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Posted by: Carla D. Hayden
What is a library? “A quiet place for study and reflection” is one answer that might spring to mind. If you take advantage of story times and author talks, you might say, “A social place for programs and gatherings.” Our view here at the Library of Congress is the image of a treasure chest, filled …
Posted in: LC Web site, Libraries, New Online, New Visitors Experience
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
This is a guest post by Anne Holmes of the Poetry and Literature Center. It was first published on “From the Catbird Seat,” the center’s blog. This summer, we kicked off our refreshed “Poetry of America” series with a selection of new recordings. Originally launched in 2013 as a counterpart to the Library’s “Songs of …
Posted in: New Online, Poetry
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
This is a guest post by Sonya Lee, a Korean reference specialist in the Asian Division, and Cameron Penwell, a Japanese reference librarian. The Library’s Asian Division is home to one of the most prominent North Korean collections in the Western Hemisphere. While a growing number of scholars have been making use of this unique …
Posted in: Collections, New Online
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, New Online, 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, New Online
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, New Online
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
This is a guest post by Beverly Brannan, curator of photography; Adam Silvia, associate curator of photography; and Helena Zinkham, chief of the Prints and Photographs Division. It was first published on “Picture This,” the division’s blog. The Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles has created a lively exhibition called “Not an Ostrich: And …
Posted in: Collections, Exhibitions, New Online, Photos
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
This is a guest post by Michelle Krowl, a historian in the Manuscript Division. The papers of Joseph Holt (1807–94), now available online, document his career as a lawyer, commissioner of patents, United States postmaster general, secretary of war and judge advocate general of the United States Army. Holt is best known for his service …
Posted in: Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, Collections, Manuscripts, New Online
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
This is a guest post by Julie Miller, a historian in the Manuscript Division. The papers of Benjamin Franklin at the Library of Congress have had almost as adventurous a life as Franklin had himself. They have been abandoned and recovered, cut up by a dressmaker to make patterns and used as collateral for debt. …
Posted in: Collections, Manuscripts, New Online