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Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is a guest blog post written by Elizabeth Gettins, Library of Congress digital library specialist.) Halloween is upon us and what better time to recount some of the classic gothic stories by American writers? Henry James’ ghostly tale “The Turn of the Screw” (1898) and Washington Irving’s headless horseman from “The Legend of …
Posted in: Books, Collections, Curators, Rare Book of the Month
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is a guest post by VHP Reference Specialist Megan Harris, reprinted from the Folklife Today blog.) One look at Irving Greenwald’s diary is all it takes to bring to mind the old adage “good things come in small packages.” This World War I diary, written by Pfc. Irving Greenwald, was donated to the Veterans …
Posted in: Collections, Curators, Education, History, Manuscripts, Veterans History Project
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is an article in the September/October 2016 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine, LCM. The article was written by Fenella France, chief of the Library’s Preservation, Research and Testing Division.) Technological advancements have made it possible for the Library to put several rare maps on long-term display. Preserving and making the Library’s …
Posted in: Capitol Hill, Collections, Curators, Exhibitions, LCM, Maps, Science, Technology, Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington DC
Posted by: Erin Allen
The Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress and the Galileo Museum in Florence, Italy, today unveiled a multi-media interactive website that celebrates the life and times of 16th-century cartographer Martin Waldseemüller, who created the 1507 World Map, which is the first document to use the name “America,” represent the Pacific Ocean and …
Posted in: Collections, Curators, Education, History, Libraries, Maps
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is a feature story in the September/October 2016 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine, LCM. The story is written by Ralph Ehrenburg, chief of the Library’s Geography and Map Division. You can read the issue in its entirety here.) Advances in technology continue to transform the ancient art and science of mapmaking. …
Posted in: Collections, Curators, Education, LCM, Maps, Technology
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is a guest post from Ryan Reft, modern U.S. historian in the Manuscript Division.) “No son has ever left home whose family had greater pride in him than we have in you,” wrote prominent Washington D.C. lawyer and African American civic leader William LePre Houston to his son, Charles Hamilton Houston in September …
Posted in: Civil Rights, Collections, Curators, Education, History, Manuscripts
Posted by: Erin Allen
To say that Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden is all smiles, excitement and curiosity is an understatement. On her first official day in office last Thursday, her inquisitiveness and thirst for all things was almost palpable. Hayden began her day with a meeting on the National Book Festival. “This is so exciting,” she said, a …
Posted in: Capitol Hill, Collections, Congress, Curators, Education, History, Manuscripts, Maps, Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington DC
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is a guest post by Margaret Wood, a legal reference librarian at the Law Library of Congress.) Six weeks after the declaration of war against Germany on April 6, 1917, ch. 1, 40 Stat.1, Congress passed the Selective Service Act. Initially, President Woodrow Wilson and Congress had hoped the needed 1 million men …
Posted in: Collections, Congress, Curators, Education, History, Law Library, Manuscripts
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is a guest post by Katherine Blood of the Prints and Photographs Division.) Illustrator Charles Dana Gibson was already a celebrity when tapped in April 1917 to lead the federal government’s Division of Pictorial Publicity — an arm of Woodrow Wilson’s Committee on Public Information. He was enlisted by Committee head George Creel, …
Posted in: Collections, Curators, Exhibitions, History, LC Web site, Photos