The following is a guest blog post by Hope O’Keeffe, an attorney in the Library’s Office of General Counsel, and an ardent supporter of the Veterans History Project. To read a previous guest post about her family’s history of proud military service, go here. This is my grandfather, John McLaughlin, quarantined during the 1918 flu […]
Tom Ewing, professor of history at Virginia Tech, focuses on epidemics as covered in late 19th and early 20th century newspapers that are digitized in the Chronicling America online collection.
The Library of Congress collections contain stories of the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic as told by ordinary people, documented by folklorists, linguists, and others as they collected personal histories and folklore. Several of these are available online and a selection will be presented here, with links at the end under “Resources” where more can be found. […]
She had already made it five years past the century mark when she finally sat down to share her story for the Veterans History Project (VHP) in 2002. Less than six weeks later, she was gone. Alice Leona Mikel Duffield was a beater of odds. A trailblazer. A go-getter. A caring soul. I’d say that […]
Hollywood is abuzz in anticipation of the annual Academy Awards ceremony coming up on February 9th. I’ll admit that regardless of how late it is on Sunday night, I stay up to find out who the winners are. Equally exciting for people who are starstruck like me is when iconic film stars or other celebrities […]
Ever wondered what you can do with a history degree? Teacher, lawyer, librarian—all valid options. But how about working as, well, an historian? Yes, such a profession exists…and even outside the hallowed halls of academia! Kevin Hymel is one such historian who eschewed the teaching route and is now an historian with the Army. He […]
This photo has caught many pairs of eyes around here. Look closely and you’ll no doubt deduce why. Reference librarian Melissa, who added it to our sharing wall, noted that, at first glance, she thought the megaphone-wielding woman was standing on an edifice of very narrow bricks. But no, it’s…books! My first thought, likely influenced […]
Wally Wallgren and C. LeRoy Baldridge, the two-person art department of the WWI era military newspaper, The Stars and Stripes, created cartoons that took the paper's motto to heart: "By and For the Soldiers of the A. E. F."
On this Independence Day, I thought it would be nice to review some of the patriotic tunes we have in the NLS Music collection. In previous posts I’ve discussed the music of George M. Cohan and John Philip Sousa. We also have some posts about the Ohio State School for the Blind’s marching band by […]
The Prints & Photographs Division’s collections include a fair number of donut-related images that collectively demonstrate the sugary treat’s long-standing presence in American culture. These rich indulgences can be seen in such varied areas of American life as roadside architecture, military history, and even public affairs. A search of the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog […]
