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Posted by: Neely Tucker
Mark Dimunation, the head of the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, writes about the famous last seance that attempted to reach the ghost of Harry Houdini, atop the Knickerbocker Hotel on Halloween, 1936.
Posted in: Halloween, Rare Book and Special Collections
Posted by: Neely Tucker
We first ran this piece last year at Halloween. It proved so popular year-round that we reprint it this Halloween season. It was co-researched and co-written by digital library specialist Elizabeth Gettins, who also had the brilliant idea for the piece. An ancient tome delving into the dark arts of witchcraft and magic…a book …
Posted in: Books, Halloween, Rare Book and Special Collections, Shakespeare
Posted by: Neely Tucker
The Library has a pair of the 15th century's most influential books on the alleged practices of witchcraft, both from the era when alleged witches were tortured and killed.
Posted in: Halloween, Rare Book and Special Collections
Posted by: Neely Tucker
The Library's newest crowdsourcing campaign are the vast notebooks of Frederick Hockley, a 19th century British Spiritualist who believed he could communicate with the dead.
Posted in: By the People, Manuscripts, Rare Book and Special Collections
Posted by: Neely Tucker
The Library's Rare Book and Special Collections Division holds a dazzling array of 15th-century woodcuts. Taken together, they display the experimentation of artistry and design in the years following the invention of the printing press.
Posted in: Rare Book and Special Collections, Researcher Stories
Posted by: Neely Tucker
In 1619, German astronomer Johannes Kepler wrote “Harmonices Mundi” (“Harmony of the Worlds”), a book that tried to understand the mystery of the polyhedral designs of viruses. Four centuries later, the same designs are seen in the building blocks of COVID-19. The Library has copies of Kepler's work in the Rare Books and Special Collections Division.
Posted in: COVID-19, Geography and Maps Division, Rare Book and Special Collections, Science
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Nearly 50,000 title pages that accompanied copyright registrations dating back to the foundation of the country are now online for the first time, featuring works by some of the nation's most famous authors.
Posted in: Copyright, Rare Book and Special Collections
Posted by: Neely Tucker
French zoologist Pierre Belon began modern scientific study of fish in 1551 with the publication of "L'historie naturelle des estranges poissons marins," or, "The Natural History of Strange Marine Fish."
Posted in: Rare Book and Special Collections, Science
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Reginald Scot's 1584 book, "The Discoverie of Witchcraft" is one of the most influential books on magic ever published. The Library of Congress has a first edition.
Posted in: Books, Rare Book and Special Collections, Shakespeare