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Archive: October 2018 (5 Posts)

Smiling woman dressed in outdoor winter clothes holds a large, old-style camera

Mystery Tourism Spots

Posted by: Melissa Lindberg

Halloween provides an opportunity to meditate on — and perhaps to visit — some of the American landscape’s more mysterious tourist destinations. I recently grew curious about these peculiar attractions when I came across a photograph by roadside documentarian John Margolies of a sign for Saint Ignace, Michigan’s Mystery Spot. The Saint Ignace Mystery Spot promises visitors a disorienting sensory experience …

Smiling woman dressed in outdoor winter clothes holds a large, old-style camera

Poster Parade: Free to Use–and Animate!

Posted by: Barbara Orbach Natanson

The Library’s vast, international poster collection is featured in the latest “Free to Use and Reuse” image set. You’ll find much to enjoy from the 1890s through the 1960s among the posters, which promote travel, commercial products, war propaganda, entertainment, and more. We selected these posters in a special collaboration with Poster House, a new …

Smiling woman dressed in outdoor winter clothes holds a large, old-style camera

Pictures that Make Us Happy, Part 2

Posted by: Melissa Lindberg

This Autumn we offer a sequel to a post from this past Spring featuring pictures that cheer Prints & Photographs Division staff. This post’s contributors are all staff members in the Technical Services Section, who work hard to organize, describe, digitize and house for preservation the images in the collections, making it possible for you …

Smiling woman dressed in outdoor winter clothes holds a large, old-style camera

Looking back at Letter Writing

Posted by: Kristi Finefield

A column in The Hartford Courant discussing the decline of letter writing in the U.S. blames “this age of quick communication and rapid transportation.” While this is by no means surprising, the date of the newspaper article might be: Oct. 2, 1938! Yes, even 80 years ago, the art of letter writing was seen to …