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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

Inquiring Minds: VHP Marks 15 Years Preserving Veterans’ Stories

Posted by: Mark Hartsell

A missing Air Crew Report, author Dennis Okerstrom says, provides plenty of facts about losses in air combat: type of aircraft, names and ranks of crew members, a flight plan. Those facts can’t, however, reveal war’s human dimension – what it’s like to actually get shot down in combat. “It cannot begin to convey the …

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

10 Stories: Monkeys! Chronicling America

Posted by: John Sayers

In celebration of the release of the 10 millionth page of Chronicling America, our free, online searchable database of historical U.S. newspapers, the reference librarians in our Serials & Government Publications Division have selected some interesting subjects and articles from the archives. We’ve been sharing them in a series of Throwback Thursday #TBT blog posts. …

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

Opening Day … For the Library

Posted by: Erin Allen

Until 1897, the Library of Congress was housed in the U.S. Capitol Building itself. Librarian of Congress Ainsworth Rand Spofford (1864–97) was the first to propose that the Library be moved to a dedicated building. He also was instrumental in establishing the copyright law of 1870, which placed the Copyright Office in the Library and …

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

Let’s Take a Spooky Road Trip!

Posted by: Erin Allen

America is full of weird and spooky places, and what better time to highlight some of them than Halloween! The Library’s collections have a wealth of materials on all kinds of topics, so it wasn’t hard to find places worthy of a frightful road trip! Zzyzx (pronounced zye-zex), located in San Bernadino County, California, was …

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

10 Stories: Look to the Skies! Chronicling America

Posted by: John Sayers

In celebration of the release of the 10 millionth page of Chronicling America, our free, online searchable database of historical U.S. newspapers, the reference librarians in our Serials & Government Publications Division have selected some interesting subjects and articles from the archives. We’ll be sharing them in a series of Throwback Thursday #TBT blog posts …

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

10 Stories: Great Hair in History! Chronicling America

Posted by: John Sayers

In celebration of the release of the 10 millionth page of Chronicling America, our free, online searchable database of historical U.S. newspapers, the reference librarians in our Serials & Government Publications Division have selected some interesting subjects and articles. We’ll be sharing them in a series of Throwback Thursday #TBT blog posts during the next …

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

10 Stories: Cat Tales! Chronicling America

Posted by: John Sayers

In celebration of the release of the 10 millionth page of Chronicling America, our free, online searchable database of historical U.S. newspapers, the reference librarians in our Serials & Government Publications Division have selected some interesting subjects and articles. We’ll be sharing them in a series of Throwback Thursday #TBT blog posts during the next …

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

Books in Action: The Armed Services Editions

Posted by: Erin Allen

(The following is featured in the September/October 2015 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine, LCM. John Y. Cole, director of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, wrote the story. You can read the issue in its entirety here.)  When books went to war, many American soldiers and sailors discovered the joy …

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

And the Word Was Made Beautiful

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

Pope Francis has moved among us, here in Washington, D.C., for a time—and one lasting result of his visit can be viewed, starting Saturday, at the Library of Congress: a breathtakingly beautiful Apostles Edition of The Saint John’s Bible, the first Bible entirely hand-made and illuminated in more than 500 years. The rare Bible was …