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Posted by: Maria Peña
Halloween and Día de los Muertos have centuries-long intertwined traditions, resulting in adjacent holidays that pull on international heritages.
Posted in: American Folklife Center, Halloween, Hispanic American History, Hispanic and Latino, Hispanic Division
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Vivian Li, an exciting Seattle-based artist and web developer, will be the Library's 2025 Innovator in Residence. Li burst into popular social media popularity with a series about the Seattle Fremont Bridge in 2023, bringing local history to life for new readers. At the Library, Li will develop a series called “Anywhere Adventures” that will connect young researchers with Library holdings about their local communities.
Posted in: Asian American, Comics, Gazette, Library Work and Employees
Posted by: Brett Zongker
NASA's Europa Clipper has set sail for a moon of Jupiter to explore the possibilies of life. Launced last week, the craft carries a metal vault plate inscribed with the poem “In Praise of Mystery: A Poem for Europa,” by Ada Limón, the national poet laureate. NASA, Limón and the Library invited people worldwide to sign on to the poem and send their names to space with it on a microchip. More than 2.6 million people did so. Their names, alongside the poem, are aboard the Clipper for a six year journey to Europa.
Posted in: Hispanic and Latino, Library Work and Employees, News, Poetry, U.S. Poet Laureate, Womens History, Writers
Posted by: Neely Tucker
“Chicken Heart,” a 7-minute episode of the “Lights Out” radio series that aired just before midnight in March 1937 was a cheesily effective landmark of the Golden Age of Radio. Living on for decades through rebroadcasts, remakes, in syndication and on records, it snaked its way into the childhood memories of everyone from horror master Stephen King to comedian Bill Cosby, becoming a campy horror cult favorite. It was the brainchild of playwright Arch Oboler, a major star of radio whose name has since faded from popular recognition.
Posted in: Halloween, Manuscripts, National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, Performing Arts, Radio, Writers
Posted by: Neely Tucker
"Wuthering Heights," the classic 19th century British novel, so fascinated Candice Buchanan as a teen that it helped inspire her career as a genealogist and reference librarian. She recounts the story here and provides a new research guide for readers into genealogical fiction.
Posted in: Genealogy, Library Work and Employees, Womens History, Writers
Posted by: Neely Tucker
The Library has a fascinating collection of architectural drawings going back as far as the 1600s, many of which were never built. They offer a look into what could have been had the stars aligned. A futuristic different Ellis Island, a Gothic Library of Congress and a Lower Manhattan Expressway are just some of the elaborate designs that never came to be, by architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Robert Mills and Paul Rudolph.
Posted in: Architecture, LCM, Washington DC
Posted by: Maria Peña
Peruvian American author Marie Arana's new book "LatinoLand: A Portrait of America’s Largest and Least Understood Minority," offers a timely exploration of Latino culture during Hispanic Heritage Month. She, and her book, were featured during the 2024 National Book Festival.
Posted in: Hispanic American History, Hispanic and Latino, National Book Festival, Writers
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Edgar Allan Poe died 175 years ago today, on Oct. 7, 1849. Here, we revisit the first publication of his poetic masterpiece, "The Raven" and the tragic circumstances (his dying young wife) that led to him writing it.
Posted in: LCM, Newspapers, Poetry, Rare Book and Special Collections, Writers
Posted by: Maria Peña
In his epic “El Norte,” award-winning filmmaker Gregory Nava charted the tragic journey of siblings Enrique and Rosa from Guatemala to Los Angeles in pursuit of the American dream. The 1983 film was inducted into the Library's National Film Registry in 1995 and still resonate in this Hispanic Heritage Month, two decades into a new century. It's one of the highlights of the Library's work in preserving Latino films.
Posted in: Film, Hispanic American History, Hispanic and Latino, LCM, Library Work and Employees, National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, National Film Registry, Performing Arts