Glen Campbell's hit recording of "Wichita Lineman" is one of the inductees into the National Recording Registry. Here's how Campbell, songwriter Jimmy Webb and studio musicians put the song together.
Roman Totenberg's papers at the Library tell the story of his amazing 101-year life. Born in Poland in 1911, he was a child prodigy on the violin, playing street corners in Russia to help his family survive famine. He returned to Poland, became a star while a teenager, eventually fled the Holocaust and became one of the 20th century's greatest violinists, living the rest of his life in the United States. He was as renowned as a teacher as he was a performer, and his three children -- Nina, Amy, Jill -- each went on to prominent careers.
The Library now has four more original scores by jazz musician Charles Mingus, adding to our collection of his life's work. They were donated by his widow, Sue Mingus.
Kermit the Frog stops in to chat with Librarian Carla Hayden about his induction into the 2020 class of the National Recording Registry with his banjo-strumming ballad, "The Rainbow Connection" from 1979's "The Muppet Movie."
The 2020 class of the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress incudes hits from Janet Jackson, Nas, Jackson Browne, Flaco Jimenez, Jimmy Cliff, newscast recordings and one of the first recordings of an American voice, by Thomas Edison, in 1878,
After the Union victory at Gettysburg in the Civil War in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln asked the nation set aside the fourth Thursday of November as a national holiday of thanksgiving. Congress made it official in 1870.
Theater historian Jennifer Ashley Tepper writes about how she used the Library's collections to research the musicals of Johnathan Larson, author of "Rent" and others.