Library of Congress's Blog, page 102

Hispanic Heritage Month: Celebrating Veterans

This post, by Andrew Huber of the Veterans History Project, was first published on “ Folklife Today ,” the blog of the American Folklife Center and the Veterans History Project.

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Ramon Viera on the battlefield during the Korean War. He was a member of the 65th Regimental Combat Team, a Puerto Rican unit.

As we celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month through October 15, the Veterans History Project (VHP) continues to recognize the contributions of Hispanics and Latinos throughout the military history of our country. Hispanic and Latino Americans have fought in every war that VHP documents, and their achievements are profound.

However, the history of Hispanic and Latino service in the United States military includes struggles as well as triumphs. For example, during World War I, not long removed from the Spanish American War, Hispanic and Latino soldiers were heavily discriminated against and often denied the opportunity for any jobs except menial labor. Still, those who chose to serve their country fought bravely despite their unfair treatment.

Many earned great distinction, including Private David Barkley, the only Hispanic or Latino Medal of Honor recipient of World War I, and Marcelino Serna, who became the first Hispanic or Latino to be awarded the Distinguished Service Cross when he singlehandedly captured 24 German soldiers. Unfortunately, VHP does not have any collections of World War I veterans who self-identified as Hispanic or Latino, so if you have photographs, letters, diaries or other materials from a Hispanic or Latino World War I veteran you would like to donate, we would gladly accept them!

During World War II, Hispanics and Latinos served in every major battle of the war. General MacArthur called the 159th Regimental Combat Team, a majority Hispanic and Latino unit, “the greatest combat fighting team ever deployed for battle.” One of the most decorated units of World War II was the 141st Infantry Regiment, which was made up entirely of Spanish-speaking soldiers. One of those soldiers was Lawrence Caccese, whose VHP interview can be heard here.

During the Korean War, the 65th Regimental Combat Team, a Puerto Rican unit known as the Borinqueneers, was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation and the Meritorious Unit Commendation. General William Harris, Commander of the 65th Infantry, said of the Borinqueneers:

No ethnic group has greater pride in itself and its heritage than the Puerto Rican people. Nor have I encountered any that can be more dedicated and zealous in support of the democratic principles for which the United States stands. Many Puerto Ricans have fought to the death to uphold them.

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Arthur Baltazar inspects damage to his barracks by a mortar during the Vietnam War.

One of those soldiers was Ramon Viera, a mortar sergeant who rescued a 4-year-old child after the child’s mother was injured by a bomb. Hear his full story and access his photo album here.

Eighty-thousand Hispanic or Latino Americans served in the Vietnam War, and 13 of them were awarded the Medal of Honor for that conflict. While he did not earn a Medal of Honor, Arthur Baltazar earned multiple Bronze Stars for his actions in Vietnam. Baltazar shares his story, including his struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder, several photographs and a handwritten letter to President and Mrs. Obama here.

When the Vietnam War ended and the U.S. military returned to being an all-volunteer force, the number of Hispanics and Latinos who served did not diminish. In fact, it was quite the opposite—by the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2011, 12 percent of the entire United States armed forces were Hispanic or Latino, and nearly one-fifth of the U.S. Marine Corps identified as such. Nearly 50 percent of all enlisted women in the military today are Latinas. Nilsa Bibiloni served as a senior chief in the Navy and deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan. Here she shares her story of service aboard the USS Kitty Hawk.

Hispanic and Latino Americans have distinguished themselves in the U.S. military for as long as our country has existed. The Veterans History Project is proud to archive the oral histories documenting their stories, their struggles and their victories.

If you are a Hispanic or Latino veteran who would like your story of service archived here at the Library of Congress, contact us at vohp@loc.gov. And if you were already planning to submit an interview, don’t forget to self-identify as Hispanic or Latino on our biographical data form—it’s the only way we can know and honor your heritage!

To learn more about the Library’s observance of National Hispanic Heritage Month, visit our 2017 portal.

New Online: A Redesigned Portal for Librarians and Archivists

This is a guest post by Elizabeth Fulford, a librarian in the Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access (ABA) Directorate, and Susan Morris, special assistant to the ABA director.

[image error]The Library of Congress provides many resources to support information professionals worldwide. To streamline access to that content, we’ve redesigned our portal for librarians and archivists.

The new portal highlights the standard library functions of acquisitions, bibliographic access, preservation and public service, providing an overview of these activities at the Library and links to a wealth of content and documentation in each area. A new banner on the opening page features each of the four library functions and offers access to our most popular online catalogs and quick links to content for library professionals: the Library of Congress Classification Outline, BIBFRAME and MARC21.

Archives and manuscript collections encompass a wide variety of material types and subjects throughout the Library. With an emphasis on archival description—the dual process of cataloging for the LC Online Catalog and producing finding aids—this landing page focuses on the Encoded Archival Description (EAD) standard, easy access to a large body of finding aids for manuscript collections and a link to the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections.

A special section dedicated to resources for subject catalogers provides descriptions and pointers to controlled vocabularies and thesauruses used to categorize diverse library materials and collections in all formats. Free PDFs of Library of Congress subject headings documentation and access to literally hundreds of downloadable vocabularies and ontologies through id.loc.gov are provided.

Also of interest to information professionals are the pages highlighting the many products and services the Library offers to librarians, including cataloging-related tools and resources, online reference support, duplication services, disaster-recovery resources and interlibrary loan.

Special outreach programs and festivals appear on the reading and literacy page. From the Center for the Book to the National Book Festival, these programs provide resources and support for teachers, authors, poets and reading enthusiasts worldwide.

The Library also acts as the “maintenance agency” for a large number of resource description, digital library, and metadata standards used by libraries, museums and many other organizations that organize and describe large bodies of materials. The revised standards landing page acts as a portal to over 20 standards and protocols the Library maintains.

A formerly separate site, the Library of Congress at the American Library Association (ALA), is now a part of the new portal. The Library offers presentations, demonstrations and consultations at its pavilion on the exhibit floor of every ALA conference—the annual ALA midwinter meeting and the ALA annual conference each summer. In addition, many Library managers and program staff make presentations at events during the ALA conferences. The ALA section of the portal provides information about the Library’s participation and schedules for presentations at the Library’s exhibit pavilion and conference meetings, as well as the semiannual “update” document that outlines the Library’s accomplishments and initiatives of interest to the library community.

We hope the redesigned portal helps you find the information you need as quickly as possible. Please let us know what you think in the comments section of this post!

Pic of the Week: Firesign Theatre Comedians Share Their Story

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Phil Proctor and David Ossman of the Firesign Theatre. Photo by Shawn Miller.

Phil Proctor and David Ossman, two of the four members of the comedy troupe Firesign Theatre, took to the stage in the Coolidge Auditorium on September 28 to perform and discuss the history and impact of their work. They are shown here presenting a new sketch, “The History of the Art of Radio, Revised.”

With fellow troupe members Phil Austin and Peter Bergman, the pair got their start on Los Angeles radio station KPFK in 1966 doing live half-hour comic plays. In 1968, they began producing comedy records, and they went on to make syndicated radio series, musicals, films and other works.

Their 1970 album, “Don’t Crush That Dwarf,” was added to the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress in 2005.  ”Dwarf” is a one-act play that satirizes radio and television programs to comment on political, social and literary topics of the day. It was recorded using sophisticated production techniques that enabled the use of surreal sound effects and layered storytelling.

Hispanic Heritage Month: New and Improved Resources to Celebrate!

This is a guest post by Catalina Gomez, a reference librarian in the Hispanic Division.

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The Library maintains a site in collaboration with other agencies to highlight events scheduled for National Hispanic Heritage Month.

The Library of Congress is observing National Hispanic Heritage Month this year with an array of on-site concerts, exhibits, lectures and more.

But we also have exciting digital offerings for those of you who can’t visit us in person. We’ve just added 50 new recordings to our Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape, and we’ve improved the interface for another popular online resource: the Handbook of Latin American Studies.

The Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape is a collection of nearly 700 audio recordings of U.S. Hispanic poets and prose writers and writers from Spain, Portugal and Latin America reading from their own works. Started at the Library of Congress in 1943, the collection includes recordings of prominent literary figures like Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel García Márquez, Gabriela Mistral, Pablo Neruda and former U.S. poet laureate Juan Felipe Herrera.

Our new additions include recordings of Isabel Allende, César Aira, Julia Álvarez, Eunice Odio and Martín Adán. Here are two samples.

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The Handbook of Latin American Studies is an annotated bibliography about Latin America produced in the Hispanic Division in collaboration with a network of scholars and the University of Texas Press. It includes information about recent books, journal articles and book chapters—as one might expect—and also annotated citations and links to recent webcasts, podcasts, videos, blog posts and web sites with relevant information for students, scholars or anyone with an interest in Latin America. The new interface for the handbook offers an enhanced user experience through visually appealing graphics and mobile and tablet-friendly access.

For those of you who will be visiting Washington this fall, the Library has on view a special collections display detailing the creation of National Hispanic Heritage Month. The display, located on the second floor of the Thomas Jefferson Building’s Great Hall, showcases a diverse selection of items, including Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s autobiography, photographs from the Veterans History Project and letters from Latino congressmen celebrating the importance of National Hispanic Heritage Month. It will be up until November 11, 2017.

In addition, the Library’s Hispanic Reading Room offers services that make the Library of Congress a hub for researchers interested in Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain, Portugal and the Hispanic community in the United States. Please consider stopping by!

Dating back to 1968, National Hispanic Heritage Month was first designated as a week in September by President Lyndon B. Johnson. In 1988, the observance was extended to a month, starting on September 15 and going through October 15. Why September 15 to October 15? Those dates coincide with the celebration of several Latin American independence days: Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Nicaragua all celebrate their independence from Spain each year some time between those dates.

Rare Book of the Month: ABCs Through the Centuries

This is a guest post by digital library specialist Elizabeth Gettins.

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A wood hornbook

September is traditionally known as the month that all children return to school after summer vacation. To mark this tradition, the Rare Book and Special Collection Division’s book(s) of the month are two hornbooks: a wood hornbook and an ivory hornbook.

Today’s children would likely see these rare objects as curious. But they were a commonplace teaching tool starting from as far back as 1450 and used through the late 19th century. The hornbook originated in England and served the function of teaching children to read, learn math or to receive religious instruction. Hornbooks are somewhat like the more modern idea of a primer. See “The New England Primer” in Books that Shaped America for a good example of what a primer looks like.

Hornbooks were used well into the era of mass printing primarily because they were very functional as well as physically durable. Most all had a handle of some sort and were made of wood, bone, ivory, leather, stone or even, in more modern times, cardboard. They ranged from plain and functional to quite elaborate with decorations and aesthetically pleasing letter engraving.

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An ivory hornbook

Born of ingenuity and resourcefulness, hornbooks actually used horn fashioned into a transparent sheet to cover and protect the lessons engraved on the hornbook. This was achieved by leaving the horn in cold water for several weeks, causing it to separate into distinct parts. The needed part was then heated and pressed to make it smooth and transparent. Quite commonly, hornbooks taught the alphabet with capital and lower-case letters, followed by vowels and consonants in their combinations. Another common instruction in hornbooks was The Lord’s Prayer and various numbering systems.

The 18th-century wood hornbook featured in this post is possibly American. Very functional and durable, it includes the alphabet in lower and upper cases, followed by vowels, ligatures and the Lord’s Prayer. Also included at the top is a two-line abacus with 12 wooden beads. This hornbook is a good example of the use of translucent horn, which is tacked to the wood.

The ivory hornbook was made in England sometime during the 18th century, with the alphabet in upper and lower case engraved on ivory. This is a good example of an aesthetically pleasing item that may have been intended for a well-to-do learner. It is possible that this hornbook was used often, as it received visible repairs to mend the handle, which had broken off from the body.

Children may now use computers or other advanced methods of instruction, but these old-fashioned items still are quite functional and could easily impart lessons to young children today.

More Resources for Children

Digitized Children’s Books. A selection of digitized rare children’s books.
Children’s Literature Center. Assists users in gaining access to all children’s materials dispersed throughout the Library of Congress.

World War I: Immigrants Make a Difference on the Front Lines and at Home

This is a guest post by Ryan Reft, a historian in the Manuscript Division.

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In the years immediately surrounding World War I, organizations like the New York National Americanization Day Committee hoped to use patriotic holidays such as the Fourth of July as a means to unify the country’s diverse populations.

By 1910, nearly a third of the United States’ 92 million residents were either born abroad or the progeny of parents who immigrated to America. The idea of “hyphenated Americans”—citizens who identified as Polish-American or Italian-American, for example—discomforted many native-born citizens. Former President Teddy Roosevelt insisted all citizens, no matter their birthright or ethnic heritage, embrace “the simple and loyal motto, America for Americans.” Future president Woodrow Wilson, too, expressed doubts about foreign-born citizens, worrying they might harbor “alien sympathies.”

Although Americans did not know it at the time, immigrants would soon prove critical to the country’s effort in World War I, both in military service and in industry. Despite their importance, America closed its borders in the years after the armistice, ending what had been the largest immigration flow in the country’s history.

The complicated experience of immigrants on the American home front during the WWI era is conveyed in the Library’s current exhibit “Echoes of the Great War: American Experiences of World War I,” which features artifacts from divisions across the Library. In addition, case files from the Manuscript Division’s Woodrow Wilson Papers shed further light on the wartime lives of American newcomers.

Whatever nativist doubts the native-born harbored, immigrants in 1917 poured themselves into the war effort. Nearly 500,000 servicemen in the newly conscripted army consisted of individuals born abroad in 46 different nations. Like their African-American counterparts, however, immigrants were over drafted: nearly 18 percent of enlisted men were foreign born despite making up less than 15 percent of the nation’s total population.

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Letter in which Captain Ralston Flemming writes of his desire to instill a spirit of “militant Americanism” among immigrant soldiers.

Initially, the military subscribed to the 100-percent Americanism promoted by Roosevelt. U.S. Army Captain Ralston Flemming, for example, wrote of successful efforts at Camp Jackson in South Carolina to inculcate immigrants with “enthusiastic militant Americanism.” But the military soon adopted the gentler Americanization program of progressive reformers, which allowed for retention of cultural traditions. Congress also helped by passing legislation that enabled foreign-born soldiers to obtain expedited naturalization. Eventually, about 300,000 immigrant soldiers would attain citizenship through military service in the war.

On the home front, with immigrant labor concentrated in wartime industries—coal, steel, textiles, oil, lumber and many others—newcomers to the U.S. contributed mightily to mobilization and war work. At Bethlehem Steel, one of the largest wartime steel producers, nearly 10,000 of the plant’s 30,000 workers were immigrants.

Unions, too, saw an opportunity to expand through immigration. Historically, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) had expressed ambivalence and even reticence toward immigrant labor. But during the war, it incorporated the foreign born into the labor movement. AFL membership boomed, as did that of other unions, like the International Association of Machinists.

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The New York Tribune featured a spread in its May 20, 2017, issue about the manufacture of artillery at Bethlehem Steel in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where nearly a third of workers were immigrants.

Still, government leaders and even unionists sometimes questioned the ability and loyalties of immigrant workers. Whatever his prewar beliefs regarding immigration, Wilson understood the importance of immigrants to the war effort. Recognizing the tension surrounding immigration, he dedicated July 4, 1918, to “immigrant America.” More importantly, he instituted war labor agencies like the National War Labor Board (NWLB) and the President’s Mediation Committee (PMC) to address the needs and anxieties of workers, particularly immigrant laborers who, due to their heavy concentration in industry, benefitted disproportionately from wartime labor reforms.

The NWLB and the PMC endorsed the idea of “shop committees,” internal plant representative bodies elected by workers to represent their demands to employers. To encourage participation, the NWLB used translators and “multilingual forms and announcements for shop committee ballots,” notes historian Joseph McCartin. As a result, in workplaces like Bethlehem Steel, immigrant participation exceeded expectations, and many became committee delegates. In this way, immigrants helped to deliver critical labor reforms during the war that benefitted all workers, even those who refused to, or were prevented from, joining unions.

After the armistice, changes in industry and immigration came swiftly as business leaders rolled back labor reforms established during the war. A massive wave of strikes followed, to which Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer responded by deporting immigrants the government believed to be radicals.

Further, in 1921 and 1924, Congress passed immigration restriction laws that built on the Immigration Act of 1917, which had already imposed difficult hurdles to immigration, including a literacy test and an Asiatic barred zone. The result was greatly reduced immigration, particularly from Southern and Eastern Europe; Asians, excluding Filipinos, were banned from not only immigration, but even naturalization.

Many immigrants returning from U.S. military service in World War I discovered that the better jobs were reserved for the native born. During the war “the bosses then called all Italians ‘American people,’” one Italian worker commented. “Now they are foreigners.”

Before the war, observers such as Frank Trumbull, chairman of the National Americanization Day Committee, had warned that a failure to incorporate immigrants equitably would leave the nation vulnerable to riots, strikes and anarchist movements—Trumbull’s committee organized nationwide celebrations of America that involved immigrant participants. In some ways, sadly, Mr. Trumbull proved prescient.

World War I Centennial, 2017–18 . With the most comprehensive collection of multiformat World War I holdings in the nation, the Library is a unique resource for primary source materials, education plans, public programs and on-site visitor experiences about the Great War including exhibits, symposia and book talks.

Trending: Let’s Celebrate Comics!

Did you know that today is National Comic Book Day? To celebrate, we are sharing a contribution by Michael Cavna of the Washington Post to the September–October issue of LCM, the Library of Congress magazine. The entire issue, available here, showcases the Library’s collection of some 140,000 comic books. Cavna, an Eisner Award-nominated columnist and cartoonist, writes the “Comic Riffs” column for the Post.

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Self-portrait by Michael Cavna for the Library of Congress, 2017. Used with permission.

She had come because of a comic book. She left stirred by the words of an American hero.

A young woman attended a comics-convention panel I moderated several years ago to listen in person to Rep. John Lewis, the civil-rights hero turned first-time graphic-novel memoirist.

Lewis had just published “March: Book One,” the first in an illustrated trilogy about how nonviolent protest was used to combat segregation in America. One of the graphic novel’s central messages, as illustrated by the 1965 Selma march, was about having the courage to stand up for one’s deepest convictions.

On this day, the woman came to the microphone and asked: “As a person in a same-sex relationship, should I move to D.C. so I can get married legally, or stay in Virginia and challenge the law?”

“You must fight!” Lewis exclaimed from the stage without a second’s hesitation. “You must stay. Stand up! Speak out! Speak up for what’s right!”

The room went silent, in awe of his resonant moral clarity. Then came the cheering. All because a comic book that speaks directly to American democratic ideals had been the source of inspired social connection.

America has contributed at least three unique inventions to the world’s culture: baseball, jazz and the newspaper comic strip. All three foster both the teamwork of shared production and the spark of an individual’s original genius. Yet to the reader, a comic panel is not only a window into the imagination of the creator, it is also a mirror that reveals something about ourselves.

Consider Ben Franklin, that father of American cartoon satire who sponsored such images as the iconic 1754 “Join, or Die” cartoon used in the Revolutionary cause. Think of cartoonist Thomas Nast, whose work toppled political corruption at Boss Tweed’s Tammany Hall.

Consider the social commentary of Richard F. Outcault’s Yellow Kid, establishing the funny pages as a national pastime. And then, with World War II on the horizon, the superhero comic-book boom was launched largely by Jewish creators who could identify with a cultural outsider like Superman.

“Peanuts,” Charles Schulz’s profound window into the adult psyche told through young archetypes. Art Spiegelman’s towering “Maus.” Will Eisner’s “A Contract With God.” Walt Kelly’s “Pogo.” Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s creation of the Marvel Universe. Garry Trudeau’s satirical “Doonesbury,” spanning Nixon to Trump. Each of those creations is an essential link in our nation’s long comics evolution.

Which brings me full circle to Rep. Lewis. At the 2016 Library of Congress National Book Festival, I introduced Lewis, who had helped open the National Museum of African American History and Culture that very morning. And on that magical evening, Rep. Lewis used the platform of comics to speak in soaring oratory to the resilient promise of American equality.

The Library of Congress must continue its efforts to make the preservation and curation of graphic art a central mission. Because panel by panel, comics tell a story as profoundly as any other art form. They are a national treasure.

Pic of the Week: Library and Military Service Academies Collaborate on Collections Access

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From left, Lucia Maziar, library director at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy; David Schaffter, acting director of academy libraries at the U.S. Air Force Academy; Christopher Barth, librarian and associate dean at the U.S. Military Academy; Donna Selvaggio, chief librarian at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy; Larry Clemens, library director at the U.S. Naval Academy; and Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress. Photo by Shawn Miller.

The Library of Congress and the U.S. military service academies signed a cooperative agreement this week to provide researchers with enhanced access to the institutions’ collections and grow representation of service members in the Library’s collections—including the Veterans History Project.

The three-year agreement, which took effect on September 18, provides greater access for Library researchers to the collections of the U.S. Air Force Acad­emy, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, the U.S. Military Academy and the U.S. Naval Academy and greater access to Library collections for the academies.

Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden and representatives of the five academies signed the agreement at a ceremonial gathering in the Jefferson Building.

“A major reason the Library of Con­gress is a world leader is because many of the collaborations that it has forged with institutions and organizations across the country and around the world give it its strength,” Hayden said.

Free to Use and Reuse: Adolph Metzner Civil War Drawings

This is a guest post by Julie Stoner, a reference librarian in the Geography and Map Division. It was first published on “ Picture This ,” the Prints and Photographs Division’s blog.

We’re highlighting the subject of Stoner’s post—Civil War drawings by Adolph Metzner—in our “free to use and reuse” feature on the Library’s home page . The home page showcases content from the Library’s collections that has no known copyright restrictions—meaning you can use the content as you wish. The Prints and Photographs Division recently digitized Metzner’s drawings and made them publicly available for the first time on the website.

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Battle of Peach Tree Creek, Ga., 1864, by Adolph Metzner

As an admirer of Civil War drawings, I found my interest piqued by a recently digitized collection of drawings by Adolph G. Metzner. 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 on August 13, 1834, in southwestern Germany, Adolph Metzner immigrated to the United States in 1856. Shortly after the start of the Civil War, Metzner joined the 32nd Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, also called the First German, fighting for three years on the western front of the war.

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Adolph Metzner, c. 1861–65

During the years with his regiment, Metzner sketched any material available, drawing everything from portraits of his comrades to scenes of battle and death.

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Adolph Metzner, Lieutenant Louis von Trebra and Jacob Labinsky, Huntsville, Ala., 1862

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Lost on the Field of Chickamauga, 1863

One of the reasons I enjoy Civil War drawings is they can be a better medium for capturing movement, action or emotion as opposed to the photographs of the era. As an example, for me, the drawing below really gives the viewer a sense of the misery of marching in the mud and rain and how inglorious war can be.

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Green River, 1861

Another aspect of these drawings that I find intriguing is how they complement the photograph album of Adolph Metzner that his daughter Helen Metzner gave to the Library of Congress 60 years before it acquired the drawings. The album consists of photographic portraits of the 32nd Regiment collected by Metzner. With both the photo album and the drawings, the observer can get different perspectives of the men in the regiment. For example, I am tickled by the contrast between the formal photographic portrait of Lieutenant Colonel Karl Friedrich Heinrich von Trebra and the caricature drawn by Metzner.

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Photograph of Lieutenant Colonel Karl Friedrich Heinrich von Trebra by Wilhelm Grundner, c. 1850

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“Attention!” Adolph Metzner drawing of Lieutenant Colonel Karl Friedrich Heinrich von Trebra, 1861

As another example, the drawings give us a glimpse into the personalities of otherwise unknown people such as Private Jacob Labinsky, whom Metzner labels in the drawing as “The Camp Comedian.”

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Portrait photograph of Jacob Labinsky, c. 1861–65

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Jacob Labinsky by Adolph Metzner, 1861

Metzner’s 137 drawings constitute the largest collection of drawings from the Civil War’s western front campaigns so far in the Library of Congress collections. You can enjoy all 137 Adolph Metzner drawings with me as they are now digitized and currently available for viewing or downloading in the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog.

Scroll down for more examples and write a note in the comments section of this post if you find an interesting way to use a digitized image!

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Chicken Thieves Being Disciplined, Camp Nevin, Ky., 1861

Learn More

Enjoy all of the Adolph Metzner Civil War Collection drawings. (There are 120 scans of the 137 drawings as in some cases, there is more than one drawing on the same surface.)
View all of the photographs from the Metzner photograph album.
Explore other Civil War drawings in the Prints and Photographs Division by different artists.
For more information about Metzner and his work, grab a copy of the 2010 book Blood Shed in This War: Civil War Illustrations by Captain Adolph Metzner by the Indiana Historical Society Press

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Beginning of the Atlanta Campaign, 1864

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Company A Hospital Steward Carl Bayer, c. 1861–64

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Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, 1863

New Online: James K. Polk Papers

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Engraved portrait of James Polk.

This is a guest post by Michelle Krowl, a historian in the Manuscript Division.

“Twelve months ago this day, a very important conversation took place in Cabinet between myself and Mr. Buchanan on the Oregon question. This conversation was of so important a character, that I deemed it proper on the same evening to reduce the substance of it to writing for the purpose of retaining it, more distinctly in my memory,” President James K. Polk wrote on August 26, 1846. “It was this circumstance which first suggested to me the idea, if not the necessity of keeping a journal or diary, of events, and transactions which might occur during my Presidency.” Polk fulfilled his pledge to keep a presidential diary, recording the significant or noteworthy events in his life from August 26, 1845, to June 2, 1849. Consisting of 25 volumes, Polk’s diary is part of the James K. Polk Papers at the Library of Congress, now available online.

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Polk wrote of his decision to keep a presidential diary on August 26, 1846.

Early in his administration, President Polk shared with Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft his four key goals: tariff reduction, establishment of an independent treasury, settlement of the Oregon boundary question with Great Britain and the acquisition of California and other western territory. Each objective was achieved during Polk’s presidency and duly chronicled in his diary, as is the war with Mexico prosecuted during his administration.

Although Polk’s opinions on political issues dominate most entries in his diary, he also offers his observations on the presidency and individuals in political life and sheds light on his own personality. Polk devoted almost all of his time and energy to the presidency and frequently commented in his diary about being confined at the White House. “I have performed great labour and incurred vast responsibilities,” Polk noted in January 1847, nearly two years into his term. “In truth, though I occupy a very high position, I am the hardest-working man in the country.” Even public receptions at the White House were scheduled to allow him to “devote the balance of the evenings of the week to business in my office.” In sum, Polk concluded on April 7, 1846, “it is emphatically true that the Presidency is ‘no bed of roses.’”

Only on occasion did Polk allow himself some much-needed diversions. Sometimes he and his wife, Sarah, would dine with friends or political associates or take short excursions outside of the capital, such as to Fort Monroe in August 1846. He enjoyed a quick trip in 1847 to his alma mater at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, followed by a two-week tour of the North beginning on June 22. Polk recognized the physical strain the long hours of work put on him, which “rendered some recreation necessary.” Entertainment imposed upon him, however, could prompt his scorn. On February 6, 1846, the young people in his household arranged for a juggler to perform at the White House and encouraged the president to attend the gathering. “Mr Alexander exhibited his art, greatly to their wonder and amusement,” Polk noted, “but I thought the time unprofitably spent.”

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Polk complained about political patronage in this diary entry from January 7, 1847.

Like many presidents before and after him, Polk had nothing but scorn for the constant stream of office-seekers looking for political patronage. Many diary entries contain disparaging comments about those engaged in “the contemptible business of seeking office.” In a long entry devoted to the subject on January 7, 1847, Polk lamented the uselessness of congressional references after one senator admitted he recommended a candidate who was “without character & wholly unqualified” because congressmen were “obliged to recommend our constituents when they apply to us.” The president specifically identified Senator Sidney Breese of Illinois as “the most troublesome and inveterate seeker for office for his friends.”

Polk pledged to serve only a single term as president, a vow that he kept. Having turned over the stress and responsibility of the presidency to his successor Zachary Taylor, Polk rejoiced in his diary on March 4, 1849, that he was sure to be “a happier man in my retirement,– than I have been during the four years I have filled the highest office, in the gift of my countrymen.”

After meeting his every goal as president, however, he failed to achieve his fondest wish as a private citizen. He returned to his home in Tennessee via a southern route, where cholera was a concern. His diary records his attendance at many public functions along the way, and his corresponding physical fatigue at having done so. His constitution likely weakened by four years of toil, Polk succumbed to illness and was unable to continue his diary after June 2. James K. Polk died in Nashville on June 15, 1849, having enjoyed just over three months of retirement.