(The following is a guest post by William Kellum, manager in the Library’s Web Services Division.)
Before we jump into new offerings, we’d be remiss if we didn’t remind you of December’s release of the upgraded presentation for the George Washington Papers Collection. Read all about it in Julie Miller’s excellent blog post here.
African American History Month
February was African American History Month, so we updated our portal with new content and a new mobile-friendly design. Developed in collaboration with the National Archives and Records Administration, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Gallery of Art, the National Park Service, the Smithsonian Institution and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the portal pays tribute to the generations of African Americans who struggled with adversity to achieve full citizenship in American society. Read more from our Educational Outreach team here.
Walt Whitman Papers
The papers of poet Walt Whitman (1819–92) in the Charles E. Feinberg Collection consist of approximately 28,000 items spanning from 1763 to 1985. The bulk of the items date from the 1840s through Whitman’s death in 1892 and into the 20th century. The collection of correspondence, literary manuscripts, books, proofs and associated items represent periods of Whitman’s life from his early time living in New York, his middle age in Washington, D.C., and the last phase of his life in Camden, New Jersey. The papers include primary documentation of Whitman’s friends and family; his experience as a civil servant and hospital volunteer in Washington, D.C., during the American Civil War; his contributions as a lecturer and social commentator; and his decades-long career as a journalist, prose writer, poet and literary and arts critic. Barbara Bair’s blog post shows off some collection highlights.
Roman Totenberg Papers
Joining our existing Roman Totenberg Papers Collection is a new collection of related material, the Roman Totenberg Papers: Totenberg-Wilk Holocaust Material. These documents, letters, telegrams, drawings and photo albums bear testament to the Totenberg family in Poland before and during the Holocaust and to violinist Roman Totenberg’s unwavering efforts to rescue those left behind.
Alan Lomax Manuscripts
Back in 2015, we released an initial version of the Alan Lomax Manuscripts Collection, which includes ethnographic field documentation, materials from Lomax’s various projects and cross-cultural research created and collected by Alan Lomax and others on traditional song, music, dance and body movement from around the world. Originally released with around 25,000 items, we’ve now added substantial new content, bringing the total amount of pages available to over 300,000. Nicole Saylor has all the details here.
Presidential Speeches
Presidential Speeches: What Makes an Effective Speech? is new for teachers. Classroom materials include audio, video, pictures and manuscripts from presidential speeches by Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, McKinley, Roosevelt, Taft, Wilson and more.