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Posted by: Erin Allen
“‘Le jour de l’an,’ as the French call the first day of January, is indeed the principal day of the year to those who still keep up the custom of calling and receiving calls. But in New York it is a custom which is in danger of falling into desuetude, owing to the size of …
Posted in: Books, Collections, LC Web site, Music
Posted by: Erin Allen
Once again, the Library of Congress has decorated the Great Hall with a tall tree for the holidays, full of lights and ornaments for the enjoyment of visitors. It makes a lovely temporary addition to the magnificence of the space and never fails to put me in a festive spirit. If you’ve had the chance to …
Posted in: Capitol Hill, Photos, Pic of the Week, Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington DC
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is a guest post by Levon Avdoyan, Armenian and Georgian area specialist in the African and Middle Eastern Division.) When I began working at the Library of Congress in 1992 as the Armenian and Georgian Area Specialist to the Near East Section of the African and Middle Eastern Division, it was as if …
Posted in: Collections, Curators, Exhibitions, History, Manuscripts
Posted by: Erin Allen
A camel walked into Mount Vernon … sounds like the beginning of a rather offbeat joke. However, such is not the case. On Dec. 29, 1787, our nation’s soon-to-be first president, at home on his estate in Alexandria, Virginia, played host to a rather exotic animal for the holidays. I first heard this story from …
Posted in: Collections, Curators, Events, History, Manuscripts
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is a guest blog post written by Elizabeth Gettins, Library of Congress digital library specialist.) You’ve heard of Jack Frost and most certainly St. Nicholas. But how about King Winter? “King Winter,” a rare German children’s book written by Gustav W. Seitz and published around 1859 in Hamburg, borrows from Germanic and Norse …
Posted in: Books, Collections, Curators, Rare Book of the Month
Posted by: Erin Allen
On this day in 1843, the Charles Dickens classic “A Christmas Carol” was published. Or was it? While researching the book’s history, there appeared to be some confusion over the date, with many sources confirming December 19 as the day Ebenezer Scrooge was introduced to readers. As it turns out, the book has a somewhat …
Posted in: Books, Collections, History, Today in History
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is a post by Ann Brener, Hebraic area specialist in the Library’s African and Middle Eastern Division.) Imagine that some brightly plumed bird-of-paradise has flown in amongst your backyard warblers, and you’ll probably know how I felt upon discovering a beautifully illustrated book in the vaults of the Library of Congress. Nestled between …
Posted in: Books, Collections, Curators, Events, Jewish American History
Posted by: Erin Allen
Willie Nelson was the talk of the town as the Library celebrated his work and career during a concert in November, as he received the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. “When Willie took the stage to accept the Gershwin prize, you could see the pride on his face,” wrote Brendan Kownacki for Hollywood on the …
Posted in: American Folklife Center, Capitol Hill, Collections, Concerts, Events, Folksonomies, Music, News, Newspapers, Veterans History Project, Washington DC
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is an article written by Audrey Fischer, managing editor of the Library of Congress Magazine, and featured in the November/December 2015 issue. You can read the issue in its entirety here.) The Library’s food collections include once-edible artifacts. On Feb. 10, 1863, an event occurred that caused a media sensation and distracted the …
Posted in: Capitol Hill, Collections, LCM, Manuscripts, Washington DC