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Posted by: Matt Raymond
Last week was one of the busiest (if not the busiest) week I’ve seen since coming to the Library. There was the Library’s presentation of the $1 million Kluge Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Study of Humanity. There were a lot of great, new interactive features that came online in the Library of …
Posted in: Events, Exhibitions, New Visitors Experience, News
Posted by: Matt Raymond
In January, the Library embarked on something that took the online community by storm. In conjunction with Flickr, we loaded a few thousand images from the Library of Congress’ vast collections and asked the user community to get involved: Give us your tags, your comments, your huddled masses … We were essentially conducting an experiment …
Posted in: Collections, LC Web site, News, Photos
Posted by: Matt Raymond
Our very own John Hessler was featured in today’s Washington Post talking about some of the mysteries behind one of the grand-daddies of all maps, the 1507 Martin Waldseemüller World Map, the document that named “America” and one of the Library’s toppest of the top treasures. (OK, we don’t categorize the treasures quite that way, …
Posted by: Matt Raymond
Had enough of politics yet? (Who’s that in the back who shouted, “No”?) If so, you might want to tune into the Charlie Rose Show tonight for “A Conversation with Kay Ryan, U.S. Poet Laureate, and Dr. James Billington, Librarian of Congress.” (I made a brief mention of the taping a couple of weeks ago.) …
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