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Category: Library Work and Employees

Near dusk, a woman in a heavy parka stands in her snow-covered front yard, surrounded by dozens of chunks of whale meat. Two lights are on in the house behind her.

Native American (Artistic) Visions

Posted by: Neely Tucker

The Library has worked for more than two decades to boost its holdings of modern Native American art and now has more than 200 prints and photographs by more than 50 contemporary Indigenous printmakers and photographers from the United States, Canada and Latin America. These include dazzling works by artists and photographers such as Wendy Red Star, Kay Walkingstick, Brian Adams, Zig Jackson and Rick Bartow.

Black and white photo is a street photo of a protest with rows of marchers looking towards the camera. Signs in Spanish protest the Vietnam War.

Raúl Ruiz, La Raza Collection Lands at the Library

Posted by: Neely Tucker

Journalist, photographer and activist Raúl Ruiz was a driving force at La Raza, the newspaper and magazine devoted to the Chicano movement in the 1960s and '70s. The Library announced today that it has acquired his collection, some 17,500 photos by Ruiz and original page layouts for La Raza. It also has nearly 10,000 pages of manuscripts, which include original correspondence, the unpublished draft of Ruiz’s book on Los Angeles Times journalist Ruben Salazar and handwritten minutes from the staff meetings of La Raza. It's a major addition to the Library's holdings in modern Hispanic culture.

Medium distance photo of Ada Limon on stage behind a plexiglass podium, smiling broadly.

Ada Limón’s Final Lecture as Poet Laureate: “You have to love.”

Posted by: Maria Peña

U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón's final lecture last week in the Coolidge Auditorium was a love letter to poetry to libraries and librarians. Her lecture, titled “Against Breaking: On the Public and Private Power of Poetry,” framed poetry as a shared, not solitary, experience and as a celebration of humanity’s range of voices and perspectives.

An ink and watercolor sketch of the burned U.S. Capitol Building in 1814. The roof is gone and fire and smoke damage is visible.

Book(s) Burning: The Library Survived Two 19th-Century Fires

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

This article also appears in the March-April issue of the Library of Congress Magazine. The Thomas Jefferson Building has awed visitors ever since it opened its doors in 1897. The grand building is more than a marvel of art and architecture, though; it’s also a monument to function and safety — fire safety in particular. …

Sepia toned family photo from the 1850s, showing a stiffly posed mother, father and five children.

College Records Add New Depth to Women’s Genealogy

Posted by: Neely Tucker

-This is a guest post by Candice Buchanan and Wanda Whitney in the History and Genealogy Section. Buchanan wrote the first entry; Whitney, the second. Lucy Lazear, the valedictorian of her 1853 graduating class at Waynesburg Female Seminary in Pennsylvania, paused her commencement speech to thank Margaret Bell, a key member of the faculty. “That …

Take a “Fast Car” to the 2025 National Recording Registry

Posted by: Brett Zongker

The 2025 class of the National Recording Registry is out today! Headliners include Elton John’s monumental album “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” Chicago’s debut “Chicago Transit Authority,” the original cast recording of Broadway’s “Hamilton,” Mary J. Blige’s “My Life,” Amy Winehouse’s “Back to Black,” Microsoft’s reboot chime and the soundtrack to the Minecraft video game.

Head shot of a smiling woman, in dress shirt and dark jacket, smiling and looking directly at the camera.

Catching up with … Eileen J. Manchester

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

Eileen J. Manchester, manager of the Library's Lewis-Houghton Civics and Democracy Initiative, tells us about her international background -- born in Germany, English is her second language and she also speaks French. She tutored at her local library while growing up in North Carolina, then interned at the Freedom School Partners literacy program and went to South Africa to study its education system. She continued her studies of early modern women writers at the University of Oxford and came to the Library as a junior fellow in the summer of 2018.

George Washington and King George III — Exhibit Showcases Common Ties

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

A major new Library exhibition, “The Two Georges: Parallel Lives in an Age of Revolution,” uses original documents such as letters, diaries, maps, newspapers and political cartoons to shed light on striking likenesses between men long supposed to be polar opposites -- George Washington and King George III. The two opposed one another during the Revolutionary War, but actually shared many personal and leadership traits. The exhibit, a joint project between the Library of Congress and the Royal Archives, runs at the Library through next March. It is also online via the Library's website and in a companion book.