Jade Snow Wong was a pioneering Asian American writer, businesswoman and artist. Her memoir, "Fifth Chinese Daughter," became a mid-century landmark of Asian American letters, while her ceramic works were shown in some of the nation's premier museums. The Library holds her papers.
The Great American Road Trip -- traveling the highways and backroads of the nation -- has been a national tradition since the invention of the automobile.
For 30 years now, the Library's Junior Fellows program has provided undergraduate and graduate students with experiences in everything the world’s largest library has to offer. This year's class of 42 interns shows off their research projects.
William Dillard, a former U.S. Army soldier who fought in World War II, won the gold medal in 100 meters in the1948 Olympic Games in London, on his way to becoming of the armed services' greatest Olympic athletes.
The earliest known English-language work on magic was published in England in 1635, containing how-tos for many tricks, including an on-stage decapitation. It's the forerunner of the "saw the assistant in half" trick, performed for ages. The Library's copy of this influential book comes from the library of Harry Houdini, the master magician and escape artist of the early 20th century, who donated his collection to the Library.
Sybille Jagusch, chief of the Library's Literature Center, has just published "Japan and American Children's Books," a gorgeously illustrated volume that details how Japan and Japanese culture has been portrayed in American children's books over the past two centuries.
Medgar Evers, the famed civil rights activist, was born 96 years ago this month in a small town in Mississippi. He was assassinated by a white supremacist in 1963, but his legacy has only grown in the decades since his death.