The Library of Congress holds the papers of 23 U.S. presidents, from George Washington to Calvin Coolidge. These collections, housed in the Manuscript Division—and the Library’s holdings in other formats such as rare books, photographs, films, sound recordings, sheet music and maps—inform us about the time and tenor of each of their administrations. Unique to …
President Barack Obama next week will again take the oath of office on the Bible, drawn from the Library of Congress collections, that President Abraham Lincoln used at his first inauguration more than 150 years ago. Obama took the oath on the Lincoln Bible at his first inauguration, in 2009. On Monday, the small, burgundy …
With the whirlwind of the holiday season come to a close, let’s take a look back at some of the headlines the Library made in November and December. One of our big announcements was the opening of the Library exhibition “The Civil War in America” on Nov. 12. The Washington Post chose to highlight a …
Today marks five years since the launch of the Flickr Commons with two photo collections from the Library of Congress. Since then, more than 250,000 photographs with no known copyright restrictions have been contributed by 56 libraries, archives and museums worldwide, with new images added each week. The Library’s blog, Picture This: Library of Congress …
On Thursday evening, a very nice gift was given, and received, in an ornate room at the U.S. Department of State. Afghan President Hamid Karzai was the recipient – on behalf of several libraries and research institutions in his nation – of a trove of digitized treasures from the Library of Congress and its associated …
Three-hundred-and-twenty-five words made up the first draft of the Emancipation Proclamation. So simple a start for what would become a pivotal document in our nation’s history – one that would also provide groundwork in passing the 13th amendment abolishing slavery. Currently on view in the Library’s “The Civil War in America” exhibition through Feb. 18, …
Library curators and staff decked the blogs in December with a variety of posts. Here are some highlights. In the Muse: Performing Arts Blog A Miro on Which to Dwell The Miro Quartet pays homage to Schubert and Stradivarius The Signal: Digital Preservation Why Does Digital Preservation Matter Bill LeFurgy talks about the importance of …
The following is a guest post by Jason Steinhauer, program specialist in the Library’s John W. Kluge Center. In 2012, the John W. Kluge Center welcomed 28 promising young scholars from the United Kingdom to conduct research at the Library of Congress. The scholars – all currently pursuing doctorate degrees – are funded by the …
(UPDATE: Here’s a December 2017 status report on our work with the Twitter archives.) An element of our mission at the Library of Congress is to collect the story of America and to acquire collections that will have research value. So when the Library had the opportunity to acquire an archive from the popular social media …
