Like the Library of Congress and the Jefferson building, the Science & Business Reading Room has a special connection to Thomas Jefferson. On this day in 1976, in honor of Thomas Jefferson’s birthday, President Ford signed the act that changed the Library of Congress Annex Building to the Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building. His […]
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 […]
Occasionally when visiting the stacks we run across something that we find particularly interesting either from a content or historical perspective. Shortly after my arrival here at the Library, I found such an item! Published in 1883 the book The Secrets of Success In Business claims to “show completely and practically how business is done, […]
The National Park Service reported that the Washington Tidal Basin cherry blossoms reached their peak this year on March 31. This is when at least 70 per cent of the blossoms are open. But for those of you who haven’t visited yet, do not be discouraged–the flowers will continue to show off their radiant beauty […]
Our guest author today is Ellen Terrell, Business Reference Specialist. Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution of the United States states: “The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they […]
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 […]
Childhood memories – airplanes that you would wind up and then let go and watch it fly; the sling shot made out of rubber bands or the car that ran on rubber band power. Today you find rubber bands wrapped around your vegetables, around stacks of paper, or anything that you want to hold together […]
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 […]
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 […]
Alexander Graham Bell, a successful business man, scientist, innovator and engineer was born on this date in 1847. In 1876, at the age of 29, Alexander was awarded the first U.S. patent for the telephone (patent # 174,465). Soon afterward in 1877 he formed the Bell Telephone Company. With the financial success of the telephone, […]