Interested in learning more about what’s new in the Library of Congress’s digital collections? The Signal shares updates on new additions to our digital collections and we love showing off all the hard work of our colleagues from across the Library. Read on for a sample of what’s been added recently and some of our favorite highlights. Click here for all previous updates.
Pre-1901 Legal Documents of New Spain/Mexico
This collection includes approximately 300 items of legal instruments that pertain to the Viceroyalty of New Spain (1521-1821); the Mexican War of Independence (1810-1821); the First Mexican Empire and First Mexican Republic (1821-1835); the Second Federal Republic and Second Mexican Empire (1846-1867); and other historical moments that span through some of the Porfiriato (1876-80; 1884-1911). The collection includes works concerning figures like Bernardo de Gálvez y Madrid, Agustín de Iturbide, Maximilian of Habsburg (Archduke of Austria and Emperor of Mexico), and Benito Juárez, to mention a few. The collection covers modern-day jurisdictions that are now part of Asia, Central and South America, and the Caribbean. The scope of this collection, while including the modern-day state of Mexico, includes territories that were once Spanish (and consequently Mexican) that are now part of the United States.
![Black and white woodcut engraving featuring two human figures as columns. Text in Latin and Spanish: "Prouisio[n]es, cedulas, instruciones desu Magestad : ordena[n]ças d[e] difu[n]tos y audie[n]cia, p[ar]a la buena expedicio[n] delos negocios, y administracio[n] d[e] justicia y gouernacio[n] d[e]sta Nueua España : y p[ar]a el bue[n] tratamie[n]to y [con]seruacio[n] d[e] los yndios, dende el año 1525 hasta este presente de 63"](https://blogs.loc.gov/thesignal/files/2025/03/iiif-service_ll_llnsm_201800289835660_0005-full-pct_100-0-default-759x1024.jpg)
Lao Buddhist New Year Festival in Southern Louisiana
This collection documents the 2022 Louisiana Lao New Year Festival (LLNY) presented April 15-17, 2022, by Wat Thammarattanaram, a Buddhist temple and monastery in Broussard (Iberia Parish), Louisiana. With the support of a 2022 Community Collections Grant (CCG) from the American Folklife Center’s Of the People: Widening the Path initiative, a community-based research team led by project director Phanat Xanamane, videographer Bader Hamdani, historian Dr. Shane Bernard, and assistant director Sami Sion Haggood documented the social, cultural and environmental expressions that have shaped this important cultural celebration over its 30+ year history.
The collection features videos and digital images of the celebration’s rich tapestry of Buddhist activities, food culture, social interactions, crafts and artwork, textiles and fashion, music and dance, and other cultural artifacts reflecting the culture and history of the Acadiana Lao. Read more about this collection on the Of the People blog: Community Collection Grants Recipients: Sabaidee Pi Mai Documenting Lao New Year in Iberia Parish, Louisiana and learn more about the collection’s rights and access here.
A few collections updates
In addition to our brand new collections above, we also have a few collection updates to share. Over 3,200 Foreign Legal Gazettes are now available from Mozambique, Nauru, and the Russian Federation. The Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) Reports collection now includes 46 migrated items from the Tropical Deterioration Administrative Committee and 349 migrated items from the Applied Psychology Panel. There are also over 340 new volumes now available in the Korean Rare Book Digital Collection (held by the Library’s Asian Reading Room) and over 1,800 new post-1929 items now available in the Motion Picture Copyright Descriptions collection (held by the Moving Image Research Center).
And the COVID-19 American History Project has been updated to incorporate “It Takes a Village: Rural Central Appalachian Childcare Providers’ COVID-19 Experiences,” a collection of twenty-four interviews with childcare professionals who worked during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in five Central Appalachian states: Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky. The project sought to understand how COVID-19 impacted the lives of childcare workers and how these workers adapted to the changes caused by the pandemic. You can read more about the project on loc.gov: Stories from the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Resource Guide.
Over 100,000 new crowdsourced transcriptions & a video!
Since our last edition, the By the People crowdsourced transcription program returned over 100,000 transcriptions back to their digital collections on loc.gov. These transcriptions come from some of our most popular transcription campaigns, including Walt Whitman, Leonard Bernstein, and Theodore Roosevelt. Click on the following links to go directly to their collections in loc.gov, now powered By the People:
Walt Whitman Papers (Miscellaneous Manuscript Collection)
Thomas Biggs Harned Collection of Walt Whitman Papers
Walt Whitman Papers in the Charles E. Feinberg Collection
Leonard Bernstein Collection
Theodore Roosevelt Papers
Benajah Jay Antrim Journals
Chicago Ethnic Arts Project Collection
And want to learn more about the the By the People crowdsourced transcription program? Watch our latest video below or on YouTube!
New geospatial datasets
The Library’s Geography & Map Division published eight new geospatial datasets, including one from the Challenger Expedition: HMS Challenger journey. Check out their Mapping the Ocean StoryMap to see how datasets can be used for mapping.
Chronicling America
The Library of Congress regularly receives digitized newspapers from contributors to the National Digital Newspaper Program. Digitized newspapers are delivered in the form of batches, where each batch can contain one to many issues, from one or more newspaper titles. Recently loaded batches can be discovered on the Chronicling America Research Guide and we’re featuring a few new additions below:
The Arkansas Gazette
Little Rock, AR, 1819-1826. First published in Arkansas Territory and then Little Rock, this newspaper documented settler life on the frontier.
East Hartford Gazette
East Hartford, CT, 1942-1963. This newspaper covered local and state news, in particularly nearby manufacturing and military, in the lead up to and covering World War II.
Edgefield Advertiser
Edgefield, SC, 1836-1927. This newspaper is the oldest, continuously running newspaper in South Carolina.
El Fronterizo
Tucson, AZ, 1922-1929. This Spanish language newspaper published Hispanic-American interests in Arizona.
The Gordon Journal
Gordon, NE, 1892-1917. This newspaper and its succeeding titles (currently through 1928) were referred to as “a very readable and spicy paper,” covered wide-ranging news in the rural county, and was owned by a state politician.
The Key West Citizen
Key West, FL, 1926-1962. Documented local, state, national, and international news, particularly in the Caribbean.
The Laredo Times and Laredo Weekly Times
Laredo, TX, 1908-1936. Bilingual newspaper in English and Spanish published in the Texas border town.
Le Messager
Lewiston, ME, 1880-1958. This long-running French title documents the lives of French-Americans and French-Canadians.
Newport Navalog
Newport, RI, 1944-1959. Documented activity on the military base during and post-World War II.
Pocahontas Times
Huntersville, WV, 1884-1927. Named after the West Virginia county where it is published, this title documents rural life in a farming community.
Summit County Labor News
Akron, OH, 1944-1960. This labor newspaper documents union activity of its county.
Washington Daily News
Washington, D.C., 1944-1945. This newspaper presents an alternative viewpoint from the Star, and during World War II, featured the writing of Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent Ernie Pyle, who was killed in action in 1945 during the Battle of Okinawa.
What’s new onsite via Stacks?
New items are added every week into stacks.loc.gov – the Library’s primary onsite platform for accessing restricted digital content.
Recent highlights from Stacks include new documentary film material processed from DVDs from the African and Middle Eastern Reading Room, new poetry recordings from the St. Marks Poetry Collection from the Rare Book and Special Collections Reading Room, and new issues for Danish and Korean newspapers.
Some selected new titles include Being Indian and walking proud: American Indian identity and reality, The story of ice cream, The anthropology of religion, magic, and witchcraft, and A beginner’s guide to special makeup effects. Volume 2: Revenge of the prosthetics. And some seasonal additions to Stacks include US women’s professional soccer, DC United, Alex Ovechkin, Birds in spring, What I see in spring, Repairing paradise: the restoration of nature in America’s national parks.
Please reach out to a librarian at ask.loc.gov with questions about accessing these materials using Stacks.
Updates from the Web Archives
The Library now has over a hundred web archive collections available on loc.gov! Within the past few months, four new collections were described and made more discoverable to users: