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Posted by: Erin Allen
Seventy-five years ago, the Library opened a second building on Capitol Hill to house its growing collections. With a collection of more than 3.5 million items, former Librarian of Congress Herbert Putnam reported to Congress in 1926 that the nearly completed bookstack “will not be likely to take care of the accessions beyond the coming …
Posted in: Capitol Hill, History, Uncategorized, Washington DC
Posted by: Erin Allen
The Library of Congress celebrates its 214th birthday today. Founded on April 24, 1800, thanks to an appropriation approved by Pres. John Adams of $5,000 for the purchase of “such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress.” What started with a whopping 740 books and three maps has evolved to more than …
Posted in: Capitol Hill, Collections, Copyright, History, Manuscripts, Photos, Thomas Jefferson Building, Today in History, Washington DC
Posted by: Erin Allen
The idea was as big as the planet itself: Gather and digitize the globe’s cultural treasures, assemble them on one website and make them available to the world for free and in multiple languages. Such a project, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington said in proposing it, would bring people together by “celebrating the uniqueness …
Posted in: Collections, Education, History, LC Web site, Manuscripts, Maps, Music, Photos, Today in History
Posted by: Jennifer Gavin
One of the most popular features in the Library of Congress Pavilion at the Library’s National Book Festival is a whiteboard on which you can write the name of a book. Some years we ask for your favorite book. Some years we ask what book shaped the world. People stand a few feet back, ponder, …
Posted in: Books, National Book Festival, News
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is a guest post by Barbara Bair, historian in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division.) While life posed many setbacks for Teddy Roosevelt (1858-1919), he proved himself a man who met challenges and seized his opportunities. When it came to the Spanish American War in 1898, Roosevelt carefully devised public acclaim as a …
Posted in: Collections, Events, History, Manuscripts, News, Newspapers
Posted by: Erin Allen
E. L. Doctorow, author of such critically acclaimed novels as “Ragtime,” “World’s Fair,” “Billy Bathgate,” “The March” and his current novel, “Andrew’s Brain,” is the second recipient of the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction. He will receive the award during this year’s National Book Festival, scheduled for Aug. 30 at the Walter E. Washington …
Posted in: Books, Events, National Book Festival, News, Washington DC
Posted by: Erin Allen
The following is an article featured in the March-April 2014 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine, LCM, now available for download here. You can also view the archives of the Library’s former publication from 1993 to 2011. Athena Angelos, image researcher for many Library of Congress publications, discusses the process of visual reference work. How …
Posted in: Books, Collections, Photos
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
The Library’s “Songs of America” online presentation highlights how copyright records can help to shed light on American culture and history. The exhibit draws on hundreds of thousands of pieces of sheet music and sound recordings registered for copyright since 1820 to explore the American experience through song. One copyright record has an especially interesting story. …
Posted in: Audiovisual, Collections, Copyright, History, LC Web site, Music
Posted by: Jennifer Gavin
The Library of Congress National Book Festival, as you’ve no doubt heard, is going to a new place in 2014 — the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. — on Saturday, Aug. 30 from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. As always, it will be free and open to the public, courtesy of the …
Posted in: Books, Congress, Education, Events, Film, LC Web site, Libraries, National Book Festival, Poetry, Preservation, Uncategorized, Washington DC