The following is a guest post by Stephanie A. Hall, American Folklife Center. World Mosquito Day, August 20th, commemorates the day in 1897 when Dr. Ronald Ross of Great Britain discovered that female mosquitoes transmit malaria. Many items in the Music Division of the Library of Congress and other performing arts materials throughout the Library …
The following blog post was adapted from an essay by Senior Music Specialist Ray White and Digital Conversion Specialist James Wolf. This week the Music Division launches a new online collection of Yiddish American Sheet Music. The Library’s holdings of Yiddish American popular songs include the Irene Heskes Collection of Yiddish American sheet music as well …
Like the tale of the blind men and the elephant, an artifact of popular culture as vivid as today’s featured sheet music at right has a variety of angles worth pursuing. What of the career of Austrian composer Heinrich Reinhardt, or lyricist Robert Bache Smith? And what of that fantastic cover art, which features besotted …
Today is a date on which we celebrate not only the mathematical constant used to determine circular measurements, but the delicious treat whose circular shape comforts us from the cooling windowsill to our growling stomach. Yet all is not rosy in the august lore of piedom. Hubbard T. Smith’s “The little pie” tells the antiquated …
The following is a guest post by Retired Senior Cataloger Sharon McKinley. Everyone loves Inauguration Day! What’s not to like? Flags fly, people cheer, and federal employees in the Washington area get the day off, because no one wants to compete with them for seats on Metro. We in the Music Division are joining in …
