Top of page
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Chaeli Cantwell is a producer in the Multimedia Group, where she produces videos for the National Film and Recording registries, as well as reporting and producing videos from some of the the Library's most fascinating collections, including those of J. Robert Oppenheimer and George Gershwin.
Posted in: Gazette, Library Work and Employees, National Film Registry, National Recording Registry, Video
Posted by: Mark Hartsell
The Battle of Sierra Blanca was a 1787 fight between Comanche and Apache forces in New Mexico, as Spanish colonists convinced the Comanches to go to war against Apache raiding parties. An unnamed warrior drew a pictograph depicting the battle action and gave it to a Spanish officer. Today, it’s a rare chronicle of Native history, held in the Library’s collections.
Posted in: Maps, Native Americans
Posted by: Neely Tucker
In the spring of 1868, with the nation awash in loss and grief following the Civil War, veterans of the Union Army set May 30 as a day “for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion.” An instant success, it evolved into Memorial Day.
Posted in: Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, Manuscripts, U.S. Presidents, Washington DC
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Edward Gorey, that bearded patron saint of the sad and whimsical, the strange and witty, would have turned 100 this year, and centennial celebrations are happening all year long. The Library preserves hundreds of his works, including rare and unique items, such as a tiny edition of ... "The Gashlycrumb Tinies."
Posted in: Books, Illustrated Books, Rare Book and Special Collections, Writers
Posted by: Neely Tucker
If you were a well-born English lady in a 17th-century family, you might be just as likely to accessorize your satin gown with earrings or a fan as you would an elaborately embroidered prayer book. The Library preserves a customized 1641 Book of Psalms, a marvel not only for its diminutive size, but also for its remarkable condition and lavish decoration. At more than 380 years old, its golden threads remain unfrayed and its intricate swirls of tiny seed pearls — hundreds of them — are perfectly intact.
Posted in: LCM, Rare Book and Special Collections
Posted by: Neely Tucker
The Library has worked for more than two decades to boost its holdings of modern Native American art and now has more than 200 prints and photographs by more than 50 contemporary Indigenous printmakers and photographers from the United States, Canada and Latin America. These include dazzling works by artists and photographers such as Wendy Red Star, Kay Walkingstick, Brian Adams, Zig Jackson and Rick Bartow.
Posted in: LCM, Library Work and Employees, Native Americans, Prints and Photographs Division
Posted by: Neely Tucker
“The Tale of Genji,” one of the foundational works of Japanese literature, was written 1,000 years ago and is more than 1,000 pages long. Penned over the course of a decade or so by Murasaki Shikibu, it is widely considered the world’s first novel. The Library recently added to its impressive “Genji” collections with a beautiful edition of Genji kokagami, or “A Little Mirror of the Tale of Genji,” set in wooden moveable type, from around 1625. It’s a summary of the original with excerpts and explanations, filling three slender notebook-size volumes with thin pages and delicate type. The typeface is so finely wrought that it appears at first glance to be calligraphy.
Posted in: Asian Division, Writers
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Journalist, photographer and activist Raúl Ruiz was a driving force at La Raza, the newspaper and magazine devoted to the Chicano movement in the 1960s and '70s. The Library announced today that it has acquired his collection, some 17,500 photos by Ruiz and original page layouts for La Raza. It also has nearly 10,000 pages of manuscripts, which include original correspondence, the unpublished draft of Ruiz’s book on Los Angeles Times journalist Ruben Salazar and handwritten minutes from the staff meetings of La Raza. It's a major addition to the Library's holdings in modern Hispanic culture.
Posted in: Civil Rights, Hispanic American History, Hispanic and Latino, Library Work and Employees, Newspapers, Prints and Photographs Division, Writers
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
Ashley Dickerson is the acquisitions and cataloging librarian for Finland and the Baltic states. She tells us about her deep expertise with Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Republics, along with her love for new restaurants, archery and power lifting.
Posted in: Cataloging, Gazette, Library Work and Employees