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Posted by: Wendi Maloney
Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden announced today that Denis Johnson, author of the critically acclaimed collection of short stories “Jesus’ Son” and the novel “Tree of Smoke,” will posthumously receive the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction during the 2017 Library of Congress National Book Festival, Sept. 2. The National Book Festival and the …
Posted in: Books, National Book Festival
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
This is a slightly abbreviated version of a post by Kristi Finefield, a reference librarian in the Prints and Photographs Division, first published on “Picture This,” the division’s blog. Check out Finefield’s original post for even more fantastic photographs of Wyoming by Carol M. Highsmith. Today, we turn our eyes to the wide open spaces …
Posted in: Collections, Photos
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
Ledward “Led” Kaapana delighted an audience in the Coolidge Auditorium on July 6 with traditional music from Hawaii. A master of the Hawaiian ukulele and slack key guitar, Kaapana has performed in Hawaii and beyond for more than 40 years, perpetuating the musical style and repertoire of his home village, Kalapana, in the southernmost district of …
Posted in: American Folklife Center, Concerts, Pic of the Week
Posted by: Mark Hartsell
The culture of working is a big part of what makes America America—men and women on the job, growing our food, teaching our children, burying our loved ones, building our homes, doing the things that make our society possible. Over the past seven years, the American Folklife Center (AFC) has collected the stories of working …
Posted in: American Folklife Center, Collections
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
An earlier version of this post, written by Micah Messenheimer, assistant curator of photography in the Prints and Photographs Division, was published on “Picture This,” the division’s blog. A giant coffee pot that doubles as a restaurant, drive-in movie theaters, old gas pumps and vintage hotels: these are but a few of the examples included …
Posted in: Collections, Free to Use and Reuse, Photos
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
This is the second of two related guest posts by Cassandra Good, associate editor of the Papers of James Monroe and author of “Founding Friendships: Friendships Between Men and Women in the Early American Republic” (2015), and Susan Holbrook Perdue, director of digital strategies at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and adviser to a …
Posted in: Collections, Manuscripts, Washington DC
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
This is a guest post by Naomi Coquillon, an education specialist in the Interpretive Programs Office. When the Library began its work on “Echoes of the Great War: American Experiences of World War I,” there was, as with all exhibitions, a question of scope. How could an institution with a collection as comprehensive as the …
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
The BeauSoleil Quartet performed the lively and soulful music of Louisiana Cajuns on June 28 in the Coolidge Auditorium as part of the Library’s Homegrown Concert Series. For four decades now, the quartet has been taking traditional ingredients—waltzes, two-steps, Cajun French lyrics, hot fiddle licks and irresistible accordion—and spicing them up with eclectic percussion, acoustic …
Posted in: American Folklife Center, Concerts, Pic of the Week
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
This is a guest post by Sahr Conway-Lanz, a historian in the Manuscript Division. Former Librarian of Congress James Billington once called the Polish Declarations of Admiration and Friendship for the United States “possibly the largest expression of affection one nation ever made to another.” In 1926, for the 150th anniversary of the birth of …
Posted in: Collections, Manuscripts