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Posted by: Jennifer Harbster
As summer is coming to a close, our interns are finishing their projects and heading back to school. This year our division was fortunate to have 3 summer interns, 2 volunteers and a Junior Fellow. You may have already read about Brian Horowitz’s discovery of Brevet Major Alfred Mordecai’s work in Stumbled Upon in the Stacks and Aileen M. J. Marshall’s …
Posted in: Biography, Women's History
Posted by: Jennifer Harbster
Our guest author today is Constance Carter, head of the science reference section, mentor, and cookie goddess. Today is the birthday of Ruth Graves Wakefield, “mother of the chocolate chip cookie.” She was born on June 17, 1903, and Inside Adams is celebrating by unveiling the division’s latest acquisition, the 1938 edition of Ruth Wakefield’s …
Posted in: Cookbooks and Food, Heritage Months, Holidays, and Today in History, Women's History
Posted by: Jennifer Harbster
Have you noticed people wearing the paper red poppies that veterans sell each Memorial Day? This tradition can be traced back to Miss Moina Michael of Athens, Georgia. She had the inspiration on November 9, 1918 to make the red poppy (Papaver rhoeas) the symbol of remembrance for the sacrifices of fallen soldiers during World War I. Her …
Posted in: Biography, Heritage Months, Holidays, and Today in History, Women's History
Posted by: Jennifer Harbster
It may sound clichéd, but as a librarian, one of the best gifts you can give me is a book. For Christmas one year, I received a re-issue of Rachel Carson’s 1965 Sense of Wonder . This book is an expansion of her 1956 essay “Help Your Child to Wonder” published in the July issue …
Posted in: Biography, Heritage Months, Holidays, and Today in History, Women's History
Posted by: Jennifer Harbster
In observance of Mother’s Day many of us in the United States will be buying and sending flowers to the mothers in our lives. You might not know it, but this tradition of sending flowers started back in the early 1900’s before ‘Mother’s Day’ was proclaimed. The connection of flowers to Mother’s Day can partially …
Posted in: Heritage Months, Holidays, and Today in History, Women's History
Posted by: Jennifer Harbster
Today’s post is written by science reference librarian and gardener, Alison Kelly. With the forsythia in bloom once again it seems like a good time to reconsider Beatrix Farrand and some of the other women who have played an important role in horticulture. Farrand, who was the only woman founding member of the American Society …
Posted in: Gardening, Heritage Months, Holidays, and Today in History, Women's History
Posted by: Jennifer Harbster
The desire to tinker, create and invent is universal. It doesn’t matter who or what you are–a scientist, business person, layperson, man, woman or child–if there’s a problem, we want to figure out how to solve it by inventing a new way of doing things or improving on an existing way. Women inventors have had …
Posted in: Heritage Months, Holidays, and Today in History, Women's History
Posted by: Jennifer Harbster
As I was compiling our resources related to women and science, I discovered that we have a lot of material on this topic. It would be a true test of my writing abilities to describe all of our guides, reading lists, Web casts and the like in a single blog post without creating an information …
Posted in: Heritage Months, Holidays, and Today in History, Lunchtime Lectures and Videos, Women's History
Posted by: Donna Scanlon
A carry over from my days in the entertainment industry, I still watch the Academy Awards. Sunday night, for the first time in Oscar history, a woman won the award for Best Director and her picture also won for Best Picture. What a way to start Women’s History Month! Women’s History Month was not always …
Posted in: Business, Heritage Months, Holidays, and Today in History, Women's History