Joseph Ball’s mid-eighteenth century letters, written from his home near London to his family in Virginia, helped maintain connections between Britain and the American colonies. They also show how the institution of slavery operated in the world where George Washington was born.
In honor of Pride Month, the recently acquired personal papers of best-selling Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, essayist, literary critic, and teacher Mary Oliver (1935-2019) are now open to researchers in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division.
On the 100th anniversary of the Immigration Act of 1924, the case of Gin Foo Wong highlights how Asian immigrants attempted to circumvent the law’s nativist policies through the tactic of creating “paper” sons and daughters.
Manuscript Division intern Maureen S. Thompson describes the experience of locating African Americans in the Blair Family Papers, and highlights some of the notable documents she discovered.