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Posted by: Neely Tucker
"A Soldier's Journey," a new bronze statue, was recently unveiled at the World War I Memorial in Washington, D.C.'s Pershing Park. An excerpt from "The Young Dead Soldiers Do Not Speak," a poem by former Librarian of Congress Archibald MacLeish, adorns another wall at the park. Both mark a fitting tribute to the nation's fallen soldiers this Memorial Day.
Posted in: Gazette, Library Work and Employees, Photos, World War II, Writers
Posted by: Neely Tucker
For a brief time before the success of “Invisible Man,” Ralph Ellison worked as a freelance photographer. He took portraits for publishers and covered events for newspapers. Even after he became celebrated as a novelist, he still took photography seriously, sometimes collaborating with landmark photographer Gordon Parks. His photographs are preserved at the Library alongside his literary works.
Posted in: African American History, LCM, Manuscripts, Photos, Writers
Posted by: Neely Tucker
This is a guest post by Helena Zinkham, chief of the Prints and Photographs Division. It also appears in the July-August issue of Library of Congress Magazine. Greetings from Washington, D.C.! And from Gordon, Nebraska; Black River Falls, Wisconsin; San Francisco, California; and countless other big cities and tiny hamlets spread across the vastness of …
Posted in: LCM, Library Work and Employees, Photos, Prints and Photographs Division
Posted by: Neely Tucker
"The Exhibit of American Negroes" was a display of hundreds of photographs, charts and graphs detailing the lives of Black Americans at the 1900 Paris Exposition, or world's fair. It was put together by W.E.B. Du Bois, Thomas Calloway and Daniel A.P. Murray, three major activists and educators of the era (Murray worked for the Library). Here, we look at three photographs of women that Du Bois selected for the exhibition.
Posted in: African American History, Exhibitions, Free to Use and Reuse, Library Work and Employees, Photos
Posted by: Neely Tucker
After Orville Wright's death in 1948, his estate donated a vast collection of his papers to the Library, including more than 300 glass plate and nitrate negatives of photographs taken (mostly) by the brothers between 1897 and 1928; images that provide an important and fascinating record of their home lives and of their attempts to fly. His "success house," Hawthorn Hill, is in many of these photos and is today a museum.
Posted in: Free to Use and Reuse, LCM, Photos
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Since 2006, the Library’s Teaching with Primary Sources program has been empowering educators to make use of the Library’s digitized collections in a vast array of subjects. Lee Ann Potter, the Library's director of educational outreach, writes about several schools that use historical documents, photographs, maps and other resources to help students gain an understanding of the past.
Posted in: Farm Security Administration Photographs, Kids, LCM, Photos
Posted by: Neely Tucker
It’s Hispanic Heritage Month, which makes it an excellent time to check in on the Library's collection of Free to Use and Reuse images, this time from a set devoted to Hispanic life and culture. We look at two photos of two young Mexican women who came to work in the U.S. One is of a mural devoted to the legendary actress Delores del Río, the first Latina to become a Hollywood icon. The second is Dorothea Lange's unforgettable Depression-era image of the daughter of a Mexican field laborer in rural Arizona.
Posted in: Farm Security Administration Photographs, Free to Use and Reuse, Hispanic American History, Hispanic and Latino, Performing Arts, Photos
Posted by: Neely Tucker
The Library's Free to Use and Reuse sets of curated prints and photographs include subjects such as travel, autumn and Halloween, weddings, movie palaces and dozens more. This set of athletes in action include baseball icon Jackie Robinson, early race car driver Joan Newton Cuneo and women hurdlers.
Posted in: Free to Use and Reuse, Photos, Women's History
Posted by: Neely Tucker
The Library's Veterans History Project houses thousands of photographs taken by U.S. soldiers. Joseph Beimfohr's photos let viewers peek into his war experiences in Iraq -- a time that included losing both legs in an explosion. The Library's latest research guide to military photos includes thousands taken in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Posted in: Photos, Veterans History Project