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Posted by: Wendi Maloney
On June 4 in the Madison Building’s West Dining Room, Dwayne Tomah of the Passamaquoddy Tribe of Maine stood to sing a tribal war song at a celebration organized by the American Folklife Center. It was an emotional moment for Tomah — the song hadn’t been performed publicly in 128 years. He was able to …
Posted in: American Folklife Center, Audiovisual, Collections, Music, New Online
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
Margaret “Maggie” Kruesi is the first and, so far, the only cataloger to work at the Library’s American Folklife Center (AFC). Before starting in 2004, she earned a Ph.D. in folklore from the University of Pennsylvania and acquired considerable experience cataloging and otherwise processing archival collections at Penn’s Van Pelt Library. She will retire from …
Posted in: American Folklife Center, Cataloging, My Job
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
On Nov. 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Invited to give a “few appropriate remarks” to dedicate a cemetery for Union soldiers killed at the Battle of Gettysburg, Lincoln delivered — over the course of about two minutes — what has become one of the most widely recognized speeches in …
Posted in: Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, Collections, Events, Manuscripts, Social Media
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
This is a guest post by Lavonda Kay Broadnax, digital reference specialist in the Library’s Research and Reference Services Division. Thanksgiving is a holiday that evokes thoughts of food and history. Many items in the Library of Congress’ collections capture the intersection between food and history, but the most notable may be an 1881 cookbook …
Posted in: Rare Book of the Month
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
This is a guest post by Mike Mashon, head of the Moving Image Section of the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. He writes about the first of many films based on Mary Shelley’s novel “Frankenstein,” published 200 years ago this year. The post is republished from the division’s blog, “Now See Hear!” Rarely …
Posted in: Audiovisual, Collections, Film
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
The following guest post is by Jeff Shotts, executive editor at Graywolf Press, publisher in association with the Library of Congress of the anthology “American Journal: Fifty Poems for Our Time” by U.S. poet laureate Tracy K. Smith. Regular, daily poetry programming on the airwaves has not only been saved, it’s been revitalized. American Public …
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
This is a guest post by Ryan Reft, a historian in the Manuscript Division, to mark the 100th anniversary of the signing of the armistice ending World War I. “Everything for which America has fought has been accomplished,” wrote President Woodrow Wilson on Nov. 11, 1918, in a statement addressed to his “fellow countrymen.” The …
Posted in: Civil Rights, Exhibitions
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
This is a guest post by Ena Selimovic, a winner of this year’s National Collegiate Book Collecting Contest, which recognizes outstanding book collecting by college and university students. The Library co-sponsors the contest with the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America, the Fellowship of American Bibliographic Societies and the Grolier Club. Selimovic is working on a …
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
This is a guest post by digital library specialist Elizabeth Gettins. “In a civilized and cultivated country, wild animals only continue to exist at all when preserved by sportsmen.” —Theodore Roosevelt A new finding aid for the Theodore Roosevelt Hunting Library is now available from the Rare Book and Special Collections Division. Roosevelt (1858–1919), a …
Posted in: Collections, New Online, Rare Book of the Month