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Category: Maps

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

New Acquisition: Extremely Rare Mesoamerican Manuscript

Posted by: Benny Seda-Galarza

The Codex Quetzalecatzin, an extremely rare Mesoamerican manuscript acquired by the Library’s Geography and Map Division, explores the extent, the people and the history of northern Oaxaca and Southern Puebla in Mexico. Held in private collections for more than 100 years, the codex has been digitally preserved by the Library and made available to the public online for …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

New Online: Mapping the U.S., Block by Block

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

Located midway between Tucson and Phoenix, Casa Grande, Arizona, now has a population of about 50,000, making it fairly small by today’s standards for cities. But it’s a lot bigger than it used to be. In 1898, only 200 people lived alongside the Southern Pacific railroad tracks there. Besides scattered dwellings, Casa Grande had a …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Gallery Talk: The Libertine Life of Abel Buell

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

This is a guest post by Kimberli Curry, exhibition director in the Interpretive Programs Office. Library of Congress specialists often give presentations about ongoing Library exhibitions. We are pleased to introduce a new blog series, “Galley Talks,” featuring content from these presentations. This first post relates to the exhibition “Mapping a New Nation: Abel Buell’s Map of …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

New Book: “Picturing America: The Golden Age of Pictorial Maps”

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

Designed to educate, amuse or advertise, pictorial maps were a clever and colorful component of print culture in the mid-20th century, often overlooked in studies of cartography. A new book published by the Library of Congress in association with the University of Chicago Press, “Picturing America: The Golden Age of Pictorial Maps,” by Stephen J. …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

World War I: Restoring Poland

Posted by: Erin Allen

(The following guest post is by Ryan Moore, a cartographic specialist in the Geography and Map Division.) Prior to World War I, Poland was a memory, and its territory was divided among the empires of Germany, Russia and Austro-Hungary; these powers along with France and Great Britain were wrestling for dominance of the continent, as …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

World War I: Understanding the War at Sea Through Maps

Posted by: Erin Allen

(The following guest post is by Ryan Moore, a cartographic specialist in the Geography and Map Division.) Soldiers leaping from trenches and charging into an apocalyptic no man’s land dominate the imagination when it comes to World War I. However, an equally dangerous and strategically critical war at sea was waged between the Central Powers …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Library in the News: December 2016 Edition

Posted by: Erin Allen

Happy New Year! Let’s look back on some of the Library’s headlines in December. Topping the news was the announcement of the new selections to the National Film Registry. Outlets really picked up on the heavy 80s influence of the list. “It’s loaded with millennials,” said Christie D’Zurilla of The Los Angeles Times. “Ten of …