Jan Grinci, a reference specialist for posters in the Prints and Photographs Division, describes her work in researching, preserving and curating the Library's dazzling collection of posters.
Monica Varner is collections manager for the Rare Book and Special Collections Division.This article appeared in the Library’s Gazette. Tell us about your background. I grew up in Arlington, Virginia, and went to H-B Woodlawn Secondary Program (“Hippie High”) before heading down to Lynchburg, Virginia, to study art history at Randolph College. During college, I spent a …
Jeffrey Lofton is senior adviser to the Library’s chief human capital officer. Tell us about your background. I hail from Warm Springs, Georgia, best known as the home of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Little White House and ubiquitous red claylike soil. I attended LaGrange College and studied the more-useful-than-I-imagined triad: speech, communications and theater. Later, I …
Describe your work at the Library. I’m the chief of the Visitor Engagement Office. I oversee a team of people — both staff and volunteers — who welcome thousands of visitors to the Library’s public spaces and exhibitions each day. In addition to acting as front-line customer service, we also help visitors connect to the …
Ashley Jones is a visual information specialist in the Office of Communications. She designs the Library of Congress Magazine, the Gazette and other publications. Tell us about your background. I grew up in Baltimore County, Maryland. Art has always been a part of my life. I credit my elementary school art teacher with igniting my …
Rachel Wetzel works in the Library's conservation lab, where she treats, assesses and preserves photos from across the Library, many of which are more than a century old. Many of these are torn, degraded, broken or otherwise damaged. They're printed on a varity of surfaces with different chemical compositions. It's a delicate job, as she often works on prints from the earliest days of photography.
Mark Horowitz, a senior specialist in the Music Division's acquisitions and processing section, tells us about his job in acquiring and preserving some of the most famous works in American musical theater. Among other high-profile projects, he's worked with Stephen Sondheim, Lin-Manuel Miranda and has an upcoming book on his research into the papers of Oscar Hammerstein.
We chat with Elizabeth Novara, historian of women and gender in the Manuscript Division, about her work. It's part of an ongoing series of librarians, their work and how they came to do it.
The Library's concert producer Michele Glymph helps bring music to the masses, producing concerts by some of the biggest names in popular music: Stevie Wonder, Dolly Parton, Paul McCartney, Garth Brooks, Willie Nelson, Shirley Caesar, Billy Joel and Gloria and Emilio Estefan.