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Archive: 2016 (165 Posts)

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Congas, Sambas and Falling Plaster

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

I was 15 years old, sitting cross-legged next to my friend Mascha on a cork-tile floor at Mammoth Gardens, a roller-skating rink built in 1910. Plaster, occasionally, was falling from the ceiling – because the band on the stage that night was the drum-heavy Santana, which had just released its 1970 album “Abraxas.” That’s the …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Ask Us Anything: Reddit AMA on Rosa Parks Papers 3/29

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

(The following is a guest post by Information Technology Specialist Michelle Rago.) Library experts involved in making the papers of Rosa Parks available online will answer your questions in a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) session beginning at 9 a.m. (ET) on March 29, 2016. Join us on the AskHistorians subreddit. The collection contains some 7,500 …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

A Gorey Story

Posted by: Erin Allen

The work of Edward Gorey has often been described as “macabre,” a word that his friend Alexander Theroux claims the noted author and artist didn’t like. While I would agree that it’s an appropriate word, Gorey’s drawings are something more – odd, whimsical, humorous, magical, mysterious, gloomy, eccentric – all rolled up in delightful pen-and-ink …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Pic of the Week: Hedge Coke Honored as Witter Bynner Fellow

Posted by: Erin Allen

On Wednesday, poet Allison Hedge Coke was honored as the 2016 Witter Bynner Fellow. She was selected and introduced by Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry at the Library of Congress, Juan Felipe Herrera. In his selection, Herrera said he sought to honor Hedge Coke “for her precision of Earth, of suffering in and out of …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

A Voice from Hoops History

Posted by: Mark Hartsell

Basketball, unique among major sports, has a clear creation story: We know when, where, why and how the game was invented, and by whom. Now, some 125 years after the first game was played in a Massachusetts school gymnasium, we know something new: the sound of the creator’s voice. A researcher recently discovered in the Library …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Inquiring Minds: Straight From the Sports Section

Posted by: Erin Allen

The collections of the Library of Congress serve scholars and researchers in countless ways. Manuscripts, photographs and other ephemera documenting American culture and heritage have been inspiration for a variety of scholarship, books, programming and other projects. So, it’s always interesting to learn about those using the institution’s resources in intriguing manners. One doesn’t necessarily …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

“Downton Abbey” Lives On at the Library of Congress

Posted by: Erin Allen

If you’re a fan of “Downton Abbey,” Sunday night was likely a bittersweet television moment – glad for the happy ending but sad to see the popular show go. As one Library colleague put it, we will all be experiencing “Downton” withdrawals. The Library of Congress may be able to help with that, however. Recently …