During the Revolutionary War, George Washington approved an audacious plan to kidnap King George's third son, Prince William, then in New York, and hold him hostage -- with all the greatest respect. The attempt was never made, for which the future King William IV was grateful when he later learned of the plot.
George Washington made his living as a land surveyor from ages 17 to 20, an enterprise that took him deep into the Blue Ridge Mountains in what is now Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia. His diaries and surveying field notebooks are preserved at the Library, along with the rest of his papers, and are featured in a new exhibit, "The Two Georges."
"On Saturday, Jan. 4, Library of Congress James Madison Council chair David M. Rubenstein was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House. This is a crowning achievement for his passionate support of our nation’s history and culture and the arts." -- A special blog from Librarian Carla D. Hayden
Former president Jimmy Carter has died at the age of 100. Carter, the nation's 39th president, served from 1977 to 1981. In addition to his international peacekeeping missions, spent much of his retirement with his wife, Rosalynn, helping to build houses for the disadvantaged with the charity Habitat for Humanity. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his "decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development."
The U.S. Capitol building, the worldwide symbol of American democracy, got its beginnings on a piece of paper on the Caribbean island of Tortola, sketched out by a temperamental doctor in his early 30s. William Thornton's "Tortola Scheme" sketch laid the groundwork for a building that has expanded with the nation, growing from the original bid for a modest 15-room brick building into a complex covering 1.5 million square feet with more than 600 rooms and miles of hallways over a ground area of about 4 acres.
Two Black seamstresses have left their mark on White House fashion history, as Elizabeth Keckley and Ann Lowe designed dresses for two of the nation’s most famous first ladies, Mary Todd Lincoln and Jacqueline Kennedy, respectively. Both designers developed their craft despite the brutal influences of slavery and Jim Crow segregation. This piece tells their stories.
Christopher Oakley, a prominent film animator turned university historian, used his knowledge of computer modeling -- and his research at the LIbrary of Congress -- to help solve a small but important mystery: Where exactly did Lincoln stand while delivering his famed Gettysburg Address?
After the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, the delegates spread the word as quickly as possible by publishing it on a broadside sheet and delivering it throughout the Colonies. Copies of the Dunlap Broadside (named after the printer) are now extremely rare, with only about two dozen copies known to surive. The Library has two, one of which belonged to George Washington.
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was 60 years ago today -- August 28, 1963. We look back at that historic day, both at how it developed and its aftermath, in an era when terrorism, violence and assassinations targeted civil rights volunteers, workers and organizers.
