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Category: Curators

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

Let’s Get This Show on the Road

Posted by: Matt Raymond

One of the things I love about working here is the reaction people often have to the collections: the broad smiles, the dropped jaws, the “I-can’t-believe-you-have-thats.”  It’s times like those when I wish more Americans could have those same magical moments. Abby and Emily Rapoport apparently thought the same thing.  The two approached the Library …

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

Fascinating Finds in Three Minutes

Posted by: Matt Raymond

About a year ago, the Library worked in conjunction with HISTORY (AKA History Channel) to produce a series of two dozen video vignettes called “This Week’s Hidden Treasure.” Each highlights in roughly two or three minutes a fascinating item from our collections, with its story told by a Library of Congress curator. The videos were …

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

Preserving ‘Herblock’ a Rewarding Job for Conservators

Posted by: Matt Raymond

Ever wonder what goes on before an exhibition is mounted and displayed?  My colleague Donna Urschel takes an in-depth look at the preservation steps that were required for the Library’s “Herblock!” exhibition, on display through May 1: Preserving ‘Herblock’ a Rewarding Job for Conservators by Donna Urschel Shortly after the famous Washing­ton Post political cartoonist …

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

A Masterful Frame Job

Posted by: Matt Raymond

In 1867, the American West was still very much wild.  It was into that new frontier that a young photographer named Timothy O’Sullivan ventured to provide a visual record of the Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel, led by Clarence King. As much a PR effort to encourage settlement of the West as it was …

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

Roll Over, Beethoven!

Posted by: Matt Raymond

There’s something very satisfying in music about the number three: three notes in a basic chord, a romantic waltz in 3/4 time, the three-movement form of early symphonies. So it’s appropriate that the Library’s third blog (behind this one and “Inside Adams” from the Science, Technology and Business Division) would come from the Music Division. …

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

Photochroms Give Us Holland’s Nice, Bright Colors

Posted by: Matt Raymond

The Library’s Prints and Photographs Division has added 116 photocrom travel views of the Netherlands from 100 years ago to our Flickr page, bringing the total number of photochroms on Flickr to 773. Photochroms, published primarily from the 1890s to 1910s, are prints that were created by the Photoglob Company in Zürich, Switzerland, and the …