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Archive: January 2018 (16 Posts)

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

Building Black History: Find Your Roots

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

This is a guest post by Bryonna Head, a public affairs assistant in the Communications Office. It is reprinted from the January–February issue of LCM, the Library of Congress Magazine. The issue is available in its entirety online. The Library’s local history and genealogy resources make it easier for African-Americans to explore their family histories. …

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

Technology at the Library: Long-Hidden Text Is Uncovered in Alexander Hamilton Letter

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

This is a guest post by Julie Miller, a historian in the Manuscript Division. It is published today to coincide with the anniversary of Alexander Hamilton’s birth: He was born on January 11, 1757. In the mid-19th century John Church Hamilton, a son of Alexander and Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, published an edition of his father’s …

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

Inquiring Minds: Performing the History of Musical Theater

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

Teachers and filmmakers have long relied on primary sources to make history come alive. Ben West, director, performer and musical theater historian, is also drawn to them—but with a novel purpose. He is using unpublished manuscripts, papers of Broadway authors, copyright records and more to tell the story of the American musical—through a musical. His …

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

This Day in History: Celebrating Dizzy Gillespie Through Photographs and More

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

“Be-bop is a way of phrasing and accenting. The accent is on the up beat. Instead of OO-bah, it’s oo-BAH. Different chords, too. And lots of flatted 5ths and 9ths. There’s lots more to it. But just now I can’t think of what.” —Dizzy Gillespie, Sept. 10, 1947, Down Beat Dizzy Gillespie—trumpeter, composer, bandleader—made an …

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

Hearing Abraham Lincoln’s Voice

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

This is a guest post by Michelle Krowl, a historian in the Manuscript Division. Imagine you can hear Abraham Lincoln speaking the words from his famous Second Inaugural Address: “With malice toward none; with charity for all.” What voice did you supply for Lincoln? Was it a resonant baritone, or a high-pitched tenor? While many …

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

EverydayLOC: New Year’s Resolutions

Posted by: Gayle Osterberg

Happy New Year! There is something sort of refreshing to me about saying those words. I have always fully embraced the notion that a new calendar year, psychologically speaking, offers a particular moment to reset, recommit and reprioritize. Whether you call them New Year’s Resolutions or, as one of my dear friends refers to them, …