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Stay Up With A Good Book

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

The Library of Congress National Book Festival, as you’ve no doubt heard, is going to a new place in 2014 — the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. — on Saturday, Aug. 30 from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. As always, it will be free and open to the public, courtesy of the …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Ten Thousand Treasures

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

The World Digital Library – a website of world cultural treasures offered free of charge in seven languages to anyone on the planet with access to the Internet – has put up its 10,000th offering. It was part of a package, actually – a group of rare manuscripts from the collections of the Walters Art …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Calling Mr. Wolfe

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

Quick: what do the movies “Mary Poppins” and “Pulp Fiction” have in common? Well, yes, they’re both motion pictures.  But now, both are listed on the Library of Congress National Film Registry, a collection of films – 25 are added each year – deemed worthy of preservation due to their cultural, historic or aesthetic significance. …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

The Sound of Drums

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

On Friday, November 22, 1963, the students in Mrs. Maxwell’s third-grade class at Sabin Elementary School in southwest Denver got a singular history lesson: the news came in that President John F. Kennedy had been murdered. Janet Maxwell, a popular young instructor who taught 25 kids reading, math, science and history by turns, was trying …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

You’ve Heard The Phrase “100-Year Storm?”

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

As the world turns its sympathy toward the Philippine islands devastated, just days ago, by the largest typhoon in recorded history, a fascinating fact has emerged and moved explosively across the Internet: Just over a century ago, those same islands – indeed that same nearly destroyed town on the island of Leyte, Tacloban – were …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

One Day, 15 Hours, 53 Minutes and Counting …

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

The Library of Congress National Book Festival is just hours away! It’s free … it’s open to the public on the National Mall … and it’s got fun and fascination for readers of all ages and tastes. No fewer than 112 stellar authors – historians, novelists, children’s and teens’ authors, poets, biographers, illustrators and graphic …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

March on Washington Riches at the Library of Congress

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

Celebrants observing the 50thanniversary of the March on Washington should not miss special displays of artifacts, treasures and a talk by Congressman John Lewis on Wednesday, Aug. 28, all at the Library of Congress and all free and open to the public. Opening that day is the Library’s photo exhibition, “A Day Like No Other, …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Witnesses to History, Keepers of the Flame

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

This is a guest post by Cheryl Fox of the Library’s Manuscript Division The First Battle of Bull Run/Manassas (July 21, 1861) set many precedents in American history—key troops were transported by train, battle reconnaissance was attempted via observation balloon, battle scenes were sketched and the battle’s aftermath, photographed to be published in newspapers.  And …

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

Ink-Stained Riches

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

This year’s casting call for the Library of Congress National Book Festival is complete, and our lineup for the free event Sept. 21 and 22 will include writers Don DeLillo, Joyce Carol Oates and Khaled Hosseini, graphic novelists Lynda Barry, Fred Chao, Jonathan Hennessey, Gilbert Hernandez and Jaime Hernandez, and authors Linda Ronstadt, Christopher Buckley, …