This is the first in series of guests posts by Giselle Aviles, the 2019 Archaeological Research Associate in the Geography and Map Division, where she is delving into the treasures of the Jay I. Kislak Collection of the History and Archaeology of the Early Americas. Captivated by the nuances in sociocultural texts, she is undertaking […]
The latest Story Maps from the Library of Congress detail some of the fascinating adventures and technological innovations of early photography! Story Maps are immersive, interactive web applications that showcase the incredible stories of Library of Congress collections through text, images, multimedia, and interactive maps. You can find all Library of Congress Story Maps at […]
At this time last year, I shared a blog post reviewing maps that had been newly digitized that year. To celebrate the end of 2018 and to ring in 2019, I decided to continue the tradition and take a look back at the lists of maps that were scanned this past year and choose just […]
During the winter of 1776-1777, two key battles became an important turning point for George Washington’s Continental Army and the American struggle against the vaunted British Empire. In this blog post we will explore three maps that depict the Battles of Trenton and Princeton, all from different collections in the division and drawn by various […]
According to lore, the very first Thanksgiving was celebrated in what is today Plymouth, Massachusetts. The location owes its name to the English port of Plymouth where the settlers, also referred to as Pilgrims, began their transatlantic voyage. The Mayflower set sail in September 1620 and arrived near Cape Cod, Massachusetts in December 1620. After […]
At 11 am on November 11, 1918, the long and terrible fighting that was known as the Great War ended. The final hour of the final day of World War I, as it is known today, was documented by the United States Army on a large 36″ x 32″ map sheet. The mapmakers used a […]
In Part 1 of this post, we discussed the Amazon River in South America as a contender for the title of the longest river on Earth. While arguments have been made by some cartographers that the Amazon should be given this distinction, it is traditionally held by most that the longest river in the world […]
The Library of Congress is proud to celebrate GIS Day on Wednesday, November 14th, with a morning of engaging talks and discussions on the theme of “GIS in K-12 Education: from Data to STEM.” We are pleased to feature Representative Bruce Westerman (AR-4), who will speak about the Geospatial Data Act and the role of […]
The Amazon or the Nile? The debate over which deserves the title of longest river is centuries old. Determining the world’s longest river is not a simple matter of using a measuring tape to find the distance! In this new post in our Extremities of the Earth series, we will explore these two mighty waterways […]
In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true. –Guatama Buddha Recently, the Library of Congress’ Geography and Map Division, acquired a rare eighteenth century carving of a Theravada Buddhist cosmography that originally came from Myanmar (formerly known […]