Civil War historian Elizabeth Leonard has written a number of books about the role of women on the battlefield and the social and political reverberations of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. She's researched those books, including her soon-to-be-published title, “Benjamin Franklin Butler: A Noisy, Fearless Life,” in the Library’s Manuscript Division.
In this segment of a regular feature on authors who use the Library's collections, we interview Walter Stahr, a lawyer turned historian. His latest biography, published in 2022, is "Salmon P. Chase: Lincoln's Vital Rival," a look at the influential treasury secretary and later chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court during the mid 19th century.
For years, artist Robert Schultz has made creative reuse of historical Civil War-era images, developing photographs from the Library's Liljenquist Family Collection of Civil War Portraits in the flesh of tree and plant leaves found on former battlefields. It turned out so well that the Library has acquired some of his art.
American Indians walked the land where the nation's capital city now stands long before Europeans arrived. Local historian Armand Lione shares that history when he talks about his research, much of which is conducted at the Library of Congress.
Author Nelson Johnson, a former lawyer and judge in New Jersey, used the Library's collections to inform his bestselling "Boardwalk Empire," turned into a hit HBO series; and his new historical novel about Clarence Darrow, "Darrow's Nightmare."
Kimberly Hamlin is a history professor at Miami University in Ohio and a distinguished lecturer for the Organization of American Historians. She researched her latest book, “Free Thinker: Sex, Suffrage and the Extraordinary Life of Helen Hamilton Gardener,” in the Library’s Manuscript Division
Author and journalist Michelle Farrell researched her latest work at the Library -- the Bermuda experiences of W.W. Denslow, the original illustrator of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz." Denslow bought a small island there in the early 1900s using royalties from his works.
Charles W. Calhoun, a history professor and author, has used the Library's collections for more than half a century in his work on studying late 19th century America.
