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Archive: 2017 (37 Posts)

Map of locations of U.S. Navy Pacific Fleet (ships, planes, etc.) throughout the Pacific Ocean on December 7th, 1941.

An Inquiry into the Attack on Pearl Harbor

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 …

The cover page for the atlas.

A “Heretical” Atlas

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 …

Brown, red, and yellow tinted map illustration of the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, with a circular frame around them

The Codex Quetzalecatzin comes to the Library of Congress

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 …

Brown, red, and yellow tinted map illustration of the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, with a circular frame around them

The Elusive Nicaragua Canal

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 …

Brown, red, and yellow tinted map illustration of the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, with a circular frame around them

Take Me Out to the Ball Game!

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 …