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Stop the Presses!

Posted by: Erin Allen

With Election Day upon us and votes soon to be counted, the nation waits with bated breath to see who our next president will be. Here in D.C., crowds gather in local bars and pubs, as if it were Monday Night Football, to catch the news of which candidate won what state and taking bets …

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

Protocol for One and All

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

    Etiquette.  We love to make fun of it – from the character Rose Maybud in Gilbert & Sullivan’s “Ruddigore” who is constantly consulting her tiny etiquette book (“It’s manners out-of-joint, to point!”) to Vincent Price lecturing his creation “Edward Scissorhands” in the movie of the same name: “Etiquette tells us just what is …

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

Mapping Slavery

Posted by: Erin Allen

According to the 1860 census, the population of the United States that year was 31,429,891. Of that number, 3,952, 838 were reported as enslaved. The 1860 census was the last time the federal government took a count of the Southern slave population. In 1861, the United States Coast Survey issued two maps of slavery based …

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

Growing a Library

Posted by: Erin Allen

(The following is an article from the September-October 2012 issue of the Library’s new magazine, LCM, discussing how the Library acquires its collections.) By Audrey Fischer Beginning with a purchase of 740 books by Congress in 1800, the Library of Congress collection has grown to nearly 152 million items. But purchase is just one acquisition …

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

Terminology in Office

Posted by: Erin Allen

(This is the third in a series of posts featuring presidential campaign items from the Library’s collections. Read the others here and here.) Every election year, as candidates go head to head during their campaigns, a new wave of vocabulary is born. Political idioms that have found their way into our lexicon include POTUS, left-wing, …

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

“Words Like Sapphires”

Posted by: Erin Allen

A simple label inside thousands of rare books bears witness to the origins of one of the great collections of Hebrew material in the world: “Deinard Collection Presented by Jacob H. Schiff.” Beginning next week, the Library of Congress will celebrate the 100th anniversary of its Hebraic Collection – started with a gift from Schiff …

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

Centennial of Cinema Under Copyright Law

Posted by: Erin Allen

(The following is an article from the September-October 2012 issue of the Library’s new magazine, LCM, highlighting 100 years of Copyright law.) By Wendi A. Maloney A hundred years ago, a new category of work became subject to copyright protection: motion pictures. The Townsend Amendment to the U.S. copyright law took effect Aug. 24, 1912, …

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

A Letter Home

Posted by: Erin Allen

For some Union soldiers, their exposure to southern slavery profoundly altered their views on the institution, even before President Lincoln issued his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation in September 1862. One such soldier, John P. Jones, wrote to his wife of his increasing sympathy for abolitionism after seeing the inhumanity with which slaves could be treated. He …