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Archive: 2018 (129 Posts)

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

Page from the Past: Over the Rainbow, Into the Library

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

This post is republished from the September–October issue of LCM, the Library of Congress magazine. Read the issue in its entirety online. “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” ranks as one of the greatest American books for children, and its evocative original artwork today is both cherished and exceedingly rare. The phenomenally successful book, written by …

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

Pic of the Week: Battle of the Bulge Vets Visit the Library

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

Earlier this week, Battle of the Bulge Association veterans gathered in the Great Hall of the Library’s Jefferson Building for an event marking the battle’s 74th anniversary. While at the Library, they visited the offices of the Veterans History Project and viewed a special display of battle-related collection items prepared for them. Pictured here are …

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

An 1848 Christmas Story: The Gift of Freedom

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. December is a month of holidays and festivities that bring families and friends together to celebrate their good fortune and look forward to the year ahead. For the enslaved couple William and Ellen Craft, the …

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

New Acquisition: Billy Strayhorn Archive

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

This is a guest post by Larry Appelbaum, senior reference librarian and jazz specialist in the Music Division. It was first published on “In the Muse,” the division’s blog. Appelbaum interviewed Gregory Morris, nephew of Billy Strayhorn, to mark the Library’s acquisition of the Billy Strayhorn Music Manuscripts and Estate Papers. In January 2017, I …

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

Uncovering Surprises in the Collections, Serendipitously

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

This is a guest post by Jer Thorp, the Library’s innovator-in-residence. On November 8, he took over the @LibraryCongress Twitter account to host a #SerendipityRun in which participants connected with one another and shed new light on Library holdings by taking a serendipitous “run” through the online collections. Here Thorp describes the inspiration behind this …

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

Letters About Literature: A Life-Changing Book

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

This is a guest blog post by Maya Mau, a 10th-grade student at West Windsor–Plainsboro High School North in Plainsboro Township, New Jersey. She is a national winner of the 2017–18 Letters About Literature contest, a reading and writing competition for students in grades four through 12 that involves reading a work and writing to …

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

Inquiring Minds: Inspiring Students Through Primary Sources

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

For more than 20 years now, Saundra Rose Maley has required her English composition students — first from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and now from nearby Montgomery College in Montgomery County, Maryland — to make a short trek to the Library of Congress. There, in the Manuscript Division, the students research primary sources, …

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

Native American Heritage Month: Bringing Native Voices to Light

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 …