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Archive: October 2008 (8 Posts)

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Maybe I Will Go As 'Crazy Newspaper Face'

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 …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibit: Getting Ready for Prime Time

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 …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

The Library in Verse

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 …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

See the Declaration Before It’s Too Late!

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 …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Voices, Votes, Victory: Presidential Campaign Songs

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,” …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

A 'Rare' Opportunity

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 …