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Posted by: Anchi Hoh
Chocolate or xocolatl originated in present day Mexico and was introduced to the Spanish in the 16th century. Try this recipe for making a chocolate drink from cocao pods as you reflect on the origins of chocolate and its spread across the Americas, Europe, West Africa and elsewhere.
Posted in: Hispanic Americans, Hispanic Reading Room, Native American History, Native Americans
Posted by: Anchi Hoh
Two rare Tibetan traditional hand-painted scrolls called thangkas have been digitized by the Library of Congress. This blog tells their interconnected story.
Posted in: Asian Division
Posted by: Anchi Hoh
In celebration of National Native American Heritage Month, this bibliographic essay on Mesoamerican ethnology by Duncan Earle for the Handbook of Latin American Studies (HLAS) explores contemporary Indigenous life and cultures of the Americas.
Posted in: Handbook of Latin American Studies, Hispanic Americans, Hispanic Reading Room, National Native American Heritage Month, Native American History, Native Americans
Posted by: Anchi Hoh
In 2017, the Hebraic Section acquired a miniature Hebrew prayer-book of exceptional beauty and detail, handwritten and illustrated by one Joseph ben Meir Schmalkalden in Mainz, Germany in or around 1745. With its brightly painted images and exquisite detail, this miniature is one of the loveliest examples of a genre which enjoyed something of a renaissance in 18th century Central Europe. This blog places special emphasis on the life of the largely unknown artist who created this beautiful piece, and examines the connection between his signature and the rainbow with which he illuminated one of its pages.
Posted in: African and Middle Eastern Division (AMED), Hebraic Section
Posted by: Anchi Hoh
This blog introduces a traditional 19th-century Chinese map with colored illustrations showing the last imperial pilgrimage to Mount Wutai in Chinese history made by the Qing emperor Jiaqing in 1811.
Posted in: Asian Division, East Asia
Posted by: Anchi Hoh
The 11th Librarian of Congress L. Quincy Mumford was instrumental in the early development of the international collections at the Library of Congress.
Posted in: African and Middle Eastern Division (AMED), Asian Division, European Reading Room, Hispanic Reading Room
Posted by: Anchi Hoh
This is a guest blog interview was submitted to the Hispanic Division by patrons Anna Deeny Morales and Nelcy Denice Ávila. It offers context on The Gabriela Mistral Youth Poetry Competition as a legacy to this Chilean poet, who was the first Latin American writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1945.
Posted in: Hispanic American History, Hispanic Americans, Hispanic Reading Room, National Hispanic Heritage Month
Posted by: Anchi Hoh
A celebration of the life of Rudolfo Anaya (1937-2020), author of the 1972 book, “Bless Me, Ultima” and many other stories that honored New Mexico and Chicano Culture. The voice of this National Humanities Medal recipient resonates far beyond New Mexico and may also be found in the PALABRA Archive at the Library of Congress.
Posted in: Hispanic American History, Hispanic Americans, Hispanic Reading Room, National Hispanic Heritage Month
Posted by: Anchi Hoh
This post is a personal reflection on a professional friendship that African Section librarian Eve M. Ferguson had with renowned bibliographer, Abdul Samed Bemath, who recently passed away after producing a third bibliography of the legendary African historian, the late Ali Al’Amin Mazrui, who was memorialized at the Library of Congress in December 2014. Eve Ferguson worked with Bemath to create a chapter in a book of tributes, A Giant Tree Has Fallen: Tributes to Ali Al’Amin Mazrui. Abdul Samed Bemath died in South Africa on July 31, 2020.
Posted in: African and Middle Eastern Division (AMED), African Section