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Posted by: Neely Tucker
The Library of Congress celebrates its 220th birthday on April 24, 2020. It was begun with a $5,000 appropriation to buy 740 books and three maps on this date in 1800. It is now the largest library in world history.
Posted in: Newspapers, Thomas Jefferson Building, Today in History
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
Poet Maya Angelou’s debut memoir, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” is her most famous work. The coming-of-age story has influenced writers and touched millions of people. Yet its title is not original to Angelou: She borrowed it from a poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar that he composed, at least in part, in response …
Posted in: Film, Poetry, Researcher Stories, Thomas Jefferson Building
Posted by: Neely Tucker
The dome of the Jefferson Building, framed by cherry blossoms.
Posted in: Photos, Pic of the Week, Thomas Jefferson Building
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Tracy K. Smith concluded her remarkable term as U.S. Poet Laureate with a speech and on-stage conversation at the Library of Congress Monday night, capping two years of travel, podcasts and community conversations across the nation.
Posted in: Books, Events, Thomas Jefferson Building
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
Today, the Library of Congress celebrates its 218th birthday. On April 24, 1800, President John Adams approved an appropriation of $5,000 for the purchase of “such books as may be necessary for the use of [C]ongress.” The first books purchased were ordered from London and arrived in 1801. The collection of 740 volumes and three …
Posted in: Capitol Hill, Libraries, Thomas Jefferson Building
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
This post is by Zein Al-Maha Oweis, a summer intern in the Library’s Communications Office. You know that feeling when Belle from “Beauty and the Beast” walks into the beast’s library of books from around the world—the gleam in her eyes that shows you she is amazed to see so many books creatively filled with …
Posted in: Books, Collections, Exhibitions, Thomas Jefferson Building
Posted by: Erin Allen
This is a guest post by Cheryl Fox, Library of Congress archives specialist in the Manuscript Division. The Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building is bordered by a number of impressive trees. One of them, a Japanese elm at the southwest corner of the building, was planted on Dec. 7, 1920, in memory of four Library of …
Posted in: Books, Capitol Hill, Collections, Curators, History, Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington DC
Posted by: Erin Allen
The Young Readers Center in the Library of Congress hosted a series of events Jan. 28 to celebrate its new Saturday hours of operation, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The center, which opened in October 2009, will offer more young people and their families the opportunity to experience the wonders and resources of the nation’s library. “It …
Posted in: Books, Capitol Hill, Education, Libraries, Photos, Pic of the Week, Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington DC
Posted by: Erin Allen
The Library is highlighting presidential inauguration history in a temporary display on view through Saturday, Feb. 4 in the rooms known as Mahogany Row, LJ-110 to LJ-113, on the first floor of the Thomas Jefferson Building. Presidential treasures like the handwritten speeches of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln are featured along with collections on …
Posted in: Capitol Hill, Collections, Curators, Exhibitions, History, Manuscripts, Photos, Pic of the Week, Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington DC