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Posted by: Neely Tucker
Geraldine Brooks, the the 2025 recipient of the Library’s Prize for American Fiction, talked about her 10 books, her career as a foreign correspondent and her marriage to the late Tony Horwitz, a fellow reporter, author and Pulitzer Prize winner, during a recent evening at the Library.
Posted in: Books, Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction, Library Work and Employees, Writers
Posted by: Neely Tucker
The moon always has been an object of fascination for mankind, but once President John F. Kennedy pledged in 1961 that the U.S. would send a manned spacecraft there within a decade, one of the first questions was entirely practical: Where would they land? An extraordinary map, the USAF Lunar Wall Mosaic, produced the year after Kennedy's speech, helped provide the answer. The 1969 Apollo 11 mission landed safely in an area called the Mare Tranquillitatis (Sea of Tranquility). Today, a copy of the map is preserved at the Library as one of the most important -- and practical -- maps in human history.
Posted in: Geography and Map Division, LCM, Maps, Science, Technology
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Nearly half a century after its release, The Go-Go's "Beauty and the Beat" is still the only Billboard No. 1 album by an all-female rock group who wrote and performed their own material. This year, the album joins the 2026 class of the National Recording Registry. We caught up with the group to talk about their roots in L.A.'s punk music scene and how it resulted in the album that made them pop-culture icons.
Posted in: Music, National Recording Registry, Performing Arts, Songwriters, Womens History
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man" created a stir when it was published in 1952 and is still regarded as a masterpiece of American literature. Here, you can see some of his edits to the famous opening lines. The Library preserves Ellison's papers, including manuscript copies and drafts of the novel.
Posted in: African American History, Books, LCM, Manuscripts, Writers
Posted by: Neely Tucker
When there’s a statue of your dad on Capitol Hill, it’s probably inevitable that you think about things like history and legacy and preservation, so Rosanne Cash was particularly moved when one of her albums was inducted into the National Recording Registry a few days ago. The singer-songwriter daughter of Johnny Cash — the musician …
Posted in: Uncategorized
Posted by: Neely Tucker
The Library observes both Jewish American Heritage Month and the nation's approaching 250th birthday this year by focusing on a little-remembered aspect of the Revolution: the Jewish merchants in the tiny Caribbean island of St. Eustatius who shipped in supplies to American troops around the British blockade. The Dutch-controlled shipping outpost, just 8 square miles, was the first foreign entity to recognize the newly founded United States after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Posted in: America 250, American Revolution, George Washington, Jewish American History, Manuscripts
Posted by: Brett Zongker
The 2026 National Recording Registry inductees were announced today, bringing everything from Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It),” Weezer’s self-titled debut “Weezer (The Blue Album),” José Feliciano’s “Feliz Navidad” and 22 other recordings into the Library’s catalogue that preserves the nation’s sound heritage. Also included: songs by Taylor Swift, The Go-Go's, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Pérez Prado, Ray Charles and Rosanne Cash.
Posted in: Library Work and Employees, Music, National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, National Recording Registry, Performing Arts, Songwriters
Posted by: Neely Tucker
The Library’s Benjamin K. Edwards collection features some 2,100 baseball cards from 1887 to 1914 and are part of the Library’s Free to Use and Reuse sets of copyright-free images that you can use any way you’d like. The cards include future Hall of Famers, such as Christy Mathewson and John M. Ward, and the not so famous, such as the hard-partying Mike Mattimore.
Posted in: Baseball, Free to Use and Reuse, Rare Book and Special Collections
Posted by: Neely Tucker
The Library's 16-year-long project to complete the high-resolution digitization of all 175,000 images in the historic Farm Security Administration files is nearing its end. Fewer than 15,000 negatives remain to be scanned and uploaded to the Library's website. Created to support President Roosevelt's New Deal social programs between 1935-1944, the documentary photographs have become some of the most iconic images of American life. The work to digitize those deteriorating negatives has been a slow, patient process that involves careful attention to each image, looking for specs of dust, scratches and other flaws.
Posted in: Library Work and Employees, Photos, Preservation and Conservation, Prints and Photographs Division