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Posted by: Wendi Maloney
This is a guest post by Julie Miller, a historian in the Manuscript Division. During the American Revolution, as many as one-third of American colonists remained loyal to Britain. These are the Tories we learned about in grade school, also known as loyalists. Why did these Americans choose to remain British, and what did their …
Posted in: Collections, Manuscripts
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
This post is by Emily Hauck, a summer intern in the Library’s Communications Office. A version of this post was first published in the Library of Congress Gazette. No matter how much you think you know about a topic, there is always more to discover. I found that out during my internship with the Library’s …
Posted in: Collections, Exhibitions, Manuscripts
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
This is the second of two related guest posts by Cassandra Good, associate editor of the Papers of James Monroe and author of “Founding Friendships: Friendships Between Men and Women in the Early American Republic” (2015), and Susan Holbrook Perdue, director of digital strategies at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and adviser to a …
Posted in: Collections, Manuscripts, Washington DC
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
This is a guest post by Sahr Conway-Lanz, a historian in the Manuscript Division. Former Librarian of Congress James Billington once called the Polish Declarations of Admiration and Friendship for the United States “possibly the largest expression of affection one nation ever made to another.” In 1926, for the 150th anniversary of the birth of …
Posted in: Collections, Manuscripts
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
This is the first of two related guest posts by Cassandra Good, associate editor of the Papers of James Monroe and author of “Founding Friendships: Friendships Between Men and Women in the Early American Republic” (2015), and Susan Holbrook Perdue, director of digital strategies at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and adviser to a …
Posted in: Collections, Manuscripts, New Online, Washington DC, Women's History
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 …
Posted in: History, Manuscripts, Researcher Stories, Women's History
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 …
Posted in: Collections, History, Manuscripts
Posted by: Mark Hartsell
The Library of Congress’s presidential papers tell the American story in the words of those who helped write it: through war and peace, prosperity and hard times, from George Washington to Calvin Coolidge. The Library is currently conducting a years-long project to digitize the …
Posted in: Collections, Manuscripts
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 …
Posted in: Civil War, History, Manuscripts