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Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is a guest post written by Meg McAleer, senior archives specialist in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division.) Archivists have wonderful jobs. Four colleagues – Kimberly Owens, Tammi Taylor, Tracey Barton and Sherralyn McCoy – and I shared nods of understanding, delight and awe often during the last two months of 2014 as …
Posted in: Collections, Curators, History, Manuscripts
Posted by: Erin Allen
February is African American History Month, an annual celebration that has existed since 1926. This year’s theme, according to the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) is “A Century of Black Life, History and Culture.” This year also marks the centennial of ASALH, which was established in 1915 by Carter G. …
Posted in: Collections, Education, Exhibitions, History, Law Library, LC Web site, Manuscripts, Photos, Veterans History Project
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is a guest post by Lee Ann Potter, director of Educational Outreach for the Library of Congress.) Born Rosa Louise McCauley on February 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Ala., the civil rights activist would have been 102 years old today. It is impossible to imagine how many birthday wishes she received in her 92 …
Posted in: Collections, Education, Events, History, Manuscripts, Today in History
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is a story written by Stephen Winick, folklorist and writer-editor in the American Folklife Center, for the January/February 2015 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine, LCM. The issue can be read in its entirety here.) A century after his birth, folklorist Alan Lomax is remembered for his preservation of the nation’s cultural …
Posted in: American Folklife Center, Audiovisual, Collections, Events, History, Music, Preservation
Posted by: Erin Allen
A tiny, handwritten “T” at the bottom of page 113 offered a clue that this book – long part of the Law Library collections – needed a new home: the permanent exhibition of Thomas Jefferson’s library. Every four months, Anna Bryan and other catalogers in the U.S./Anglo Division’s Rare Materials Section work on an ongoing …
Posted in: Books, Capitol Hill, Cataloging, Collections, Curators, History, Law Library, Libraries, Washington DC
Posted by: Erin Allen
Two hundred years ago today, President James Madison approved an act of Congress appropriating $23,590 for the purchase of a large collection of books belonging to Thomas Jefferson in order to reestablish the Library of Congress. Under Madison’s leadership, the United States went to war with Great Britain in 1812. After capturing Washington, D.C. in …
Posted in: Capitol Hill, Collections, Congress, Events, History, Manuscripts, Today in History, Washington DC
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is a story in the January/February 2015 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine, LCM. You can read the issue in its entirety here.) The Library of Congress has a long tradition of assisting other institutions in preserving their collections. Nearly a century after the Library of Congress collection was destroyed by a …
Posted in: Books, Collections, History, Libraries, Manuscripts, Preservation, Science, Technology
Posted by: Erin Allen
The Library of Congress exhibition, “American Ballet Theatre: Touring the Globe for 75 Years,” closes this Saturday, so if you’re in town, make sure to visit. American Ballet Theatre (ABT), which celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2014, donated its archives of more than 50,000 items of visual and written documentation to the Library. The exhibition features …
Posted in: Capitol Hill, Collections, Events, Exhibitions, History, LC Web site, Washington DC
Posted by: Erin Allen
Armed guards? Check. Secret rendezvous points? Check. Mysterious steel briefcase? Check. Sounds like a James Bond movie. But it’s just a day in the life of Christopher Woods, director of the National Conservation Service in Britain. By day, he’s a leading conservator in the field with more than 29 years experience working in the heritage …
Posted in: Events, Exhibitions, History, Law Library, Manuscripts, Preservation, Researcher Stories, Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington DC