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Archive: 2025 (10 Posts)

Full length studio portrait of a very tall man in a top hat and tails.

Big Pat Bane, The Tallest Soldier in the Civil War

Posted by: Neely Tucker

Pennsylvania's Big Pat Bane, a cheerful man standing some 6 feet 9 inches, was almost certainly the tallest soldier in the Civil War. His feet came out of his shoes. Crowds swarmed. Children ran and laughed and gaped. He led parades. Fellow soldiers, particularly at reunions, gawped and guffawed. All this earned him an almost mythical place in pop culture of the late 19th century.

Promotional poster for the "Two Georges" exhibit, featuring the faces of King George III and George Washington.

Parallel Lives: King George and George Washington, Featured in an Upcoming Exhibit

Posted by: Neely Tucker

Because George Washington and King George III were on opposite sides of America’s war of independence from Britain, we have learned to think of them as opposites. Our research for an upcoming Library of Congress exhibition, “The Two Georges: Parallel Lives in an Age of Revolution,” however, has turned up something much more interesting: They were surprisingly alike in temperament, interests and, despite the obvious differences in their lives and experiences.

Color portrait of Mac Bennett, seated, leaning forward with his forearms resting on his knees, looking to his left at the camera.

Mac Barnett Named New National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature

Posted by: Neely Tucker

Mac Barnett, the bestselling author of more than 60 children's books, including “Twenty Questions,” “Sam & Dave Dig a Hole,” “A Polar Bear in the Snow” as well as the “Mac B., Kid Spy” series, will be inaugurated today as the 2025-2026 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. 

1930s-style illustration of a man falling in front of a moving car with a policeman yelling in the background

“V as in Victim,” The Library’s Newest Crime Classic

Posted by: Neely Tucker

This is a guest post by Zach Klitzman, a writer-editor in the Library’s Publishing Office. “All we want are the facts, ma’am,” from “Dragnet.” “Book ’em, Danno,” from “Hawaii Five-O.” David Caruso flipping on his sunglasses before offering a pithy line in “CSI: Miami.” These and other cop-show catchphrases have their roots in Lawrence Treat’s …

An 18th century engraving, showing French leaders heroically gathered around their King.

The (Sun) King’s View of the World

Posted by: Neely Tucker

The personal world atlas of Louis XIV of France, the absolutist Sun King, was a doozy: a large two-volume set of more than 120 maps now held in the Library’s Geography and Map Division. It was the first world map to show the mythical Sea of the West, a supposed inland sea in the Pacific Northwest, and was the first world map in more than a century to show California as a peninsula, not an island. The creator of the map, Jean-Baptiste Nolin, was later successfully sued for plagiarizing its greatest cartographic innovations, but Louis never let go of his copy.

A brown, very faded, falling apart leather notebook cover, opened to show front and back

George Washington: Land Surveyor

Posted by: Neely Tucker

George Washington made his living as a land surveyor from ages 17 to 20, an enterprise that took him deep into the Blue Ridge Mountains in what is now Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia. His diaries and surveying field notebooks are preserved at the Library, along with the rest of his papers, and are featured in a new exhibit, "The Two Georges."