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Posted by: Matt Raymond
It was 50 years ago today that ham-radio enthusiasts had the first opportunity to hear an odd beeping sound coming from the heavens: It was Sputnik, the first artificial satellite. A recent CBS Sunday Morning segment reminded us that today (Oct. 4, 2007), marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik by the Soviet …
Posted in: Exhibitions, History
Posted by: Matt Raymond
Tonight the final touches will be put on the Library?s West Side Story exhibition (thus the headline), which opens tomorrow, Sept. 26, and remains on view in the foyer of the Performing Arts Reading Room (room 113 of the Library?s James Madison Memorial Building) through March 29. ?West Side Story: Birth of a Classic? marks …
Posted in: Exhibitions, LC Web site, Music
Posted by: Matt Raymond
A partial image of page 1 of the rough draft of the Declaration of Independence, with a gradient fade applied A couple of notes about recent TV appearances, and then an on-topic digression (which is after the jump). First of all, as previously mentioned, Dr. Billington, the Librarian of Congress, was the guest July 1 …
Posted in: Exhibitions, History, New Visitors Experience, News, Thomas Jefferson Building
Posted by: Matt Raymond
The names ?Edward and Marian MacDowell? might not be immediately recognizable to a wide swath of the population. But try some of these names on for size: Aaron Copland, Willa Cather, Leonard Bernstein, Dorothy and DuBose Heyward, James Baldwin, and Thornton Wilder. Those are but a handful of the luminaries who spent some of their …
Posted in: Curators, Exhibitions, LC Web site
Posted by: Matt Raymond
A few AP photos are starting to move from the event that ended barely an hour ago, in which German Chancellor Angela Merkel formally transferred the 1507 Waldseemüller Map to the Library of Congress and the American people (represented by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer). You can see them here, here, here, here, here and …
Posted in: Congress, Events, Exhibitions, News, Thomas Jefferson Building
Posted by: Matt Raymond
Before I (happily) returned to D.C. last August, I lived in Manhattan for about a year and a half. Among my fondest memories there are the hours and days I spent in one of New York City’s great treasures, Central Park. To wit, a picture I took there after the record-setting snowfall of Feb. 12, …
Posted in: Capitol Hill, Exhibitions, Today in History
Posted by: Matt Raymond
This morning I attended the spring business meeting of the James Madison Council, the Library’s private-sector advisory body, created in 1990 by Librarian of Congress James Billington. Council members received updates on the 2007 National Book Festival (Sept. 29, 2007), the 2007 Junior Fellows program, the World Digital Library and other issues, and also heard …
Posted in: Curators, Exhibitions, New Visitors Experience, Thomas Jefferson Building