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Posted by: Erin Allen
Purchased through an act of Congress in 1867, the Peter Force Library became the foundation of the Library’s Americana collections. As the nation sought to reconstruct the Union after the Civil War, so, too, did the Library of Congress seek to build a collection that documented fully America’s history. At the time, the nearly 100,000 volumes …
Posted in: Civil War, Collections, History, Manuscripts, Maps, Newspapers
Posted by: Erin Allen
Earlier this summer, the Library of Congress awarded the first “Discovery or Exploration in History Prize” as part of National History Day (NHD) to Danielle Johnson of Faiss Middle School in Las Vegas. Johnson was honored for her project, “The Erie Canal: ‘A Little Short of Madness.’” The prize is sponsored by the Elizabeth Ridgway …
Posted in: Collections, Education, History, Researcher Stories, Uncategorized
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is a guest post by Catalina Gomez of the Library of Congress Hispanic Division.) The Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape, most commonly referred to as the AHLOT, is one of those rare gems that readers can come across in the hidden corners of the Library of Congress. Compiled and carefully curated by …
Posted in: Audiovisual, Collections, Uncategorized
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is a story written by Daniel De Simone, curator of the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection in the Library’s Rare Book and Special Collections Division, for the September-October 2013 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine. You can download the issue in its entirety here.) The year 1912 was a pivotal one for African American …
Posted in: Collections, Education, History, Uncategorized
Posted by: Jennifer Gavin
The Library of Congress National Book Festival is just hours away! It’s free … it’s open to the public on the National Mall … and it’s got fun and fascination for readers of all ages and tastes. No fewer than 112 stellar authors – historians, novelists, children’s and teens’ authors, poets, biographers, illustrators and graphic …
Posted in: Books, Capitol Hill, Collections, Copyright, Curators, Education, Events, LC Web site, Libraries, Maps, Music, National Book Festival, Poetry, Preservation, Uncategorized, Washington DC
Posted by: Erin Allen
Today, you best get out your peg leg, eye patch and practice your “arrrr’s” … it’s International Talk Like a Pirate Day! What started as a joke among a handful of friends in 1995 has become a widely recognized fun-for-the-sake-of-fun celebration, thanks in large part to a column written by Dave Barry in 2002. A …
Posted in: Audiovisual, Books, Collections, History, Manuscripts, Music, Today in History, Uncategorized
Posted by: Erin Allen
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” Today we celebrate …
Posted in: Collections, Education, History, Law Library, Manuscripts, Today in History, Uncategorized
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is a guest post by Barbara A. Tenenbaum, specialist in Mexican culture in the Library of Congress Hispanic Division.) It seems a bit strange that in contrast to all the other “heritage” celebrations and recognitions, the one for Hispanic Americans starts in the middle of the month – September 15 …
Posted in: Education, Events, Hispanic American History, History, Today in History, Uncategorized
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is the cover story written by Stephen Wesson, educational resource specialist in the Educational Outreach Division of the Office of Strategic Initiatives, for the September-October 2013 edition of the Library of Congress Magazine. You can download the issue in its entirety here.) Teachers and students are discovering new ways of learning with resources from …
Posted in: Education, Thomas Jefferson Building, Uncategorized, Washington DC