Top of page

Category: History

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

African American Passages Episode 4: In Search of Adeline Henson

Posted by: Andrew Breiner

In the fourth episode of our African American Passages podcast, former John W. Kluge Center Distinguished Visiting Scholar and Georgetown University history professor Adam Rothman goes in search of Adeline Henson, an African-American woman who makes an ephemeral appearance in the Library of Congress’s Manuscript Collections, through two photographs, a bill of sale, and a …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

African American Passages Episode 2: The Long Journey of Omar Ibn Said

Posted by: Andrew Breiner

In the second episode of African American Passages: Black Lives in the 19th Century, John W. Kluge Center Distinguished Visiting Scholar and Georgetown University history professor Adam Rothman looks at the story of Omar Ibn Said. Rothman is joined on the podcast by Mary-Jane Deeb, the Chief of the Library of Congress’s African and Middle …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

A Brief Survey of “Elections that Echo”

Posted by: Andrew Breiner

The following is a guest post by L. Marvin Overby, a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Missouri and 2018-2019 Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the John W. Kluge Center. During my fellowship at the Kluge Center I am researching a book with my University of Missouri colleague James Endersby. Tentatively …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

Introducing African-American Passages: Black Lives in the 19th Century

Posted by: Andrew Breiner

During his time as a Distinguished Visiting Scholar here at the John W. Kluge Center, Georgetown University history professor Adam Rothman recorded an extraordinary series of podcasts. In the podcasts, Rothman examines documents from the Library of Congress’ manuscript collection relating to the lives of African-Americans in the 19th century. He found a number of …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

“My Dear Master”: An Enslaved Blacksmith’s Letters to a President

Posted by: Adam Rothman

An unusual letter arrived in the mail for the Tennessee planter James K. Polk shortly after he won the 1844 presidential election. Written from Carrollton, Mississippi, and dated November 28, 1844, the letter began “My Dear Master” and was signed by “Blacksmith Harry.” Here’s what Harry wrote: Suffer your faithful survant Harry to say a …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

Adam Rothman on Working With the Library’s Unique Omar Ibn Said Collection

Posted by: Andrew Breiner

While Adam Rothman, Georgetown University history professor and former Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Kluge Center, was at the Library, he had the opportunity to work on transcribing the Library of Congress’ Omar Ibn Said Collection, which was just released online. Ibn Said was an educated, wealthy man living in West Africa until he was …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

The Oldest Idea in the World?

Posted by: Stephen Houston

The association of directions with colors may be the oldest known set of philosophical ideas in the world, transmitted from ancient Asia to the Americas over 10,000 years ago. Obvious Concepts Some concepts come naturally to humans. In several ancient societies, the moon relates to a goddess, and logically so, for menstruation and lunar cycles …