One of the largest maps in the Library is the Tokaido bunken-ezu, a 117-foot, 17th-century Japanese map painted on two scrolls. It shows, in pen-and-ink detail, the rivers, mountains, forests and towns on the 319-mile route from Edo (now known as Tokyo) to Kyoto.
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was 60 years ago today -- August 28, 1963. We look back at that historic day, both at how it developed and its aftermath, in an era when terrorism, violence and assassinations targeted civil rights volunteers, workers and organizers.
Cheryl Regan is a veteran of the Library's exhibits office, bringing the treasures of the world's largest library to the public. Here, she answers a few questions about her work with exhibitions such as "With Malice Towards None: The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Exhibition" and "American Treasures." The latter ran for 10 years.
"A Library for You" is the Library's multi-year initiative to connect readers and patrons to our collections in new ways. These new galleries, exhibits and showcases will present some of the Library's most stunning items, whether they are recent or thousands of years old. These include Lincoln's handwritten first draft of the Gettysburg Address, fragments of the ancient Greek epic the "Iliad," cuneiform tablets that are among the oldest examples of writing, pre-Columbian artifacts, Rosa Parks' papers and watercolors by Diego Rivera. They'll begin to open in 2024.
Jessica Tang, a library technician in the Asian Division, answers questions about her work and her hobbies -- the latter including writing historical fiction, letterboxing and playing as a clarinetist and fifer in the U.S. Army's 29th Infantry Division Band.
Novelist, short-story writer and essayist George Saunders was awarded the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction Saturday evening in one of the final sessions of the 2023 National Book Festival, conferring a lifetime honor on a versatile writer whose most famous book cast one of Washington's most famous residents in a surreal light. Saunders' 2017 novel "Lincoln in the Bardo" took a fantastical look at the visit President Abraham Lincoln paid to his young son's tomb in a Georgetown cemetery one night in 1862.
The Library will cooperate with C-SPAN in its new production of "Books That Shaped America," scheduled for Fall 2003. The new series was inspired by a list of 100 "Books that Shaped America" and exhibition curated at the Library of Congress in 2012 based on the results of a public survey about books that provoked thought, controversy and change throughout American history. Viewers of the series this fall will be able to weigh in with their own thoughts about books that had an impact on the nation.
The Libarary's 2023 National Book Festival on August 12 features a stunning array literary stars including Amor Towls, Beverly Gage, Victor Lavelle, Elizabeth Acevedo, Rebecca Makkai, David Grann, S.A. Crosby, Cheuk Kwan and Tahir Hamut Izgil. Librarian of Congress will present the Prize for American Fiction to novelist George Saunders at day's end.
Hannah Whitaker, interning this summer as a junior fellow in the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, discusses her work in helping preserve live recordings from early in the 20th century, including performances by stars such as Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday.