Settle in for a good strong cuppa because December 15 is International Tea Day! Tea drinking began thousands of years ago in China and made its way west to Europe through Dutch trade in the sixteenth century. By the nineteenth century, the East India Company had a monopoly on the tea trade between China and […]
The following is a guest post by Helena Zinkham, Chief, Prints & Photographs Division. You can find libraries at the heart of many different communities, from the center of a town or a college campus to a shared toolbox at a construction site. The new book American Libraries, written by architectural historian Kenneth Breisch, takes […]
The following is a guest post by Katherine Blood, Curator of Fine Prints, Prints & Photographs Division. When Juan Felipe Herrera was exploring Library of Congress collections to share through his Poet Laureate project El Jardín (The Garden): La Casa de Colores, he was interested to learn what we have by Chicano Movement artists. We […]
The following is a guest post by Ryan Brubacher, Reference Librarian, Prints & Photographs Division. Ryan joined the reference section in March 2017 As a new arrival to the Library, Washington D.C. and the East Coast in general, there is a lot to take in from all corners as I settle. An overwhelming amount of […]
As an admirer of Civil War drawings, a recently digitized collection of drawings by Adolph G. Metzner piqued my interest. The difference in style from many other drawings of the time, along with the richness of color, drew me in to learn more about this man and his artwork. Born August 13, 1834 in southwestern […]
The following is an interview featuring Sara W. Duke, Curator of Popular and Applied Graphic Arts, Prints and Photographs Division. Running through October 28, a new exhibit at the Library of Congress, “Drawing Justice: The Art of Courtroom Illustration,” showcases extensive collections of original courtroom art held by the Prints and Photographs Division. Represented are […]
One month ago, a blog post in Picture This featured photos of New York’s Hell Gate Bridge, marking the centennial of its dedication. Today, I turn my attention to prints and drawings of the Hell Gate in our holdings. These drawings and etchings enable us to look at the bridge through an artist’s eyes. American […]
While browsing through the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog, the title of this photograph made me stop and take a closer look. Upon closer scrutiny, I realized that attached to the rope beneath the kite was a person! With my curiosity piqued, I decided to find out more about this man-flying contraption. An avid kite […]
Along with my picture-loving colleagues, I’d like to nominate one of our favorite depictions of Minerva, Roman goddess of wisdom, as an appropriate symbol with which to mark the arrival of the new Librarian of Congress, Dr. Carla Hayden. This mosaic of a studious Minerva greets visitors, researchers and staff in an area overlooking the […]
As summer gets into full swing, I’m recalling how much I enjoyed my public library’s summer reading club challenges when my children were younger (shout-out to all the public libraries that run summer reading clubs for children and adults!). One thing I loved about the challenge was the “randomizer” techniques library staff designed to inspire […]