I am a senior archives specialist in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress. My title usually draws blank stares from people, so I follow it quickly with the analogy that an archivist is like an archeologist who works with paper. That declaration gets nods of understanding and interest.
While I'm officially the Head of the Science Reference Section, I spend most of my time working with the collections, answering reference requests and creating webcasts, book displays, and bibliographies. I work with text-books, journals, diaries, cookbooks, reminiscences, biographies, magazines, pictures, electronic sources, manuscript materials, microforms, artifacts--everything you might expect to find in a Library. I especially like the 18th and 19th century materials and learning more about the daily lives of our forefathers--their foraging techniques, what they ate, how they cooked and cleaned, what they wore, and how they spent their time.
In the United States, Mother's Day is celebrated on the second Sunday of May, this year, May 10th. But it is not just a day to celebrate our mothers, but also a time to think about all women who care for, support, and strengthen us. Below are a few suggestions for engaging students with primary sources related to Mother's Day from the collections of the Library of Congress.
In honor of the 102nd birthday of civil rights legend Rosa Parks, the Library's director of Educational Outreach, Lee Ann Potter, wrote the following post for the main Library of Congress blog about the many cards and letters students wrote for Ms. Parks over the years.
