Top of page

Category: News

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

Library in the News: June Edition

Posted by: Erin Allen

Leading the news headlines in June was the announcement that Natasha Trethewey would return for a second term as U.S. poet laureate. “Natasha Trethewey likened her most recent poetry reading at the Library of Congress to a church revival in the South, complete with tents and believers making enough noise to make nonbelievers come in …

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

Library in the News: May Edition

Posted by: Erin Allen

Let’s take a look back at some of the headlines from last month. The Library had several celebrity visitors in May, including lots of musicians and even Swedish royalty. Making the biggest headlines was singer-songwriter Carole King accepting the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. She was feted at both the Library and …

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

Library in the News: April Edition

Posted by: Erin Allen

April was a month of honors for the Library of Congress – from feting a sports legend to honoring achievement in fiction to an all-out Grammy nod. On April 26, the Library celebrated the achievements of veteran sportscaster Bob Wolff, whose collection the institution also acquired. Outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, …

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

A Turn-of-the-Century “True Hollywood Story”

Posted by: Erin Allen

In the 1890s, illustrator Charles Dana Gibson created the “Gibson Girl,” a vibrant, new feminine ideal—a young woman who pursued higher education, romance, marriage, physical well-being and individuality with unprecedented independence. Until World War I, the Gibson Girl set the standard for beauty, fashion and manners. The Library’s new exhibition, “The Gibson Girl’s America,” which …

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

A Whale of an Acquisition

Posted by: Erin Allen

“Moby Dick,” Herman Melville’s tale of high-seas adventure, heroic determination and the power of man, has been heralded as one of the greatest novels in the English language. Now, perhaps it can be given the same commendation in picture writing. 🙂 🙁

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

National Book Festival: Save the Date, Take the Survey

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

There’s news on two fronts for you book-lovers out there: first, the 13th annual Library of Congress National Book Festival will be held on the National Mall between 9th and 14th Streets on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2013, from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2013 from noon to 5:30 p.m., rain …

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

The Feminine Mystique at 50

Posted by: Erin Allen

(The following is a guest post by Audrey Fischer, editor of the Library of Congress Magazine.) It’s been 50 years since pioneering women’s rights activist Betty Friedan stunned the nation with her controversial book, “The Feminine Mystique.” In what became known as a manifesto, Friedan urged women to eschew the cult of domesticity and address …

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

Save the Sounds

Posted by: Gayle Osterberg

During one of my first visits to the Library of Congress’s Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation, one of the division chiefs there pointed out  the 35 mm projector in the theater. He commented that the sound of 35 mm film being fed through a projector is an “endangered sound.” My furrowed brow and quizzical look …