(The following is a guest post written by Yasmeen Khan, senior book conservator in the Conservation Division.) Conservation staff recently treated I recently examined a rare Persian manuscript in preparation for display in the Library of Congress exhibition, “A Thousand Years of the Persian Book.” The bound 103-leaf manuscript, dated 1583 and attributed to Central Asia, …
(The following is a guest post by Holly Krueger, head of the Paper Conservation Section of the Library of Congress Preservation Directorate.) Last December, the Library of Congress unveiled a remarkable drawing by the “outsider artist,” Martin Ramirez. The drawing depicts a Madonna figure standing on a blue globe surrounded by canyons filled with anthropomorphic …
(The following is a guest post by Dan Paterson, preservation specialist in the Book Conservation Section of the Conservation Division.) In preparation for display, Conservation Division staff recently treated a historical 17th century book of Spanish laws for governing settlements in the New World. “Recopilacion de Leyes de Los Reynos de Las Indias,” printed in …
The Library of Congress has one of the most extensive preservation programs for library materials in the world. Each year the Library’s preservation staff provides preservation treatment for countless objects in its collection of more than 155 million items. The Conservation Division cares for the Library’s special collections, including rare books and manuscripts, works of …
(The following is a guest post by William Kellum, manager in the Library’s Web Services Division.) DIGITIZED COLLECTIONS New online this month are two manuscript collections featuring the poet Walt Whitman. The Thomas Biggs Harned Collection of Walt Whitman papers consists of approximately 3,000 items spanning the period 1842-1937. Most of the items date from 1855, …
(The following is an article written by Guy Lamolinara, communications officer for the Center for the Book, featured in the September-October 2012 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine. Aug. 24 was the 200th anniversary of the burning of the Capitol building and the Library.) The story of the phoenix that rises triumphantly from its …
(The following is a guest post by Catalina Gomez of the Library of Congress Hispanic Division.) The Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape, most commonly referred to as the AHLOT, is one of those rare gems that readers can come across in the hidden corners of the Library of Congress. Compiled and carefully curated by …
News of Library of Congress acquisitions and initiatives led the headlines in July, with stories on the recent donation of the Lilli Vincenz papers and work of the Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation to preserve television. “History is written by the victors, but also by the scrapbookers, the collectors, the keepers, the pack rats. By those …
