The Library of Congress this month will celebrate the legacy of a man who helped bring higher education to millions of Americans and who played a key role in the creation of one of the nation’s most splendid pieces of architecture – the Jefferson Building. On June 25, the Library plays host to a conference that …
Two hundred years ago today, President James Madison set pen to paper to write a message to Congress. His intent was to talk them into making the nation’s first formal declaration of war – on Great Britain, which was squashing U.S. exports as a side effect of a British naval blockade against Napoleon’s France. But …
On May 5, the Library will close its popular exhibition “Creating the United States.” The exhibition has been on view for four years and seen approximately 2 million visitors passing through its space. Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough once called it the one exhibition every American should see on a visit to Washington, D.C. Notable …
This is a guest post by Donna Urschel of the Library’s Public Affairs Office. If you’ve ever wondered where you are, or where you might be going, know this: if you have access to a computer, the Library of Congress now has 30,000 maps online to guide you. In the basement level of the Library’s …
This is one of a series of guest posts by Abigail Van Gelder, who with her husband, Josh, is journeying across the country on the Library’s “Gateway to Knowledge” traveling exhibition: Congressman Charlie Wilson from Ohio stopped by to welcome guests to the Gateway To Knowledge exhibit on its first day in Marietta; he was joined …
This is the third in a series of guest posts by Abigail Van Gelder, who with her husband, Josh, have set out across the country on the Library’s “Gateway to Knowledge” traveling exhibition. The rolling exhibit launched Sept. 25 at the National Book Festival. She originally wrote this post yesterday: You don’t have to twist …
This is a guest post by Carl Fleischhauer, program officer with the Library’s National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program In 1975, Alan Jabbour and I began a project to document the fiddle playing of Senator Robert C. Byrd, who passed away a few days ago at the age of 92. Sen. Byrd was aware that …
A bunch of ninth-grade girls got in touch with their favorite radio station, making a song request for a tune by one of their favorite artists. But they couldn’t resist the chance to raise that universal complaint: “Why, why, why, why do you always repeat the same songs?” It could have been from the suburbs …
I can imagine affecting my best Andy Rooney voice as I type this, but did ya? ever notice how I tend to blog a lot more on Fridays? Well, the phone usually rings less and I am pulled into fewer meetings, so I try to squeeze in a few moments to blog. At any rate, …