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Posted by: Neely Tucker
In the spring of 1868, with the nation awash in loss and grief following the Civil War, veterans of the Union Army set May 30 as a day “for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion.” An instant success, it evolved into Memorial Day.
Posted in: Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, Manuscripts, U.S. Presidents, Washington DC
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
This article also appears in the March-April issue of the Library of Congress Magazine. The Thomas Jefferson Building has awed visitors ever since it opened its doors in 1897. The grand building is more than a marvel of art and architecture, though; it’s also a monument to function and safety — fire safety in particular. …
Posted in: Architecture, Capitol Hill, LCM, Libraries, Library Work and Employees, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington DC
Posted by: April Slayton
When the Library of Congress began in 1800, it had 152 works in 740 volumes. Also, there were three maps. Today, as its 225th birthday arrives, the Library has amassed more than 181 million items from around the world, forming what is widely considered to be the greatest collection of knowledge ever assembled. How did it happen? This story walks readers through the Library's fascinating history.
Posted in: Alexander Hamilton, Collections, Copyright, LCM, Libraries, Library Work and Employees, Maps, National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Building, Washington DC
Posted by: Neely Tucker
From saplings to centenarians, the fabled cherry blossom trees of Washington, D.C., entice more than 1.5 million visitors to the capital each spring. The initial 1912 gift of 3,020 cherry trees from the city of Tokyo to Washington launched such treasured and enduring traditions as the National Cherry Blossom Festival, which officially began in 1927. We look at some of the marvelous festival posters that have advertised and celebrated the festival.
Posted in: Asian American, LCM, Library Work and Employees, Prints and Photographs Division, Publishing Office, Washington DC
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Recreating Thomas Jefferson's personal library, which became the DNA of the Library of Congress, has been a fascination for antiquarians since an 1851 fire burned about two thirds of his original books. But for 27 years, one of the Library’s most ardent projects has been to examine its own stacks, other libraries, rare book dealers and antiquarians from multiple countries to replace the burned and missing volumes with exact copies — the same edition, publisher and so on — to replicate the world view that led the author of the Declaration of Independence to pen such a world-changing set of ideas. That effort is now getting as close to complete as it is ever likely to get.
Posted in: LCM, Library Work and Employees, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Building, U.S. Presidents, Washington DC, Writers
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Because George Washington and King George III were on opposite sides of America’s war of independence from Britain, we have learned to think of them as opposites. Our research for an upcoming Library of Congress exhibition, “The Two Georges: Parallel Lives in an Age of Revolution,” however, has turned up something much more interesting: They were surprisingly alike in temperament, interests and, despite the obvious differences in their lives and experiences.
Posted in: American Revolution, Exhibitions, George Washington, LCM, Manuscripts, Researcher Stories, U.S. Presidents, Washington DC
Posted by: Neely Tucker
A family Bible in Washington, looted by a British soldier during the War of 1812 and kept in his family for generations, was eventually returned to the nation more than a century later. It is now preserved by the Library, an artifact of two nations of war and then in peace.
Posted in: American Revolution, LCM, Rare Book and Special Collections, Washington DC
Posted by: Neely Tucker
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."
Posted in: Civil Rights, U.S. Presidents, Washington DC
Posted by: Neely Tucker
In the winter of 1906, Mark Twain was a tired and grieving man. He was 71. The past dozen years had been brutal. He had gone bankrupt in the mid-1890s. Then his 24-year-old daughter died from spinal meningitis. Then his beloved wife, Olivia, suffered through years of heart trouble before dying at age 58 in …
Posted in: Copyright, Photos, Today in History, Uncategorized, Washington DC, Writers