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Category: Civil War

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Crowdsourcing Invitation: Help Tell a Civil War Soldier’s Story

Posted by: Neely Tucker

By the People, the Library’s crowdsourcing transcription project, is rallying readers to complete 500 pages from the “Civil War Soldiers: Disabled but not disheartened” campaign before Memorial Day. These were gathered by journalist and chaplain William Oland Bourne as part of a left-handed penmanship competition for Union soldiers who had lost their right hand or …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Pic of the Week: Harriet Tubman, Seen as Never Before

Posted by: Neely Tucker

In a March 25 ceremony, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden and National Museum of African American History and Culture Director Lonnie Bunch unveiled the photo album of abolionist Emily Howland, featuring a previously unknown portrait of Harriet Tubman. The portrait, taken around 1868, captures Tubman in her mid 40s, years younger than most surviving photographs that show her late in life

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Crowdsourcing Helps to Unlock the Mystery of Cursive

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

This is a guest post by Julie Miller, a historian in the Manuscript Division, and Victoria Van Hyning, a senior innovation specialist in the division. This post coincides with National Handwriting Day. “That’s so beautiful, but what does it say?” This is what we often hear from visitors to the Library of Congress when they …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Pic of the Week: Gettysburg Address

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

On Nov. 19, 1863, Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Invited to give a “few appropriate remarks” to dedicate a cemetery for Union soldiers killed at the Battle of Gettysburg, Lincoln delivered — over the course of about two minutes — what has become one of the most widely recognized speeches in …