Library of Congress's Blog, page 118

Literacy Awards: Thomas Jefferson Would Have Approved

[image error](The following is a guest post by Guy Lamolinara, communications officer in the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress.)

Thomas Jefferson, the Library of Congress’s spiritual founder, wrote about the pursuit of happiness.

“I like to think that literacy is fundamental to that pursuit. So many doors are closed to those who cannot read. Everyone in this world has a right to happiness and with that comes the right to read.” So said Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden during a ceremony last fall honoring the 2016 Library of Congress Literacy Awards winners and best practices honorees.

Many of us take for granted being able to read instructions on filling out a job application, on reading a website or even something as simple as reading a street sign. Imagine how terrifying it is for those who cannot read to even think about applying for a job.

It’s no surprise that those who cannot read earn significantly less than those who can and that many of these people are living in poverty.

During the Library of Congress National Book Festival gala program in September, the Library shared a short film highlighting some alarming statistics about literacy:

757 million adults cannot read or write a simple sentence, and two-thirds of them are women
In the United States one in six adults reads at a basic or below-basic , meaning they cannot read anything more complex than a TV Guide
Worldwide, 61 million elementary-age children are not in school, and in the United States, 34 percent of children entering kindergarten lack the basic language skills needed to learn to read
Low literacy levels cost the united states $225 billion each year and cost the global economy $1.19 trillion annually

David M. Rubenstein, the philanthropist who sponsors the awards, is himself a voracious reader, and he has stated many times publicly that reading has been key to his success in life.

If you work for a literacy organization or know someone who does, you are encouraged to apply yourself or on behalf of another literacy group. A quarter-million dollars will be awarded this fall to three worthy organizations. For more information, visit to read.gov/literacyawards/.

World War I: From Red Glare to Debonair

(The following post is by Jennifer Gavin, senior public affairs specialist at the Library of Congress.)

The stars and stripes, February 7, 1919. Serial and Government Publications Division.

With its more than 90-year history, most Americans are aware of the military-based newspaper “The Stars and Stripes.” But many don’t know that it came into existence as a morale-builder after Americans surged into France during World War I – and even fewer probably know of its links to another august publication, “The New Yorker.”

As thousands of Americans braved mud, bullets, shells, mustard gas and the flu in the killing fields of France, a decision was taken to start up a newspaper that could bring news of the war and of home to the men of the Allied Expeditionary Force. By most reports, it was a Second Lt. Guy T. Viskniskki, a longtime newsman, who took the idea to the brass and talked them into it; he was among the first writers and editors of the publication that launched Feb. 8, 1919.

The handful of enlisted men who began cranking it out insisted that it be written with flair and cover the things the average guy in a foxhole would want to know about. As its editors stated in the initial number:

“With this issue, The Stars and Stripes reports for active service with the A.E.F. It is your paper, and has but one axe to grind—the axe which our Uncle Sam is whetting on the grindstone for use upon the august necks of the Hapsburgs and the Hohenzollerns … we want to hear from that artist in your outfit, that ex-newspaper reporter, that short-story writer, that company ‘funny man,” and that fellow who writes the verses. We want to hear from all of you—for The Stars and Stripes is your paper, first, last, and all the time; for you and for those of your friends and relatives for whom you will care to send it.”

As the paper took hold – it was printed in borrowed facilities from French newspapers and distributed via military logistics, with some copies reaching the U.S. as well – its staff got bigger and it moved from one French office to another to accommodate the larger operations. The doughboys ate it up, as it contained news, editorials, letters, cartoons and an assortment of humorous items. It was relatively free of censorship, for a military publication. In his book “A Brief History of The Stars and Stripes, Official Newspaper of the American Expeditionary Forces in France,” author Harry Katz noted that the enlisted men who wrote its copy and editorials “condemned what they thought was wrong and commended what they believed to be right in unmistakable terms,” all in “a snappy style.”

Among writers for that early version of “The Stars and Stripes” was Harold W. Ross, a former newsman who, the story goes, went AWOL from his military railroad engineering company to appear at the military paper’s offices to join that team. Ross, after the war, founded The New Yorker and was its editor for more than 26 years, and also became a member of the famously witty Algonquin Hotel “Round Table.” Ross gave magazine work to another luminary writer of the era who had worked at Stars and Stripes, Alexander Woollcott, and to the artist Cyrus Leroy Baldridge, another former military journo.

The Library of Congress holds The Stars and Stripes in its collections, and has digitized that early WWI run of the publication, which was started up again in WWII and continues to provide the U.S. military with news to this day. You can also find The New Yorker in our Serials collections.

World War I Centennial, 2017-2018: With the most comprehensive collection of multi-format World War I holdings in the nation, the Library of Congress 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.

Smokey Robinson at Gershwin’s Piano

(The following is a guest post by Director of Communications Gayle Osterberg.)

This Friday (Feb. 10) PBS stations nationwide (9 pm Eastern – check your local listings) will share with America the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song tribute concert honoring Motown legend Smokey Robinson.

It was a great pleasure to host Smokey, Berry Gordy, family and friends at the Library the day before the concert was taped back in November. Library of Congress staff shared treasures from Motown and African-American music history, like maps from Detroit in the late fifties with handwritten notes by Alan Lomax, historic recordings of Jelly Roll Morton and the original copyright deposit of “I Cry”, a song he co-wrote with Gordy and his first copyright submission.

The highlight of the visit, for me, was to watch Smokey sit down at George Gershwin’s favorite piano – on permanent display in the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building – and talk with Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden.

To say Dr. Hayden is a Smokey fan is an understatement, and she had a series of questions for the honoree, who tells her about Gershwin’s influence on his childhood, when he decided singing was his passion and what music he’s listening to now. He also opens up in an emotional moment about his relationship with Barry Gordy and Gordy’s impact on his life.

We’ve been looking forward to sharing this touching conversation with you ahead of Friday’s broadcast.

I hope you enjoy it!

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Experts’ Corner: Presidential Podcasts

(The following article is from the January/February 2017 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine, LCM. You can read the issue in its entirety here.)

From left: Historians Barbara Bair, Julie Miller and Michelle Krowl. Photo by Shawn Miller.

Library of Congress historians Julie Miller, Barbara Bair and Michelle Krowl contribute their knowledge of the presidents to a new podcast series.

In 2016, The Washington Post presented a podcast series called “Presidential” that featured 44 episodes examining the American presidents during the months leading up to the November election. Hosted by Lillian Cunningham, editor of The Washington Post’s “On Leadership” section, and archived online, the series features interviews with journalists, biographers, historians and other experts on the American presidency. Among them are Julie Miller, Barbara Bair and Michelle Krowl, three historians from the Library’s Manuscript Division who together discussed 17 presidents from George Washington to William H. Taft. Their remarks were informed by primary sources, including presidential papers, housed in the Library of Congress.

As curator of the papers of the earliest presidents, Miller was the first of her colleagues to be interviewed. Cunningham asked a question that she would pose in reference to each of the presidents: What would it be like to go on a blind date with George Washington? Miller observed that Washington, as a model 18th-century gentleman, knew how to dress, how to dance and how to behave in public. He would have been a charming date, as the widowed Martha Custis discovered. Miller also noted that institutions such as the Library of Congress care for primary sources such as the letters in George Washington’s papers because each generation will want to bring its own questions to them, such as the one Cunningham posed.

Bair joined NPR reporter Steve Inskeep and biographer Jon Meacham in analyzing the limitations of Jacksonian democracy. She spoke of Jackson as a “man of the people.” But which people? In solidifying white land ownership in the South and fostering the expansion of slavery and the repression of Indians, Jackson primarily represented “white wage workers and [those] who wanted to settle on farms,” as well as the “southern slave-owning gentry.” Bair and historian Mark Cheathem looked at the “Little Magician” Martin Van Buren as a political master-mind and commented on the rise of the two-party system. William Henry Harrison died soon after taking office, likely from the contaminated water supply in Washington. Bair read a letter documenting the trepidation Vice President John Tyler expressed upon finding himself unexpectedly the leader of the land. Tyler set the precedent for vice presidents taking on the full power of office in event of a presidential death – even ones that violated the political platform of their own party.

Krowl suggested that presidents sometimes make surprising moves. Chester A. Arthur supported civil service reform, though his history made him the least likely person to support political change. Adding to observations by Stateline executive editor Scott Greenberger, Krowl demonstrated how the Arthur papers at the Library of Congress help fill in the details of Arthur’s story. Documenting Arthur’s life is challenging because he ordered the destruction of most of his personal papers just before his death. Elements of his life and character must be gleaned from the limited sources that were saved. These include a love letter to his fiancée, a few letters to a bosom friend in early adulthood, an abundance of bills and receipts and a particularly interesting set of letters written by a woman named Julia Sand, who encouraged Arthur to make a positive contribution as president. “Julia Sand saw something noble in Arthur,” Krowl said. “She urged him to create a presidential legacy that was ‘pure and bright.’ Significantly, her letters were among the few that were saved.”

Pic of the Week: Saturdays at the Young Readers Center

The Young Readers Center in the Library of Congress hosted a series of events Jan. 28 to celebrate its new Saturday hours of operation, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The center, which opened in October 2009, will offer more young people and their families the opportunity to experience the wonders and resources of the nation’s library.

Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden joins young book lovers to cut the ribbon marking the grand opening of Saturday hours at the Young Readers Center. Photo by Shawn Miller.

“It is so important, as the nation’s Library, to grow new scholars and to make the Library and its resources more accessible to Americans of all ages,” Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden said. “I am pleased we can now open the doors of the Young Readers Center on Saturdays to scholars age16 and younger and their parents. This will provide opportunity for many more area and visiting families to experience the Library of Congress together.”

Hayden joined several young visitors in a ribbon-cutting ceremony, as well as a Q & A session with author Meg Medina. Author Erica S. Perl also talked with the young readers, who also participated in arts and crafts, book accessibility demonstrations and a parade.

In addition to the new Saturday hours, the center will add new features including demonstrations of video chat with a shared reader display courtesy of Story Bug from Cricket Media, the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped BARD, Dual Vision books (with bilingual capabilities) and other literary media tools.

Literacy Awards Opens for Fifth Round of Applications

(The following is a guest post by Guy Lamolinara, communications officer in the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress.)

Three awards totaling $250,000 are being offered for the fifth year in a row by the Library of Congress Literacy Awards program. Applications are due no later than March 31 at midnight EST.

If you are part of an organization doing exemplary work in literacy or know of an organization that deserves recognition, you can nominate your organization or another organization through a simple application process.

Superstar author Stephen King, who participated in the Library of Congress National Book Festival on Sept. 24, received a Literacy Champion citation from the Library for his work in promoting reading. He also recorded a special public service announcement for us. The international best-selling author of more than 50 books and almost 200 short stories, many of which have been adapted for film or other media, has sold more than 350 million books worldwide.

“No one person or group is going to move the needle alone,” King said in the video released through the Library’s social media channels. “But together, we can make a difference.  That is why I am joining the Library of Congress in supporting the thousands of organizations around the world that are working to promote literacy.”

The Literacy Awards, supported through the generosity of David M. Rubenstein, have so far given more than $1 million to outstanding literacy groups in both the United States and worldwide. You can read more about the awards and the prior winners at www.read.gov/literacyawards/.

Library of Congress Literacy Awards program furthers the Library’s mission by honoring organizations that have made outstanding contributions to increasing literacy in the United States or abroad. The awards also encourage the continuing development of innovative methods for promoting literacy and the wide dissemination of the most effective practices. They are intended to draw public attention to the importance of literacy, and the need to promote literacy and encourage reading.

Curator’s Picks: Surrogate First Ladies

(The following article is featured in the January/February 2017 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine, LCM. You can read the issue in its entirety here.)

Manuscript Division specialists Julie Miller, Barbara Bair and Michelle Krowl discuss some non-spousal first ladies.

Martha Jefferson Randolph

Because Thomas Jefferson was a widower when he became president, Dolley Madison, along with his daughters Martha Randolph and Maria Eppes, helped him entertain. Jefferson did not believe that women should participate in politics, as he had seen them do in Revolutionary Paris, so his daughters’ role at his dinners was mainly ornamental. Not so Dolley Madison, who seated herself at the head of the table when she became first lady.

 

 

 

 

Sarah Yorke Jackson

Andrew Jackson was newly widowed when he came to the White House in March 1829. He was helped in his hosting duties by his daughters-in-law, Emily Donelson and Sarah Yorke Jackson. Emily, his wife’s niece, was married to his foster son and his presidential secretary A. J. Donelson. Sarah was the wife of his adopted son. Sarah continued as hostess following Emily’s death near the end of Jackson’s second term in office.

 

 

 

 

Angelica Singleton Van Buren

Martin Van Buren was a widower when he became president in 1837. He was aided in White House social functions by his daughter-in-law Angelica Singleton Van Buren, the wife of his son Abraham. Former First Lady Dolley Madison had been their matchmaker. Angelica was well-tutored in the social graces, having attended a female academy in South Carolina and a French school in Philadelphia.

 

 

 

 

Harriet Lane

James Buchanan was a bachelor when he became president in 1857. His niece, Harriet Lane, for whom he was legal guardian, managed social events in the White House. While Buchanan had a troubled presidency, Harriet is ranked among the most popular first ladies. She used her position to promote music and the arts and to advocate various reform causes – setting a trend for first ladies of the future.

 

 

 

 

Rose Cleveland

Grover Cleveland first entered the Executive Mansion in 1885 as a bachelor and consequently hostess duties fell to his sister, Rose Elizabeth Cleveland. A scholar, lecturer and teacher by training, the feminist Rose continued her intellectual pursuits while first lady and in 1885 published “George Eliot’s Poetry and Other Studies.” President Cleveland’s June 1886 White House wedding to the young Frances Folsom ended Rose’s tenure as first lady, and she gladly returned to her successful literary career.

All photos are from the Prints and Photographs Division.

New Online: Sigmund Freud Collection

(The following is written by Margaret McAleer, senior archives specialist in the Manuscript Division.)

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Sigmund Freud, 1856-1939. Manuscript Division.

Sigmund Freud went digital today with the release of an online edition of the Library of Congress’s Sigmund Freud Collection. Freud’s explorations into the unconscious and founding of psychoanalysis profoundly influenced modern cultural and intellectual history, securing his place in the history of human thought, as Princess Marie Bonaparte once wrote of her analyst and mentor. The collection that was previously available only in Washington is now accessible to the world in a way that it never was before. The online collected was funded by a generous grant from The Polonsky Foundation.

Visitors to the site will have access to a remarkable collection with an equally remarkable history. In 1951, a dozen years after Freud’s death, a group of New York psychoanalysts established the Sigmund Freud Archives to collect and preserve his letters and writings. They selected the Library of Congress as the collection’s permanent home, sending the first installment of material to Washington in the summer of 1952. Many more donations followed. Freud’s colleagues, students, patients and family members – most notably Anna Freud – gave original Freud letters and other items in their possession. Also added to the collection were hundreds of interviews with people who had known Freud personally. The interviews were conducted mostly in the 1950s by K. R. Eissler, founding secretary of the Sigmund Freud Archives.

The online edition comprises the personal papers of Freud and members of his family. It includes correspondence, manuscripts of Freud’s writings, calendars, notebooks, legal documents and certificates, and Freud’s pocket watch, among many other items. Also available online are transcripts of the Eissler interviews, more than a hundred of which are newly opened and available for the first time. Omitted from the online collection is a large supplemental file of secondary source material that largely dates after Freud’s death.

The contents of more than 2,000 folders is available digitally, most of it in German. Below is just a sampling of what researchers will discover.

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Good conduct certificate, 1859. Manuscript Division.

Good conduct certificate, 1859: Freud’s parents Jacob and Amalia Freud decided to move their family from Moravia to Leipzig, Germany, in 1859, taking up temporary residence in Leipzig during the city’s Easter fair in May. Permanent residence, however, required the approval of city officials, which was far from certain given the legacy of restrictions on the settlement of Jews in Saxony. Jacob Freud, a wool and textile merchant, solicited character and business references to strengthen his case, including this certificate attesting to the family’s good reputation. Despite such testimonials, Leipzig officials rejected Jacob Freud’s application, and the family settled instead in Vienna, Austria. Anyone interested in the events surrounding the Freud family’s move from Moravia will want to read Michael Schröter and Christfried Tögel’s article, “The Leipzig Episode in Freud’s Life (1859): A New Narrative on the Basis of Recently Discovered Documents,” Psychoanalytic Quarterly 76 (2007): 193-215.
New Year’s statement, 1897: Prominent within the collection is Freud’s voluminous correspondence written between 1887 and 1904 to his friend and confidant Wilhelm Fliess, a Berlin physician. The letters reveal how intellectually fruitful this period was, laying out in real time the development of Freud’s theories. This is an English translation of the opening of a letter Freud wrote Fliess on Jan. 3, 1897. In the original letter, Freud expressed his optimism for the coming year, declaring “No New Year has ever found both of us as rich and as ripe.” Indeed, on Sept. 21, 1897, Freud announced to Fliess, “the great secret that has been slowly dawning on me in the last few months.” He had abandoned his seduction theory that all neuroses are the result of sexual abuse in childhood.
Postcard to Martha Freud from New York, 1909: This postcard of the Statue of Liberty is found among Freud’s
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Postcard to Martha Freud from New York, 1909. Manuscript Division.

“Reisebriefe” or travel letters. It was sent by Freud to his wife Martha on his only trip to the United States, where he delivered a series of lectures on psychoanalysis at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, in September 1909. The postcard also bears the signatures of C. G. Jung and Hungarian psychoanalyst Sándor Ferenczi, who traveled with Freud, and A. A. Brill and his wife Rose Owen Brill, who met them in New York. Freud later wrote in an autobiographical work that the positive reception of his theories received in America convinced him that “psychoanalysis was not a delusion any longer; it had become a valuable part of reality.”
“Kürzeste Chronik” [“Short Chronicle”], 1929-1939: Other parts of the collection record the daily routine of Freud’s life. Between 1929 and 1939, he recorded events in what he called “Kürzeste Chronik” or “Short Chronicle.” In addition to everyday occurrences, he noted the rise of Nazism. In March 1938, the entries grew chilling: March 13: “Anschluss with Germany”; March 14: “Hitler in Vienna”; March 22: “Anna at Gestapo,” referring to his daughter’s arrest and interrogation at Gestapo headquarters. She was released later that day. Freud’s eventual departure from Nazi-controlled Austria and arrival in London in June 1938 are also noted in the chronicle.

And so the Sigmund Freud Papers go online, 65 years after the first Sigmund Freud Archives donation arrived at the Library of Congress. Consistent with the Sigmund Freud Archives’ commitment to collecting and making available for scholarly use Freud’s personal papers is the encouragement its executive directors gave to this digitization project.

Stephen King Joins Library in Announcing Applications for the 2017 Literacy Awards

Award-winning author and literacy advocate Stephen King helped the Library of Congress today launch its call for nominations for the 2017 Library of Congress Literacy Awards. The annual awards support organizations working to promote literacy, both in the United States and worldwide, and are made possible through the generosity of David M. Rubenstein, co-founder and co-CEO of The Carlyle Group.

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According to UNESCO, 757 million adults around the world cannot read or write a simple sentence, and 61 million elementary-age children are not in school.

These awards, which were created and initiated by Rubenstein, encourage the continuing development of innovative methods for promoting literacy and the wide dissemination of the most effective practices. They are intended to draw public attention to the importance of literacy and the need to promote literacy and encourage reading.

The Library of Congress Literacy Awards program is administered by the Library’s Center for the Book. The Librarian of Congress will make final selection of the prizewinners with recommendations from literacy experts on an advisory board.

Three prizes will be awarded in 2017:

The David M. Rubenstein Prize ($150,000) is awarded for an outstanding and measurable contribution to increasing literacy levels, to an organization based either inside or outside the United States that has demonstrated exceptional and sustained depth in its commitment to the advancement of literacy.

Last year’s Rubenstein prizewinner: WETA Reading Rockets
The American Prize ($50,000) is awarded for a significant and measurable contribution to increasing literacy levels, or the national awareness of the importance of literacy, to an organization that is based in the United States.

Last year’s American prizewinner: Parent-Child Home Program 
The International Prize ($50,000) is awarded for a significant and measurable contribution to increasing literacy levels, to an organization that is based outside the United States.

Last year’s International prizewinner: Libraries Without Borders

The application rules and a downloadable application are available here. Applications must be received no later than midnight on March 31, 2017, Eastern Time.

More information about last year’s winners and other literacy leaders is available at “Library of Congress Literacy Awards.”

Pic of the Week: Presidential Inauguration Treasures

Michelle Krowl of the Manuscript Division speaks about collection items during the “Presidential Inauguration Treasures” display. Photo by Shawn Miller.

The Library is highlighting presidential inauguration history in a temporary display on view through Saturday, Feb. 4 in the rooms known as Mahogany Row, LJ-110 to LJ-113, on the first floor of the Thomas Jefferson Building. Presidential treasures like the handwritten speeches of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln are featured along with collections on the lighter side: menus, dance cards and souvenirs. The display also includes newspapers, film clips, a demonstration of online resources and a challenging presidential history quiz.

The first stop for visitors is in room 113, where Lincoln’s famous First Inaugural Address (“We are not enemies, but friends.  We must not be enemies.  Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection …”) is on display, along with the Bible that Lincoln used at his first inauguration and the pearl necklace worn by Mary Todd Lincoln. Also on view is the handwritten inaugural speeches delivered by George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and a letter written by Washington voicing trepidation about becoming president.

In the connecting rooms, visitors will find inaugural souvenirs from incoming presidents’ parties and parades. An early newspaper report on an inauguration will be on view, and Library staff will demonstrate Chronicling America, a website providing access to historic newspapers that is maintained by the Library of Congress. Film clips will portray the speeches and parades and there will be demonstrations of the Library’s presidential inaugurations website.  The quiz will challenge visitors’ knowledge of inaugural firsts. Sample question: Who was the first president to ride to his inauguration in an automobile?

This guide to presidential inaugurations offers a wide variety of primary source materials documenting presidential inaugurations, including diaries and letters written by presidents and those who witnessed the inaugurations, handwritten drafts of inaugural addresses, broadsides, inaugural tickets and programs, prints, photographs and sheet music.