Louisa Treger has worked as classical violinist, and she has a Ph.D. in English from University College London. But she is neither a musician now, nor an academic. Instead, she will soon publish her third novel. Like its predecessors, it will tell the story of a trailblazing woman from history — in this case the …
Peggy Lundeen Johnson is the great-great-granddaughter of Samuel J. Gibson. He fought for the Union during the Civil War and was incarcerated in the Confederate military prison in Andersonville, Georgia, in 1864. While there, he kept a daily log of his experience. Johnson was unaware of the diary until she encountered it on the Library’s …
The Library's scroll from Gandhara, an early Buddhist center along the borders of modern-day Afghanistan and Pakistan, is one of the Library's most precious treasures.
Alan Gephardt is a ranger at the James A. Garfield National Historic Site of the U.S. National Park Service in Mentor, Ohio. Here, he writes about what his job entails.
This is a guest post by Guy Lamolinara of the Library’s Center for the Book. The loss of the incomparable writer Toni Morrison leaves a gaping hole in the literary landscape. Fortunately for us, before she died on Monday, she filled the world with prose that touched millions of readers worldwide. Through her novels, children’s …
Mezzo-soprano Kathleen Shimeta stumbled upon Gena Branscombe (1881–1977) in the late 1990s when Shimeta was planning a Valentine’s Day recital. Branscombe, it turned out, had set to music Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s famous sonnet beginning “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” Delighted by the composition, Shimeta wanted to know more — including …
Giuliana Muscio teaches film studies at the University of Padova in Italy. She's using the Library to research her next book about Robert G. Vignola, an Italian immigrant who directed and acted in silent movies.
Kellie Taylor is the Library’s first-ever Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator. The fellowship program appoints accomplished K–12 teachers of science, technology, engineering and mathematics — the STEM fields — to collaborate with federal agencies and congressional offices in advancing STEM education across the country. Taylor has a doctorate in educational technology from Boise State University. She …
This post was first published on “From the Catbird Seat,” the blog of the Library’s Poetry and Literature Center. Rob Casper, head of the center, wrote it. Today is one of the biggest days of the year for the Poetry and Literature Center — it’s the day of the poet laureate announcement. I want to …