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Archive: 2024 (7 Posts)

The capitol building at Williamsburg, Virginia, where the House of Burgesses met.

George Washington and the “Spirit of Association”

Posted by: Julie Miller

Filed with the correspondence in the George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress are six printed copies of an agreement to boycott British goods that Washington, then a Virginia burgess representing Fairfax County, brought to his constituents to sign. The agreement, crafted by the colony’s House of Burgesses (the lower house of Virginia’s colonial …

Portrait of Dr. Ruth smiling wearing red blouse with glasses and necklace.

“On the Air” and in the Archives: The Dr. Ruth Westheimer Papers

Posted by: Julie Miller

The newly opened papers of sex therapist and talk show host Ruth Westheimer contain thousands of letters sent by listeners of her radio program and viewers of her television show, providing insight into the sexual frustrations and obsessions of the 1980s. They also document the dynamic rise in popularity of “Dr. Ruth.”

Book jacket on left with author's headshot on right

Made at the Library with Cassandra Good, author of First Family: George Washington’s Heirs and the Making of America

Posted by: Julie Miller

George Washington is widely known to have had no biological children of his own. Less well known is his role in raising several of the children and grandchildren of Martha Washington’s marriage to her first husband, Daniel Parke Custis. In this informal conversation with Manuscript Division curator Julie Miller and archivist Kate Madison, Cassandra Good, …

Engraved portrait bust of Frederick Douglass, three-quarter view, hands folded.

Show Frederick Douglass some love: Transcribe his letters for Douglass Day on February 14

Posted by: Julie Miller

Library of Congress volunteer transcription program By the People, in collaboration with the Center for Black Digital History at Pennsylvania State University, invites you to join a Douglass Day transcribe-a-thon focused on letters from the Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress!