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Posted by: Neely Tucker
In the winter of 1906, Mark Twain was a tired and grieving man. He was 71. The past dozen years had been brutal. He had gone bankrupt in the mid-1890s. Then his 24-year-old daughter died from spinal meningitis. Then his beloved wife, Olivia, suffered through years of heart trouble before dying at age 58 in …
Posted in: Copyright, Photos, Today in History, Uncategorized, Washington DC, Writers
Posted by: Maria Peña
The Library of Congress has released a groundbreaking online collection of the National AIDS Memorial Quilt Records, making one of the most poignant symbols of the AIDS epidemic in the United States available to a global audience.
Posted in: American Folklife Center, LGBTQ, Library Work and Employees
Posted by: Neely Tucker
This is a guest post by Barbara Bair, a historian in the Manuscript Division. She most recently wrote about Ralph Ellison’s photography work. Two important collections of Native American heritage have been digitized and placed on the Library’s website, enabling readers and researchers to dig into histories that are not widely known. The first, …
Posted in: Gazette, Library Work and Employees, Manuscripts, Maps, Native Americans
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Sarah Josepha Hale was a prominent magazine editor, abolitionist and social activist throughout most of the 19th century, perhaps best known for composing the children's nursery rhyme, "Mary Had a Little Lamb." But her most long-lasting effort was her years-long campaign to get the federal government to designate Thanksgiving as a federal holiday. Her decisive tactic? A letter to President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War.
Posted in: Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, LCM, Poetry, Thanksgiving
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Holidays are often defined by the foods cooked up in the kitchen, although those foods and how they're prepared change over time. Among the Library's collection of more than 40,000 cookbooks are plenty devoted to the craft of preparing those special occasion meals. But what might have been a great Thanksgiving dinner in 1920 certainly looked different than one in 1965, and Christmas foods are always changing. Different cultures have unique traditions for each holiday, making for an ever-evolving American smorgasbord.
Posted in: Christmas, Drink, Hispanic and Latino, Jewish American History, LCM, Thanksgiving
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Legendary ragtime composer Scott Joplin died in poverty at age 48 in 1917 and left few personal artifacts behind; only three photographs of him are known to exist. The song that made him famous was the spirited "Maple Leaf Rag" in 1899. So 125 years later, when the Library's music staff pulls the two copies of "Maple Leaf Rag" sheet music that Joplin and his music publisher mailed in for copyright registration, it can produce an audible gasp.
Posted in: African American History, Music, National Recording Registry, Performing Arts, Songwriters, Washington DC
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
In this edition of "My Job" at the Library, Aimee Hess talks about her work in editing and producing books that highlight the Library’s collections. She oversees the Library's Crime Classics series, has written two books in the "Women Who Dare" series and cowritten two books: one on the suffrage exhibition, “Shall Not Be Denied"; and one about the Library's photograph collections, “The Joy of Looking."
Posted in: Abraham Lincoln, American Folklife Center, Crime Classics Series, LCM, Library of Congress Crime Classics, Library Work and Employees, Publishing Office, Womens History
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Burt Bacharach, one of the most popular songwriters and composers in American history, was awarded the Gershwin Prize in 2012. He wrote or cowrote dozens of pop standards -- "Walk on By," "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head," "The Look of Love," "I Say a Little Prayer," "(They Long to Be) Close to You" -- mostly with lyricist Hal David. He also composed, arranged, conducted the band or orchestras for the recording sessions and recorded his own albums. His songs have been recorded by hundreds of artists around the world. His papers are now at the Library.
Posted in: Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, LCM, Library Work and Employees, Music, National Recording Registry, Performing Arts, Songwriters
Posted by: Neely Tucker
"A Soldier's Journey," a new bronze statue, was recently unveiled at the World War I Memorial in Washington, D.C.'s Pershing Park. An excerpt from "The Young Dead Soldiers Do Not Speak," a poem by former Librarian of Congress Archibald MacLeish, adorns another wall at the park. Both mark a fitting tribute to the nation's fallen soldiers this Memorial Day.
Posted in: Gazette, Library Work and Employees, Photos, World War II, Writers