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Posted by: Erin Allen
“The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there…” reads the familiar poem most of us know as “The Night Before Christmas.” However, that title isn’t really correct. Clement Moore first penned the poem in 1822, under the title “A Visit From St. Nicholas.” Moore is thought …
Posted in: Collections, History, Manuscripts
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is a guest post from Francisco Macias of the Law Library of Congress.) Each winter we see poinsettias adorning houses, shopping centers and offices throughout the country. But a little known fact is that the poinsettia is an endemic flora of Mexico. In Spanish it is often called “flor de nochebuena” or simply …
Posted in: Collections, Education, History, Manuscripts
Posted by: Erin Allen
In 2014, December 16 marked the first day of Hanukkah, the Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem after its desecration by the forces of Antiochus IV. Also referred to as the Festival of Lights, Hanukkah recalls the event. According to the Talmud, a central text of Rabbinic Judaism, at the re-dedication …
Posted in: Audiovisual, Collections, Education, Events, Exhibitions, History, Jewish American History, LC Web site, Manuscripts, Today in History
Posted by: Erin Allen
Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I spent several days in New York City. The holiday season was in full swing, with several holiday markets around town, lights and decorations adorning street posts and buildings and Rockefeller Center nearly completely decked out – the Christmas tree was up but not yet decorated. One of the things I …
Posted in: Collections, Exhibitions, History, LC Web site, Manuscripts, Photos
Posted by: Erin Allen
Imagine, military historian Kevin Hymel writes, if George Washington or Ulysses S. Grant had carried a camera and photographed war as he experienced it. How important would those images be as documents of history? Gen. George S. Patton, the brilliant but often-troublesome U.S. Army commander of World War II, did just that during his campaigns …
Posted in: Collections, History, Manuscripts, Photos, Researcher Stories
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is an article in the November/December 2014 issue of LCM, the Library of Congress Magazine. The issue can be read in its entirety here.) Nathan Dorn, the Law Library’s curator of rare books, highlights five favorite pieces from the Library’s Magna Carta exhibition. Statutes of England “Intricate colored-pen work graces this 14th-century miniature …
Posted in: Collections, Curators, Exhibitions, History, Law Library, Manuscripts
Posted by: Erin Allen
The Library of Congress featured prominently in November news with the opening of a special exhibition and the celebration of a special individual. On Nov. 6, “Magna Carta: Muse and Mentor” opened with much fanfare, featuring the 1215 Magna Carta, on loan from Lincoln Cathedral in England and one of only four surviving copies issued …
Posted in: Collections, Concerts, Events, Exhibitions, Law Library, Manuscripts, Music, News, Newspapers, Washington DC
Posted by: Jennifer Gavin
Many larger-than-life figures have served as the Librarian of Congress. As the Library once again plays host to that seminal document affirming the rule of law, Magna Carta, today we shine a spotlight on the man who was Librarian of Congress when the great charter first visited the Library – Archibald MacLeish. MacLeish, before his …
Posted in: Books, Capitol Hill, Collections, Congress, History, LC Web site, Libraries, Manuscripts, Maps, Poetry, Washington DC
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is a feature story written by Nathan Dorn, curator of rare books in the Law Library of Congress, for the November/December 2014 issue of the LCM. The issue can be read in its entirety here.) After 800 years, the granting of Magna Carta remains a milestone of human history. But why does a feudal …
Posted in: Education, Exhibitions, History, Law Library, Manuscripts