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Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is an article in the July-August 2014 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine, LCM. Award-winning novelist E.L. Doctorow discusses the role of fiction and storytelling. You can read the issue in its entirety here.) The story is the most ancient way of knowing. It preceded writing. It is the world’s first system for collecting …
Posted in: Books, Education, Events, Libraries, National Book Festival, Washington DC
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is an article written by Guy Lamolinara, communications officer for the Center for the Book, featured in the September-October 2012 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine. Aug. 24 was the 200th anniversary of the burning of the Capitol building and the Library.) The story of the phoenix that rises triumphantly from its …
Posted in: Abraham Lincoln, Books, Capitol Hill, Collections, Congress, Education, Events, History, Libraries, Manuscripts, Thomas Jefferson Building, Today in History, Washington DC
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is a guest post by Michelle Krowl, a historian in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division.) Could George B. McClellan have become the seventeenth President of the United States? It certainly appeared to be a possibility as Abraham Lincoln assessed the military and political landscape of the United States in the summer of …
Posted in: Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, Collections, Congress, Curators, Education, Events, History, Manuscripts, Today in History, Uncategorized, Washington DC
Posted by: Erin Allen
Last week, the Library of Congress opened the exhibition “American Ballet Theatre: Touring the Globe for 75 Years,” which highlights the dance company’s distinguished history and its collection here at the Library. Shortly after the opening, ABT alum Sue Knapp-Steen (1969-1974) stopped by to view the exhibition and reminisce on her time as a professional dancer …
Posted in: Collections, Exhibitions, History, Music, Photos, Pic of the Week, Uncategorized, Washington DC
Posted by: Erin Allen
Aug. 15, 2014, marked the centennial of the completion of the Panama Canal, a 48- mile waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The canal is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Plans by the Panamanian government to celebrate the historic event began more than a year ago. A Panama Canal mobile app was launched …
Posted in: Collections, Events, History, Today in History
Posted by: Erin Allen
In this final installment of our Letters About Literature spotlight, we feature the Level 3 National Honor-winning letter of Riddhi Sangam of Saratoga, Calif., who wrote to Jhumpa Lahiri, author of “The Namesake.” Letters About Literature, a national reading and writing program that asks young people in grades 4 through 12 to write to an author …
Posted by: Erin Allen
The Library of Congress had two major announcements in July, featuring well-known public figures, that garnered several headlines. Billy Joel was named the next recipient of the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. Stories ran in Rolling Stone, the Dallas Morning News, The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Today Show. Joel was also featured as …
Posted in: Capitol Hill, Collections, LC Web site, Manuscripts, News, Newspapers, Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington DC
Posted by: Erin Allen
The Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building opened to the public in 1897. Hailed by a guidebook as a “gorgeous and palatial monument to its [America’s] national sympathy and appreciation of literature, science and art,” the construction of the edifice was a feat in and of itself – more than 15 years of postponements, major …
Posted in: Capitol Hill, Manuscripts, Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington DC
Posted by: Erin Allen
The sun truly never sets on collecting at the Library of Congress. At any given hour, somewhere on the planet, an employee is acquiring material to add to the world’s largest library. Scattered across 11 time zones, from Brazil to Indonesia, the Library’s six field offices acquire hard- to-get publications from developing nations for its own collections and …
Posted in: Cataloging, Collections, Libraries, Uncategorized