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Posted by: Mark Hartsell
Before he boarded the ship carrying prisoners of war across the ocean to a forced-labor camp, George Washington Pearcy divided his diary and gave the pieces to two comrades staying behind. If he didn’t survive the journey, Pearcy hoped, his story somehow would. Pearcy, a POW held by the Japanese during World War II, never …
Posted in: American Folklife Center, Collections, History, Manuscripts, Veterans History Project
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is a story featured in the May/June 2016 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine, LCM. You can read the issue in its entirety here. The story was written by August and Clare Imholtz, who have been collecting “Alice” books for more than 30 years. Clare is also a volunteer in the Library’s …
Posted in: Books, Collections, Copyright, History, LCM, Manuscripts
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is written by Michelle Krowl, a historian in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division.) On May 10, 1867 Colonel Nathan W. Daniels celebrated his 31st birthday. He noted in his diary, “Learned to day that I had been recommended and nominated by Chief Justice Chase as Register under the Bankrupt Act for the …
Posted in: Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, Collections, Curators, History, LC Web site, Manuscripts
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is a guest post by William Kellum, manager in the Library’s Web Services Division.) DIGITIZED COLLECTIONS New online this month are two manuscript collections featuring the poet Walt Whitman. The Thomas Biggs Harned Collection of Walt Whitman papers consists of approximately 3,000 items spanning the period 1842-1937. Most of the items date from 1855, …
Posted in: Blogging, Collections, History, LC Web site, Manuscripts, New Online, Technology
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following blog post is by Julie Miller, early American historian in the Manuscript Division.) How did 18th-century Americans pay for their medical care? A leather-bound volume of patient payments kept by Philadelphia physician William Shippen Jr. between 1775 and 1793 helps answer this question. The volume is in the Shippen Family Papers in the Manuscript …
Posted in: Collections, Curators, History, Manuscripts
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is an article from the March/April 2016 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine, LCM. You can read the issue in its entirety here.) Music Division Curator Larry Appelbaum highlights items from the Library’s exhibition “Jazz Singers.” BILLIE HOLIDAY No matter how many times I’ve seen this iconic portrait of Ms. Holiday by …
Posted in: Audiovisual, Capitol Hill, Collections, Curators, Exhibitions, History, LC Web site, LCM, Manuscripts, Music, Washington DC
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is a guest post by Sharon Horowitz, reference librarian in the Hebraic Section of the African and Middle Eastern Division.) Exodus 23:15 tells us that Passover should be celebrated in the spring. The rabbis understood this to mean it was their job to maintain the holiday in the spring, which required some manipulation …
Posted in: Books, Collections, Curators, Education, Events, Jewish American History, Manuscripts
Posted by: Jennifer Gavin
Four hundred years ago this weekend, two of the greatest geniuses in wordcraft this world has ever seen both died: William Shakespeare and Miguel de Cervantes. Shakespeare’s plays still dazzle, written though they are in Elizabethan English and iambic pentameter; their story lines are still fresh enough to inspire endless straight-play performance worldwide, Broadway musicals …
Posted in: Books, Collections, Copyright, Education, History, Libraries, Manuscripts, Poetry, Preservation
Posted by: Erin Allen
(The following is a guest post by William Kellum, manager in the Library’s Web Services Division.) The Manuscript Division has added two collections to its growing list of Civil War materials now available online. The papers of army officer Philip Henry Sheridan (1831-1888) span the years 1853-1896, although the majority of the material dates from …
Posted in: Audiovisual, Civil War, Collections, LC Web site, Manuscripts, Music, New Online, Veterans History Project