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Archive: April 2011 (7 Posts)

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

Gateway to Knowledge Guest Post #20

Posted by: Erin Allen

This is the 20th in a series of guest posts by Abigail Van Gelder, who with her husband, Josh, is journeying across the country on the Library’s “Gateway to Knowledge” traveling exhibition: See y’all later! This was my affectionate farewell to Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama. The Gateway to Knowledge tour was able to visit …

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

Gateway to Knowledge Guest Post #19

Posted by: Erin Allen

This is the 19th in a series of guest posts by Abigail Van Gelder, who with her husband, Josh, is journeying across the country on the Library’s “Gateway to Knowledge” traveling exhibition: After spending almost an entire month in Texas, we were beginning to feel like residents, sporting cowboy hats and all. Before we left …

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

Hold Your Nose While You Read This

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

What can you say about an artist who directed and co-designed the sets for an opera about a guy whose nose detaches from his face and – well – runs off? Leora Maltz-Leca, a Library of Congress fellow of the Swann Foundation, which supports the arts of cartooning and caricature, will answer that question on …

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

New Laurels for the 16th Laureate

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

Kay Ryan, the 16th Poet Laureate of the United States (2008-2010) and a person of wry wisdom, today won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. Hear, hear! Specifically, the prize was for her book “The Best of It: New and Selected Poems” (Grove Press).  The Pulitzer people described the book this way: “a body of work …

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

The Strings Shall Sing Again

Posted by: Erin Allen

The Library has been known to save a life … the life of an instrument, that is. While it’s always exciting when a new discovery is made within the institution’s vaults, it’s equally amazing when we can share it. In 1937, H. Blakiston Wilkins made a gift to the Library of six early stringed instruments: …

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

3-D Viewing for Civil War Photos

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

This guest post is by Photography Curator Carol Johnson of the Library of Congress. The sesquicentennial of the Civil War coincides with renewed interest in 3-D images for movies, cameras, and television. Although 3-D technology seems new, stereo photography first became popular around the time of the Civil War. In fact, many Civil War photographs …

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

Your Life Flashes Before Your … Ears?

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

This year’s selections for the National Recording Registry were announced today —   the ninth annual addition to a list now totaling 325 recordings deemed culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant and worthy of preservation for all time. According to the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, the Librarian of Congress – with input from the Library’s …