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Category: Geography and Maps Division

Head and shoulders portrait of Ida B. Wells, based on a photograph. She's facing right, hair swept up in a bun, a stern expression on her face

Ida B. Wells, W.E.B. Du Bois, and the Maps of American Racism

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

Ida B. Wells was 30 years old in 1892, living in Memphis and working as a newspaper editor, when a mob lynched one of her friends. Distraught, the pioneering journalist set out to document the stories of lynching victims and disprove a commonly asserted justification — that the murders were a response to rape. Wells’ …

Posted in: African American History, Congress, Education, Geography and Maps Division, Junior Fellows Program, LCM, Library Work and Employees, Maps, Technology

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

A Fond Farewell to John Hessler, LOC Polymath

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

Every institution has its institutions, and one of the Library’s is John Hessler, who will retire from the Geography and Map Division at the end of this month. He holds many titles, official and unofficial. One of the official ones is curator of the Jay I. Kislak Collection of the Archaeology & History of the …

Posted in: Curators, Geography and Maps Division, Jay I. Kislak Collection, Library Work and Employees, Native Americans, News, Writers