One hundred years ago today -- August 26, 1920 -- Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified that the 19th Amendment had become a part of the U.S. Constitution. It didn't bring the right to vote to most women of color, though.
In 1619, German astronomer Johannes Kepler wrote “Harmonices Mundi” (“Harmony of the Worlds”), a book that tried to understand the mystery of the polyhedral designs of viruses. Four centuries later, the same designs are seen in the building blocks of COVID-19. The Library has copies of Kepler's work in the Rare Books and Special Collections Division.
The 2020 National Book Festival will be entirely online this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Two of the Library's Junior Fellows worked in the Signature Programs Office this summer to put previous events online, too.
Nearly 50,000 title pages that accompanied copyright registrations dating back to the foundation of the country are now online for the first time, featuring works by some of the nation's most famous authors.
The Allen Neuharth Papers in the Library's Manuscript Division provide an inside look at a changing industry, the rise of the only national newspaper established after World War II and the thoughts, practices and endeavors of a media mogul who helped defined the age.