This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam. The Manuscript Division recently joined an event with veterans and Gold Star families that became more about listening than telling, and offered powerful insights about national healing and the power of conversation in a shared space.
In summer 1921 William J. Wilgus, the brilliant engineer who had once transformed New York’s Grand Central Terminal, embarked on a desperate crusade for the salvation of his profession.
Join historian Georgetown University history professor and author, Mike Amezcua at noon (EDT) on Monday, June 26, as he discusses his new book, Making Mexican Chicago. The book explores the role Mexican Chicagoans, notably moderates and conservatives within the community, played in housing, politics, community development and urban culture while also highlighting their contributions to the larger conservative movement.
June is the birth month of Bedonkohe Apache leader Geronimo. The Library of Congress Manuscript Division holds what it believes to be is an example of his autograph on an unattributed drawing of a horse, reminders of a challenging history and relationship with the federal government, including President Theodore Roosevelt.
People with grievances often make the best preservers of the past – as in this 1801 letter from Pierre Charles L’Enfant to Alexander Hamilton, in which the architect and city planner complains that he was never paid for his work on New York’s Federal Hall in 1789.
For much of the twentieth century “coming out” carried with it a particular meaning associated with friendship, intimacy, and community. The new “Join In” exhibit explores how Americans have engaged in associational life in order “to achieve goals from simple fellowship to social change.” It also highlights the emergence of the LGBTQ community in the United States during the twentieth century.