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Posted by: Wendi Maloney
To mark the centennial of Leonard Bernstein’s birth—he was born on August 25, 1918—we’re republishing a column by his daughter Jamie Bernstein from the May–June issue of LCM, the Library of Congress Magazine, in which she reflects on her famous dad’s legacy and on the Leonard Bernstein Collection at the Library of Congress. Issues of …
Posted in: Collections, LCM, Manuscripts, Music, Researcher Stories
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
This is a guest post by Julie Miller, a historian in the Manuscript Division. The division’s holdings of the papers of George Washington (1732–1799) constitute the largest collection of original Washington papers in the world. In 1786, English agricultural reformer Arthur Young wrote to George Washington, addressing him as a “brother farmer” and offering to …
Posted in: Collections, Manuscripts
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
This interview with Ryan Reft, a historian in the Manuscript Division, first appeared on the “Teaching with the Library of Congress” blog. Describe what you do at the Library. One of the great things about my job is that the work changes on a daily basis. At the risk of over-simplifying: I oversee Manuscript Division …
Posted in: Exhibitions, Manuscripts, My Job
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
Landscape historian Arleyn Levee first visited the Library’s Manuscript Reading Room in the early 1980s to consult the records of Frederick Law Olmsted and his firm. A 19th-century pioneer who developed the field of American landscape architecture, Olmsted shaped many notable sites throughout his career – New York’s Central Park, the U.S. Capitol grounds, the …
Posted in: Capitol Hill, Collections, Manuscripts, Researcher Stories
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
This is a guest post by Barbara Bair, a historian in the Manuscript Division. Frederick Law Olmsted (1822–1903) is most famous as the creator in the late 1850s of New York City’s Central Park with Calvert Vaux. But Olmsted had an enormous and geographically widespread impact on America’s lasting ideas of what cityscapes should be. …
Posted in: Collections, Manuscripts
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
This is a guest post by Sahr Conway-Lanz, a historian in the Manuscript Division. Harry Truman called Woodrow Wilson “the greatest of the greats.” Theodore Roosevelt called him “the lily-livered skunk in the White House.” Wilson won the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to forge peace after World War I, yet more recent …
Posted in: Collections, Manuscripts
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
This is a guest post by Ryan Reft, a historian in the Manuscript Division. “The place: a wine vault, somewhere in hell – torn, blood streaked, shell plowed France.” – Joel T. Boone, June 28, 1918 By the time he wrote those words to his wife, Joel T. Boone, a Navy doctor assigned to the …
Posted in: Collections, Exhibitions, Manuscripts
Posted by: Brett Zongker
This post is reprinted from “Brilliant Broadway,” the May–June issue of the Library of Congress Magazine. The entire issue is available online. It started with hearing a catchy song on a new soundtrack—and then another. Soon Kaleena Black was hooked on one of Broadway’s biggest shows. And yet Black, an education specialist at the Library …
Posted in: Collections, Manuscripts
Posted by: Mark Hartsell
Welcome to week four of our blog series for “Baseball Americana,” a major new Library of Congress exhibition opening June 29. This is the fourth of nine posts—we’re publishing one each Thursday leading up to the opening. As a bonus, we’re counting down the innings to the exhibit’s launch by asking baseball fans a question …
Posted in: Baseball, Civil Rights, Exhibitions, Manuscripts