O setting sun! though the time has come, I still warble under you, if none else does, unmitigated adoration. ~ Walt Whitman, “Song at Sunset” This picture was taken from the sixth floor balcony of the James Madison Building recently, as the sun set over Washington, D.C., bathing the sky in a lovely peach hue. […]
Half a century ago, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave motion to a powerful, peaceful movement – and his words remain deeply moving today. Here, from the Library’s photographic collections, is a photo of Dr. King shortly before he traveled with members of his family to Oslo, Norway, where in December of 1964 he received […]
This guest post is by Photography Curator Carol Johnson of the Library of Congress. The sesquicentennial of the Civil War coincides with renewed interest in 3-D images for movies, cameras, and television. Although 3-D technology seems new, stereo photography first became popular around the time of the Civil War. In fact, many Civil War photographs […]
Working-class men and women, the poor, the destitute – all individuals whom society can sometimes take for granted – held a special place for photographer Milton Rogovin. He made it his life’s work to really see them through his lens and document the humanity of those he called “the forgotten ones.” Just a few weeks […]
A forlorn-looking girl in a mourning dress holds a picture of her late father. An impossibly young soldier, probably prepubescent, stands at attention with his bayoneted musket. An African-American in Union uniform sits stoically with his wife and two daughters. A pair of uniformed comrades pose comically, each holding a cigar in the other’s mouth. […]
This is the seventh in a series of guest posts by Abigail Van Gelder, who with her husband, Josh, is journeying across the country on the Library’s “Gateway to Knowledge” traveling exhibition: We knew that Oberlin, OH was going to be a special event. Oberlin College is the alma mater of Emily Rapoport—who, with her […]
This is one of a series of guest posts by Abigail Van Gelder, who with her husband, Josh, is journeying across the country on the Library’s “Gateway to Knowledge” traveling exhibition: Congressman Charlie Wilson from Ohio stopped by to welcome guests to the Gateway To Knowledge exhibit on its first day in Marietta; he was joined […]
The Gateway to Knowledge truck pulled up at about 4:45 p.m. and is now preparing to park on the National Mall for the big day. How exciting! The cab, both dark and gleaming at the same time, the picture-perfect blue sky in the background … As I saw the rig parked in front of the […]
My colleague Erin Allen wrote the following for the Library’s in-house letter, The Gazette, and I thought it worth sharing with a wider audience: Among comic-book aficionados, psychiatrist Fredric Wertham (1895–1981) is considered as much of a villain as those he assailed in the crime and horror comics he criticized. However, Wertham was more than […]
The history of our nation — from the earliest settlers through the present day — is a story of ambition and resilience, a story of human ingenuity conquering the impossible. In its new epic series “America The Story of Us,” which premieres Sunday night (April 25) at 9 p.m. EDT, HISTORY will retell the extraordinary […]