There is joy in Mudville today, as we mark the 125th anniversary since “Casey at the Bat” was first published on June 3, 1888, in the San Francisco Examiner. The poem, dubbed the “single most famous baseball poem ever written” by the Baseball Almanac, has inspired everything from political cartoons to entire operas. Written by …
It’s the year 1933. There’s a 13-year-old kid in the front row at the movie palace. He’s watching “King Kong,” completely transfixed. And there, in the flickering light of the screen, in the roar of the soundtrack, a famous career is born – as a youngster named Ray, already obsessed with dinosaurs, tells himself “Wow. …
(The following is a guest post from Mike Mashon, head of the Moving Image Section in the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division.) One of the great joys of working with the Library of Congress film and video collections is learning more about our holdings from the astonishing variety of researchers the Moving Image …
The following is an article written by Christel Schmidt of the Library’s Publishing Office, who has edited a book on Mary Pickford, for the March-April 2013 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine. It has been 100 years since Mary Pickford was first dubbed the Queen of the Movies. At the time, the phrase simply …
Growing up, I loved to watch old movies, in particular movie musicals. Of those, I remember “Hans Christian Andersen” starring Danny Kaye. It would turn up from time to time on television, so naturally I felt compelled to watch it. I haven’t seen the movie in years, but the Library’s online presentation, The Danny Kaye …
The Library of Congress exhibition “The Civil War in America” and Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey continued to make the news last month. Edward Rothstein toured the exhibition for The New York Times. “This is one reason the Library of Congress exhibition ‘The Civil War in America,’ which opened late last year in honor of the …
During one of my first visits to the Library of Congress’s Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation, one of the division chiefs there pointed out the 35 mm projector in the theater. He commented that the sound of 35 mm film being fed through a projector is an “endangered sound.” My furrowed brow and quizzical look …
The following is a guest post from Michelle Springer in the Office of Strategic Initiatives. On Presidents Day, Monday, Feb. 18, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m, you’re invited to a special public event. Twice each year, the Library of Congress opens its magnificent Main Reading Room in the Thomas Jefferson Building in Washington, D.C., …
So many great webcasts are being added to the Library of Congress website daily, that it has become hard to pick just one to feature, as I’ve done in the past. And, the programming here at the institution is so diverse, you’re sure to find something of interest. Here is just a sampling of some …
