The following is a guest post by Helena Zinkham, Chief, and Aliza Leventhal, Head, Technical Services, both of the Prints & Photographs Division. So many exciting collections are in the pipeline for routine access that it’s time for a look ahead. The Prints & Photographs Division works on about 20 “processing” projects at a time …
While I am usually incapable of picking favorites, I must admit I do have a favorite national park – Yellowstone. I have visited more than twenty times and I never tire of the natural wonders contained in its over 2 million acres. It was the first national park established in the United States, on March …
Like many people, I enjoy researching my family history, exploring my genealogy and collecting interesting facts, images, and records. As you can imagine, I sometimes come across visual materials in my work that make me think about my hobby. In our collections, we have many examples of commercially printed and sold family trees, records and …
The following is a guest post by Adam Silvia, Curator of Photography, and Katherine Blood, Curator of Fine Prints in the Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division. In honor of this year’s Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (May 1-31) the Prints & Photographs Division would like to share with you a selection …
As we transition to a new year, one of the ways we mark the change is acquiring a new calendar. Even though many of us have moved the tracking of our meetings, tasks, birthdays and other important events to a digital format, I still enjoy a physical calendar, and I especially enjoyed a recent look …
The year 1870 is significant for copyright and the Library of Congress. Prior to that year, copyright registration was administered by the U.S. District Courts. Starting in 1870, the copyright registration and deposit system was centralized in the Library of Congress. One of the requirements for protecting your creation with copyright was to send in …
In the Library’s latest Free to Use and Reuse set of images drawn from the collections, the focus is on the horse, and all the myriad ways these noble animals have been part of our lives, including sports, recreation, agriculture, transportation, and so on. I spotted one image that for me, and maybe for many …
Just across town from the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., stands Gallaudet University, an institute for higher learning for the deaf and hard-of-hearing. In 1864, President Abraham Lincoln signed the law that allowed the school to begin issuing college degrees, a milestone for deaf people seeking higher education. Edward M. Gallaudet (right) was the …
This photo provides an unfamiliar view of a very familiar structure: Yes, that is the unfinished stump of the Washington Monument, as it looked for about 25 years. In 1856, when funding shortages interrupted construction, the monument stood only 156 feet tall out of a projected 500 feet. During the U.S. Civil War, the site …