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Category: Washington DC

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

The “Essential” Opera

Posted by: Erin Allen

There are so many things about the upcoming Library of Congress exhibition, “A Night at the Opera,” that I feel personally connected to. Several of the operas highlighted in the 50-item display are like a program of operas I have sung in my last few seasons as part of The Washington Chorus. Each season, we …

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

Inquiring Minds: Studying Decolonization

Posted by: Erin Allen

(The following is a guest post by Jason Steinhauer, program specialist in the Library’s John W. Kluge Center.) Each year the International Seminar on Decolonization, sponsored by the National History Center (NHC) and hosted by The John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress, brings together young historians from the United States and abroad to …

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, …

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

Inquiring Minds: An Interview with Author Jason Emerson

Posted by: Erin Allen

Jason Emerson is a journalist and an independent historian who has been researching and writing about the Lincoln family for nearly 20 years. He is a former National Park Service park ranger at the Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield, Ill. His previous books include “The Madness of Mary Lincoln,” “Lincoln the Inventor” and …

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

Library in the News: June Edition

Posted by: Erin Allen

Leading the news headlines in June was the announcement that Natasha Trethewey would return for a second term as U.S. poet laureate. “Natasha Trethewey likened her most recent poetry reading at the Library of Congress to a church revival in the South, complete with tents and believers making enough noise to make nonbelievers come in …

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

Story Time Returns at the Young Readers Center

Posted by: Jennifer Gavin

The author Pat Mora has a word for it: Bookjoy. If you’re a lover of books, you won’t have to look that up in a dictionary – you’ll just know, instinctively, what it is.  But where were you when you first experienced the joy of books? Odds are it was on your mom’s, dad’s or …