World to Watch the Sky, on Thursday, October 17, from 11:30 a.m.-12::30 p.m. in the Madison building's third floor Pickford Theater.

Silver stylized owl with radiant circles around its head, surrounded by a gold frame

Obscure and Endangered: Book and Fiber Art Display, Oct 15 &16

Posted by: Jennifer Harbster

On Tuesday, October 15, and Wednesday, October 16, 2019, between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., the Library of Congress Science and Business Reading Room will pair fiber art quilts with our October reading room book display Obscure and Endangered. The book display highlights lesser known endangered plant and animal species, ranging from the Goldstreifiger to the Jellyfish Tree.

Photograph of the Narrow-gauge steam locomotive

Walt Whitman’s View of Railroads: To a Locomotive in Winter

Posted by: Jennifer Harbster

Whitman's poem "To a Locomotive in Winter;" first appeared in print February 19, 1876 in the New York Daily Tribune as part of a preview of the volume Two Rivulets (1876). Published just seven years after the union of the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific railroad at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory, Whitman's poem "To a Locomotive in Winter" considers the dynamic relationship between the railroad and nature.