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Posted by: Neely Tucker
The Library's Free to Use and Reuse set of photographs are a copyright-free collection of photographs, posters and graphics that are available to everyone to use as they wish. Here, we look at three garden photographs with short essays on each. We begin with Frances Benjamin Johnston's famous "Blue Garden."
Posted in: Uncategorized
Posted by: Neely Tucker
The National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled rolled out its Spanish-languague site earlier this year to wide readership and media attention. Readers have jumped at the chance to find the newest reading materials in Spanish-language audio and Braille.
Posted in: Hispanic and Latino, National Library Service (NLS), New Online, Technology
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Tony Bennett, the Gershwin Prize-winning singer who knew his way around torch ballads, jazz standards and just about every nook and cranny of the Great American Songbook, has passed away at 96. He dazzled and charmed everyone at his Gershwin Prize concert in 2017 and we won't forget him, his grace and his impeccable touch with a song, anytime soon
Posted in: Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, Music, Performing Arts
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Barbara Millicent Roberts debuted in 1959, when Elvis reigned supreme and Berry Gordy had just founded what would become Motown. "The Twilight Zone" dazzled television viewers. Suffice it to say it was a long, long time ago, but Barbie is bigger than ever, thanks to a new film. We take a quick look at the Barbie dolls in our Geppi Collection.
Posted in: Collections, Comics, Kids, Social Media, Women's History
Posted by: Neely Tucker
The stunningly complete, intellectually voracious files of J. Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb, are preserved at the Library. The files fill more than 300 boxes that occupy a line of files that would stretch, if stacked end to end, more than 120 feet. That’s not including more than 70 boxes of research files compiled over 20 years by Martin J. Sherwin for his part of the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, “American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer.” (Kai Bird shared the Pulitzer as a co-writer.) Those stretch another 27 feet. The files tell his epic life story in granular detail.
Posted in: Manuscripts, Science, Technology, World War II
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Susan B. Anthony annotated her copy of a Harriet Tubman biography with a brief note about the day the two larger-than-life women met at a social gathering at the dawn of a new century. Anthony was clearly delighted, underlining Tubman's name each time she wrote it.
Posted in: African American History, LCM, Rare Book and Special Collections, Women's History
Posted by: Neely Tucker
The Library's Crime Classics series has just published "The Thinking Machine," Jacques Futrelle's 1907 short story collection. It follows eccentric professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen, the Thinking Machine, as he solves a mind-boggling series of crimes. Van Dusen, in the mold of Sherlock Holmes, is “one of the most admired creations in the history of crime fiction," series editor Leslie S. Klinger writes in the introduction.
Posted in: Crime Classics Series, Library of Congress Crime Classics, Library Work and Employees, Writers
Posted by: Mark Hartsell
The Library recently added 45,000 baseball cards to its archives thanks to the donated collection of Peter G. Strawbridge, who preserved complete sets of every major league team from 1973 through 2019 along with some Boston Red Sox cards from earlier years. This builds on the 2,100-card collection of Benjamin K. Edwards, which includes legendary figures from the sport's first half-century: Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson and Cy Young. The new cards include greats such as Ted Williams, Roberto Clemente and Derek Jeter.
Posted in: Baseball, Collections, LCM
Posted by: John Sayers
The Library of Congress has joined with other federal agencies to begin the celebration of the United States Semiquincentennial and the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026.
Posted in: American Revolution, History, Rare Book and Special Collections