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Posted by: Wendi Maloney
On a dark and windy morning on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, 114 years ago this Sunday, Orville Wright took flight in a tiny airplane he and his brother Wilbur had painstakingly constructed. The 605-pound craft flew all of 120 feet and remained airborne only 12 seconds. After Orville’s first success, Wilbur set the …
Posted in: Collections, Manuscripts, National Book Festival, Technology, Today in History
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
This is a guest post by Michelle Krowl, a historian in the Manuscript Division. Regular visitors to the Library of Congress website may be scratching their heads right now, thinking, “Aren’t the Abraham Lincoln Papers already online?” It is true that the bulk of the Abraham Lincoln Papers have long been available through the Library’s …
Posted in: Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, Collections, Manuscripts, New Online
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
Last week, the Library announced a new online presentation of Abraham Lincoln’s papers from his time as a lawyer, congressman and the 16th president. The refreshed digital collection follows a multiyear project to update the Library’s previous presentation with additional features, full-color images and new material. To celebrate, we’re highlighting items from the Library’s vast …
Posted in: Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, Collections, Free to Use and Reuse, Manuscripts
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
This is a guest post by Michelle Krowl, a historian in the Manuscript Division. On May 17, 1877, former president Ulysses S. Grant and his wife Julia departed from Philadelphia on an extended trip. Other former presidents traveled after retiring from public office, but none journeyed as far as Grant did. He and Julia spent …
Posted in: Civil War, Collections, Manuscripts, New Online
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
Last month, relatives of Luigi Del Bianco gathered in Keystone, South Dakota, for a very special ceremony: the National Park Service unveiled a plaque on September 16 at the Mount Rushmore National Memorial recognizing the late Del Bianco as the chief carver of Mount Rushmore—76 years after its completion. For more than 30 years previously, …
Posted in: Collections, Manuscripts, Researcher Stories
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
This is a guest post by Michelle Krowl, a historian in the Manuscript Division. “Twelve months ago this day, a very important conversation took place in Cabinet between myself and Mr. Buchanan on the Oregon question. This conversation was of so important a character, that I deemed it proper on the same evening to reduce …
Posted in: Collections, Manuscripts, New Online
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
Ross Davies has been a regular in the Library’s Manuscript Division for about two decades now. He has worked with papers of Supreme Court justices, consulted collections on the federal courts and introduced his students to the Library—a “treasure hunt” he assigns requires them to find resources in the Manuscript Division and the Law Library. …
Posted in: Collections, Law Library, Manuscripts, Researcher Stories
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
This is a guest post by Julie Miller, a historian in the Manuscript Division. In spring 1848, Congress appropriated $20,000 to buy the papers of Alexander Hamilton from his family, including his widow, Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton. Mrs. Hamilton, 91 years old and widowed since 1804, had moved to Washington that year to live with her …
Posted in: Collections, Manuscripts, New Online
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
This is a guest post by Michelle Krowl, a historian in the Manuscript Division. During the Civil War, thousands of Union soldiers in the Western Theater affectionately called Mary Ann Bickerdyke (1817–1901) “Mother” for the tender maternal care she provided as a nurse and relief worker with the United States Sanitary Commission. Bickerdyke’s papers at …
Posted in: Civil War, Collections, Manuscripts, Women's History