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Posted by: Matt Raymond
Happy Halloween to all! There’s no better time to point you to the LOC’s “Wise Guide” for October, which explores how trick-or-treating got started: The origins of present day “trick-or-treat” date back to the Celtic tradition of offering gifts of fruits and nuts to appease wandering spirits. If not placated, the villagers feared that the …
Posted in: History, LC Web site
Posted by: Matt Raymond
Exhibits, especially major ones, take a lot of planning, often years’ worth. There is fund-raising, exhibit design, curatorial work, object selection, conservation, writing the label texts, brochure design, fabrication, mounting, installation … and several other steps that I’m undoubtedly forgetting. On Feb. 12, we’re opening the major exhibition “With Malice Toward None,” celebrating the 200th …
Posted in: Abraham Lincoln, Collections, Curators, Exhibitions, News
Posted by: Matt Raymond
It isn’t unusual for docents like Malcolm O’Hagan to find that they have inspired visitors after a tour of the Thomas Jefferson Building. (I have written about such inspiration before.) It is, after all, one of the great buildings at the heart of one of the great institutions of the world. But what wasn’t expected …
Posted in: Poetry, Thomas Jefferson Building
Posted by: Matt Raymond
If you haven’t yet seen the exhibition that David McCullough calls the one “every American ought to see,” you might want to make a trip to the Library within the next few days. The original rough draft of the Declaration of Independence in Thomas Jefferson’s hand, with edits by John Adams and Ben Franklin, will …
Posted in: Exhibitions, New Visitors Experience
Posted by: Matt Raymond
All eyes in the United States over the next couple of weeks will be on the current presidential campaign. Here at the Library of Congress, we’re taking a bit of a look back — and a musical one, at that. A few days ago, we opened an exhibition called “Voices, Votes, Victory: Presidential Campaign Songs,” …
Posted in: Exhibitions, Music, News
Posted by: Matt Raymond
I know it is late notice, but if you have some time on your hands this afternoon (and you’re in DC), you might want to stop by an open house from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Library’s Rare Books and Special Collections Division (the Lessing J. Rosenwald Room, across from room 239 in the …
Posted by: Matt Raymond
Further to my Friday post, I wanted to point out that Kay Ryan’s webcast from last week has now been put online, here. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
Posted in: Books, LC Web site, Poetry
Posted by: Matt Raymond
Well, I’ve been a very bad blogger. But we’ve been pretty busy around here. Let’s see, what have we been up to? Well, we’ve begun taking a little bit of the Library on the road — first in Fort Lauderdale Sept. 19 and next in Denver on Oct. 27 (with Dallas, San Francisco and Los …
Posted in: Books, Events, LC Web site, Libraries, National Book Festival, News, Photos, Poetry