The Library houses the legendary jazz photography of William P. Gottlieb, who photographed the biggest names in the business -- Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan -- at the height of the music's popularity.
Welcome to week three of our blog series for “Baseball Americana,” a major new Library of Congress exhibition opening June 29. This is the third of nine posts – we’re publishing one each Thursday leading up to the opening. This week, in recognition of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, we’re highlighting Library collections that document …
This post draws on the article “Pulling Together for Tubman,” published in the January–February issue of LCM, the Library of Congress Magazine. The issue is available in its entirety online. Newly discovered portraits of long-famous Americans rarely surface—especially 150 years after they were made. Last spring, however, a U.S. auction house put up for bid …
This post draws on the article “Building Black History: A New View of Tubman,” published in the January–February issue of LCM, the Library of Congress Magazine. The issue is available in its entirety online. A remarkable photo album brought two major institutions together to restore and preserve an important piece of American history. Today, the …
Half the world, journalist Jacob Riis once said, doesn’t know how the other half lives, and it doesn’t know because it doesn’t care. Riis, a social reformer, author and newspaper reporter, used his work to make society take notice, exposing the squalid living and working conditions in late 19th-century New York during the height of …
Last Wednesday, the Library of Congress celebrated the music and career of singer-songwriter Billy Joel, awarding him the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. A star-studded cast walked a packed house at the DAR Constitution Hall through Joel’s own songbook during a tribute concert. I myself had the honor and privilege to also take the stage as a …