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Posted by: Julie Stoner
Every month on our home page, we provide a monthly list of maps that have been scanned and added to the online collections of the Geography and Map Division. To celebrate the end of the year and to ring in the new, I took a look back at the lists of maps that have been …
Posted in: Exploring the Early Americas, Geography and Map Division, Series: A Year in Review
Posted by: Ed Redmond
This is part of a series of posts documenting the cartographic history of maps related to the American Civil War, 1861-1865. The posts will appear on a regular basis. Despite the ongoing ravages of the war, as 1861 drew to a close, many northerners seemed to be optimistic, at the very least, about the safety …
Posted in: American History, Military History, Series: Places in Civil War History
Posted by: Julie Stoner
Where is the lowest point on dry land? Or the northernmost inhabited point on earth? How about the highest city? All of these questions and many more will be unraveled in this new occasional series, Extremities of the Earth, created to explore the farthest reaches of our planet. For this inaugural post for the series, …
Posted in: Exploration, Series: Extremities of the Earth
Posted by: Ryan Moore
In the morning hours of December 7, 1941, 76 years ago today, the Japanese Imperial Navy launched a stunning and destructive attack on the American Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. On that “date which will live in infamy,” as President Franklin D. Roosevelt remarked, hundreds of Japanese planes attacked in waves. Four American battleships were …
Posted in: American History, Military History
Posted by: Cynthia Smith
Within the Geography and Map Division’s collections are 42 versions of Ptolemy’s Geography, which is a landmark atlas and treatise on geographic knowledge from the 2nd century, and an influential work in the study of geography and cartography thereafter. These versions are atlases published in the 15th and 16th centuries based off of Ptolemy’s original …
Posted in: 16th century cartography, European History
Posted by: John Hessler
Writing is a strange invention. One might suppose that its emergence could not fail to bring profound changes in the conditions of human existence… –Claude Levi-Strauss, Tristes Tropiques Time and money are spent in collecting the remains …
Posted in: Exploring the Early Americas, Kislak Collection, Manuscripts, Series: Excavating Archaeology
Posted by: Tim St. Onge
For over one hundred years, the Panama Canal has been a world-renowned marvel of engineering, creating a vital shipping link between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. But at the turn of the 20th century, if it were not for some eleventh hour political maneuvering, and perhaps a very persuasive postage stamp, perhaps the famous canal …
Posted in: 19th century cartography, 20th century cartography
Posted by: Tim St. Onge
Join us for GIS Day at the Library of Congress, Tuesday, November 14th, for a full day of talks highlighting GIS technology and its impact on the work of policymakers, researchers, and librarians on Capitol Hill and beyond! The GIS Day morning session will feature a keynote address by Congressman Mark Takano, of California, on …
Posted in: Events, Geographic Information Science
Posted by: Julie Stoner
The following post is by Mike Buscher, head of the Reference Team in the Geography and Map Division. This baseball postseason has been a particularly exciting time for baseball fans. The first five games of the 2017 World Series have truly been an “October Classic,” featuring two teams that have not appeared in a World …
Posted in: Guest Posts