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Archive: 2021 (95 Posts)

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

It’s Magic! Ye Olde Hocus Pocus

Posted by: Neely Tucker

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.

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

The Great Buchanan Inheritance Hoax

Posted by: Neely Tucker

Ninety years ago, a Texas grocer named Lorenzo D. Buchanan stepped forward with one of the great hoaxes of 20th-century American pop-culture life, a genealogical fabrication that continues to resonate today. The Great Buchanan Inheritance Hoax rocked American life from 1931-1936 with his false tale of an $85 million inheritance that was available to anyone who could prove a family connection.

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

Free to Use and Reuse: The Photographs of Bernard Gotfryd

Posted by: Neely Tucker

The photographs of Bernard Gotfryd, now free for anyone to use from the Library's collections, are a remarkable resource of late 20th-century American pop-culture and political life, as he was a Newsweek staff photographer based in New York for three decades. He was also a Holocaust survivor who wrote about the experience with grace and courage.