Pictures help tell stories. Two new books published by the Library of Congress are full of hundreds of prints, posters, photographs and other illustrations drawn from the Library’s vast collections. Both books look back over hundreds of years of American history and tell their respective stories with passion – and pictures.
Football Nation: Four Hundred Years of America’s Game does just as the title suggests: it explores football in American history, from the Colonial era to today. From backyard games to the 20th century pros, all aspects are explored – and illustrated. Players who changed the game, such as Red Grange (below), are featured as well. According to Football Nation, this photo shows Grange when his Chicago Bears were the visitors to Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C. on December 8, 1925.
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Explorers Emigrants Citizens: A Visual History of the Italian American Experience uses the Library of Congress collections to tell “the story of individuals, of families, of communities, of a people, of the Italians in America.” (p.10) It features more than 500 images covering 500 years of history. There is more to the story of the smiling grocery store clerk, Charles Ruggiero (below), than first appears. Prominently displaying prices–a measure intended to control inflation–represented this Italian American’s patriotic contribution to fighting Mussolini during World War II.
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Learn More:
- Explore images related to football and Italian Americans in the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog.
- View descriptions of the two publications, which are available for purchase from the Library of Congress Sales Shop:
- Reyburn, Susan, and Athena Angelos. Football Nation: Four Hundred Years of America’s Game : from the Library of Congress., 2013.
- Osborne, Linda B, and Paolo Battaglia. Explorers Emigrants Citizens: A Visual History of the Italian American Experience from the Collections of the Library of Congress., 2013.