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Category: History

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

Going Back, Waaay Back

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

(Ed. note: This post comes to us from Phil Michel, Digital Conversion Coordinator for the Prints & Photographs Division, and one of the authors of the new book Baseball Americana.) While the baseball season winds down and the excitement of another World Series chase begins, we’re celebrating the national pastime with a new book, Baseball …

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

O Shenandoah, I Long to Map You

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

In a world where we can keep tabs on our own backyards from our desks at work, via satellite, it’s difficult to imagine the impact one man armed with notebooks and pencils could have in 1861 as the Civil War began to rend our young nation.  Generals on both sides of that conflict desperately needed good topographical information …

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

Herblog

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

From time to time, we ask ourselves: Where is the outrage? Well, for an amazing 72 years, it was on editorial pages, especially that of the Washington Post–in political commentary by the influential cartoonist Herblock (Herb Block), who made presidents and other public figures, from Herbert Hoover to George W. Bush, ink-stained and wretched. The Library …

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

New Meaning for the Term ‘Sacrifice Bunt’

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

Sports, as any fan knows, can be heartbreaking — yet today, as we play ball in America, it’s always possible to walk away from a loss and say, “It’s only a game, after all.” But the Mesoamericans — Mayans, Aztecs, Olmecs and such — played, shall we say, as if they really meant it. Their …