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Posted by: Jennifer Gavin
Where were you when you first heard that? I was in the theater audience for the movie “Woodstock,” and I recall thinking even then that the section featuring Sly and the Family Stone was the high point of the film. Now, whenever I hear “I Want to Take You Higher,” which has the Boom-shaka-laka-laka bridge …
Posted in: Audiovisual, Blogging, Collections, Music, Preservation
Posted by: Jennifer Gavin
Photography was well-established by the dawn of the 20th Century–it had graduated from the tintype and daguerreotype to innovations allowing for smaller cameras and more portable exposure media. But as the 1800s became the 1900s, portrait photography carried forward a tradition of depicting people sitting stiffly, staring sternly into the camera. A handsome young immigrant …
Posted in: Books, Collections, History, Manuscripts, Photos, Poetry
Posted by: Jennifer Gavin
Today we’re going to add a new term to your broad vocabulary: Fenian. It’s a noun that describes a member of an Irish or Irish-American brotherhood dedicated to freeing Ireland from British dominion. The name was taken from the “Fianna,” a group of kings’ guards led by the legendary Irish leader of yore, Finn MacCool. …
Posted in: American Folklife Center, Civil War, Education, History, Music, Newspapers
Posted by: Jennifer Gavin
A few years ago – around 2001, 2002 – I had a cannon in my basement in Rockville, Maryland. You could see it through the front windows, where it was aimed. I wondered if the mailman would report us to Homeland Security. It wasn’t a real one, but it was incredibly realistic and man-o’war-size (about …
Posted in: Collections, Education, Exhibitions, Manuscripts, Music, Preservation, Washington DC
Posted by: Jennifer Gavin
The late 19th century gave rise to some truly imaginative, public-minded Americans. We all know about the Thomas Edisons, the Henry Fords, the Garrett Morgans. But there were others who, while not household names today, lived very interesting lives and left behind fascinating legacies. Among these we find Dayton C. Miller, born on a farm …
Posted in: Collections, Concerts, Curators, Events, Exhibitions, LC Web site, Music, Preservation