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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: Setting the Record Straight on Pirates and Their Wives

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

Pirate lore has long captivated us and, through the centuries, worked its way into our literature, movies and popular culture. But many depictions of pirates are wrong, distorting our understanding of them. So writes Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos in her new book, “The Pirate Next Door: The Untold Story of Eighteenth Century Pirates’ Wives, Families and …

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

Recognizing the Service of Asian-Pacific-American Veterans

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

The following is a republication of a post by Andrew Huber, liaison specialist for the Veterans History Project. It was first published on the Library’s “Folklife Today” blog. Throughout the month of May, we celebrate Asian-American and Pacific-Islander heritage and remember the contributions made by people of Asian-Pacific descent. Those contributions are numerous, from Duke …

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

Brigadier General Franklin Pierce

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

This is a guest post by Peter A. Wallner, author of a two-volume biography of President Franklin Pierce consisting of “Franklin Pierce: New Hampshire’s Favorite Son” (2004) and “Franklin Pierce: Martyr for the Union” (2007). It is often forgotten that Franklin Pierce, the 14th president of the United States, was also a brigadier general in the …

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

Our Founding Uncle, Thaddeus K.

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

This is a guest post by Jennifer Gavin, senior public affairs specialist in the Library’s Office of Communications. We hear a lot about our “Founding Fathers,” who started a fight with their overlords, then went on to win it. But in that war of rebellion, there were also many brothers (and sisters), cousins and uncles-in-arms—many …

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

Civil War Diary: “This Hell-Upon-Earth of a Prison”

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

This is a guest post by Michelle Krowl, a historian in the Manuscript Division, about the experience of Samuel J. Gibson, a Union soldier who was incarcerated in the Confederate military prison in Andersonville, Georgia. He arrived on May 3, 1864—153 years ago today—and his diary is now available online. “I don’t know for whom …

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

World War I: The Library of Congress Memorial Tree

Posted by: Erin Allen

This is a guest post by Cheryl Fox, Library of Congress archives specialist in the Manuscript Division. The Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building is bordered by a number of impressive trees. One of them, a Japanese elm at the southwest corner of the building, was planted on Dec. 7, 1920, in memory of four Library of …

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

World War I: A New World Order – Woodrow Wilson’s First Draft of the League of Nations Covenant

Posted by: Erin Allen

(The following was written by Sahr Conway-Lanz, historian in the Library’s Manuscript Division.) Like many individuals around the globe, Woodrow Wilson was shocked by the outbreak of a devastating world war among European empires in 1914. As President of the United States, however, he had a unique opportunity to shape the outcome of this catastrophic …

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

Champions of America: Early Baseball Card

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

Baseball “has the snap, go, fling, of the American atmosphere—belongs as much to our institutions, fits into them as significantly, as our constitutions [and] laws. —Walt Whitman What better way to welcome April—National Poetry Month and the start of baseball season—than with a quotation about baseball from one of America’s greatest poets? Americans have debated …