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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.
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
The U.S. Capitol building, the worldwide symbol of American democracy, got its beginnings on a piece of paper on the Caribbean island of Tortola, sketched out by a temperamental doctor in his early 30s. William Thornton's "Tortola Scheme" sketch laid the groundwork for a building that has expanded with the nation, growing from the original bid for a modest 15-room brick building into a complex covering 1.5 million square feet with more than 600 rooms and miles of hallways over a ground area of about 4 acres.
Posted in: African American History, Architecture, Capitol Hill, Civil War, Congress, LCM, Library Work and Employees, Manuscripts, Prints and Photographs Division, Thomas Jefferson, U.S. Presidents, Washington DC
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Volunteers have been working over the past five years to transcribe the Library’s manuscripts of Walt Whitman, one of the nation’s most iconic poets, from three major collections. Can you help proofread the final 4,000 pages? This June, the Library is hoping you'll do just that as we celebrate Pride month.
Posted in: By the People, Civil War, LGBTQ, Manuscripts, Poetry, Writers
Posted by: Neely Tucker
The contents of Abraham Lincoln's pockets the night he was assassinated -- a gathering of the ordinary and everyday -- have long been one of the Library's most fascinating holdings. They, along with Lincoln's work on the Gettysburg Address, are featured in "Collecting Memories: Treasures from the Library of Congress,” the inaugural exhibit of the Library's new Treasures Gallery, opening June 13.
Posted in: Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, LCM, Rare Book and Special Collections
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Margaret Virginia “Maggie” Thompson spent most of her life in tiny Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, more than a century ago. When a Library genealogist came across Thompson's long-lost scrapbook recently, she set out to solve a mystery: Who were the other people pictured in her scrapbook?
Posted in: Civil War, Genealogy, Library Work and Employees, Music, My Job, Researcher Stories, Women's History
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Two Black seamstresses have left their mark on White House fashion history, as Elizabeth Keckley and Ann Lowe designed dresses for two of the nation’s most famous first ladies, Mary Todd Lincoln and Jacqueline Kennedy, respectively. Both designers developed their craft despite the brutal influences of slavery and Jim Crow segregation. This piece tells their stories.
Posted in: Abraham Lincoln, African American History, Civil War, LCM, Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction, U.S. Presidents, Women's History, Writers
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Some of the most important works by Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Frederick Douglass, Willa Cather, Zora Neale Hurston and Cesar Chavez will be the focus of a new television series being produced by C-SPAN and the Library. The 10-part series — “Books That Shaped America” — starts on Sept. 18 and will examine 10 books …
Posted in: African American History, Alexander Hamilton, Civil Rights, Civil War, Exhibitions, Hispanic and Latino, Library Work and Employees, Thomas Jefferson
Posted by: Neely Tucker
One of the LIbrary's genealogy specialists was struck by reading the elaborate inscription on a 19th-century cemetery marker in her hometown. It spurred deep research and an extensive Library research guide into the 1870 sinking of the USS Oneida, costing the lives of 115 sailors, including the young man whose memorial caused her to pause: John Phelan. This is his story.
Posted in: Civil War, Genealogy, Library Work and Employees, Researcher Stories