Every year, the Library of Congress announces the addition of 25 films to the National Film Registry, and every year, media outlets far and wide run stories on the initiative. According to a Google search on the story, more than 230 news articles highlighted the selections for 2013. “To me, this honor goes on the same …
Making a splash in the news headlines was the public opening of The Seth MacFarlane Collection of the Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan Archive. The Library of Congress hosted MacFarlane, Druyan, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye “The Science Guy” and a host of other scientists and educators during a special event in Nov. 12. Full …
Today marks the 80th anniversary of the end of Prohibition. On Dec. 5, 1933, the United States repealed the nationwide prohibition on alcoholic beverages, by ratifying the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. And, while the masses may have raised their glasses, there were certainly those among them not happy with the decision. Temperance activists …
The Library of Congress has made headlines in the last month with a variety of initiatives and projects, including some of its preservation efforts. In early September, the Library ran a blog post discussing some work its Preservation Directorate was doing to conserve its pulp-fiction magazine collection. CBS News picked up the story to run in …
Purchased through an act of Congress in 1867, the Peter Force Library became the foundation of the Library’s Americana collections. As the nation sought to reconstruct the Union after the Civil War, so, too, did the Library of Congress seek to build a collection that documented fully America’s history. At the time, the nearly 100,000 volumes …
August saw the opening of two new exhibitions at the Library of Congress. On Aug. 14, the Library exhibition “A Night at the Opera” debuted followed by “A Day Like No Other: 50 Years After the March on Washington” on Aug. 28. Both exhibitions received a variety of headlines. “They came to Washington, D.C. with …
News of Library of Congress acquisitions and initiatives led the headlines in July, with stories on the recent donation of the Lilli Vincenz papers and work of the Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation to preserve television. “History is written by the victors, but also by the scrapbookers, the collectors, the keepers, the pack rats. By those …
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 …
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 …