Just as the Washington Nationals were closing out a winning baseball season, the Library of Congress discovered rare footage of the Washington Senators’ 1924 World Series victory over the New York Giants.
“Finding footage that has probably not been seen since its last theatrical run 90 years ago is usually a moment for celebration for fans and archivists,” wrote New York Times reporter Richard Sandomir. “For followers of baseball in Washington, the 1924 World Series victory was the only one for the franchise until it moved to Minnesota as the Twins and won championships in 1987 and 1991.”
“When archivists from the Library’s Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation watched the reel, they found nearly four minutes of footage from that 1924 World Series, footage that somehow had remained in nearly perfect condition for 90 years,” wrote Washington Post reporter Dan Steinberg. “Bucky Harris hitting a home run, Walter Johnson pitching four innings of scoreless relief, Muddy Ruel scoring the winning run, fans storming Griffith Stadium’s field: It was all there, and it was all glorious.”
In other news, the Library launched an initiative to celebrate another pastime, as it were: Halloween. The American Folklife Center has been gathering photographs of people participating in the traditions and celebrations at the end of October and beginning of November in an effort to create an archival photo collection of this slice of folklife.
“This is a good chance to show off your photography skills and maybe be a part of the annals of history,” wrote Tanya Pai for the Washingtonian.
Promoting the initiative were other outlets including McClatchy News Service, School Library Journal and Boing Boing.
Speaking of photographs, Mashable ran a fascinating pictorial piece on photographs by a young Stanley Kubrick while working for Look Magazine. The Library is home to the magazine’s archives.
2014 marked the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Panama Canal. The Library has a variety of resources related to the historic waterway and pulled items from the collections for a special exhibit. C-Span’s American Artifacts series presented a feature on the canal and the Library’s collections.
C-SPAN also covered a Library symposium that was part of the ongoing commemoration of the Civil Rights Act. Former member of the Black Panther Party, Bill Jennings, joined author Lauren Araiza to discuss multiracial coalitions during the civil rights movements of the 1960s and 70s.
In addition, Christian Science Monitor chose the Library’s exhibition “The Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Long Struggle for Freedom” as a “top pick” in the arts for October saying “Smartly written, it highlights images, letters, and audio components from the library’s collection to illustrate the fight to establish social and racial equality.”
The Library of Congress continues to be recognized for its innovation and commitment to advancing human knowledge, creativity and understanding. The Good Magazine’s Cities Project recently named the institution a “Hub for Progress” noting that the Library and other locations have “emerged as particularly kind to collaboration and innovation, ushering along vital advances for human progress in a diverse range of fields.”
The Fall/Winter 2014 issue of Geico NOW magazine called the Library a “world leader” and “Library of dreams.”
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