Library of Congress's Blog, page 133

Happy 265th James Madison!

James Madison. Between 1809 and 1817. Prints and Photographs Division.

James Madison is known as the Father of the Constitution because of his pivotal role in the document’s drafting as well as its ratification. Madison also drafted the first 10 amendments — the Bill of Rights.

When the federal Constitution was approved by the states and went into effect in 1789, the absence of a Bill of Rights was the loudest and most effective criticism of it. Although he believed that individual rights were fully protected by the Constitution as it was ratified, Madison recognized that drafting a Bill of Rights was politically imperative.

His “Notes for a Speech on Constitutional Amendments,” June 8, 1789, highlights the arguments he used as a leader in the First Federal Congress to push 12 amendments to the Constitution through Congress in its first year. Ten of these amendments were ratified by the states and have been enshrined as the Bill of Rights.

The James Madison Papers are available online and consist of approximately 12,000 items that document the fourth president’s life through correspondence, personal notes, drafts of letters and legislation, an autobiography, legal and financial documents, and miscellaneous manuscripts.

For those interested in secret symbols, there is an essay on “James Madison’s Ciphers.” Madison, as a Virginia delegate to the Continental Congress, while he was secretary of state and in his personal correspondence with Jefferson, continually feared that unauthorized people would seek to read his private and public correspondence. To deter such intrusions, he resorted to a variety of codes and ciphers.

“The James Madison Papers” online presentation complements other online presidential papers from the Library of Congress, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Jackson and James Monroe.

Madison was also the first to propose the idea of a congressional library in 1783. He later approved an act of Congress appropriating money to buy Jefferson’s book collection after the British burned the Capitol in 1814. You can read more about it in this Library of Congress blog post.

Pulitzer-prize winning historian Jack N. Rakove discusses Madison, his work and influence in this video.

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Today the Library is convening a panel of scholars to discuss the fourth president’s early life, political and personal partnerships and his role at the 1787 convention. A video of the event will be made available in the coming weeks.

A Gorey Story

“Dogear Wryde Postcards: Neglected Murderesses Series,” 1980. Set 208 of 250, numbered and signed by Edward Gorey. Rare Book and Special Collections Division. Photo by Shawn Miller.

The work of Edward Gorey has often been described as “macabre,” a word that his friend Alexander Theroux claims the noted author and artist didn’t like. While I would agree that it’s an appropriate word, Gorey’s drawings are something more – odd, whimsical, humorous, magical, mysterious, gloomy, eccentric – all rolled up in delightful pen-and-ink sketches.

I was first introduced to Gorey’s work as a kid in the 1980s watching the long-running “Mystery!” series on PBS with my mom. The opening sequence was a wonderful animation featuring his work – a winking tombstone, a game of croquet in the rain, a blooming urn, a fainting lady losing her scarf. (You can see a version of the animation on PBS’s site).

Gorey passed away in 2000, but a collection of his work lives on at the Library. A gift from Gorey collector and enthusiast Glen Emil, the collection came to the Library’s Rare Book and Special Collections Division in December 2014 with quiet fanfare – probably how the artist himself would have wanted.

Emil began collecting Gorey-related material in 1979, which later became the foundation for the online portal Goreography.com. He donated the items to the Library in an effort to keep the collection “as a single unit, a testament to the appeal and popularity of Edward Gorey’s talent and his unremitting commitment to artistic expression in the literary world.”

Gorey created more than 100 works, including “The Gashlycrumb Tinies,” “The Doubtful Guest” and “The Wuggly Ump”; designed sets and costumes for theater productions from Cape Cod to Broadway, including Broadway’s “Dracula” for which he won a Tony; a remarkable number of illustrations in publications such as The New Yorker and The New York Times; and illustrations in books by a wide array of authors from Charles Dickens to Edward Lear, Samuel Beckett, John Updike, Virginia Woolf, H.G. Wells, Florence Heide and many others.

“Leaves from a Mislaid Album,” 1972. Set 19 of 50, numbered and signed by Edward Gorey. Rare Book and Special Collections Division. Photo by Shawn Miller.

The gift of the Goreyography.com collection introduced 802 items related to the American author and artist to the Library. This breaks down to 467 books, 89 periodicals, 92 posters and theater-related materials, 147 items of ephemera and seven works of art. There are also 25 items that can be described as reference documents: digitally recorded media programs and inter-office memos and communiqués. The collection is open to researchers and is accessible through the Rare Book and Special Collections Division Reading Room.

The collection is divided into three sections: works by Gorey, works with contributions by Gorey and, well, everything else.

Of the primary works by Gorey, items of note include two titles published and sold with original and unique artwork: “The Sopping Thursday” (1970) lettered edition with pen and ink artwork, and “Amphigorey” (1972), a numbered and signed copy with pen and ink with watercolor artwork. These are unique in that they are the only two primary section books that have original artwork that Gorey produced for sale.

According to Emil, the section containing Gorey’s contributions are some of his most popular and memorable work. “This is where Gorey’s impact upon the publishing industry is most obvious.” Most contributions were works for hire, but memorable examples include the John Bellairs and Brad Strickland gothic mystery novels for young adults, Anchor paperback designs from 1953 to about 1960, Marvin Kaye compilations for Doubleday, and mysterious stories by women writers edited by Seon Manley and Gogo Lewis for William Morrow.

The “everything else” section is probably the most fun and diverse of Gorey-related material. It includes original art, ephemera like dolls and theatrical promotion material. The Library now also has two limited copperplate etchings: “Dancing Elephant” (no. 34 of 75 and signed) and “Figbash” (no. 15 of 50 and signed).

“Part of Gorey’s charm is that he was a mysterious man,” said Emil. “He loved to say ‘What you see is what you get’ when asked what it all meant. He didn’t divulge meanings into his work and loved that people were engaged.”

 

Other sources: The Edward Gorey House, NPR

A Tale of Two Hebrew Patronesses

(The following post is by Ann Brener, Hebraic area specialist in the Library’s African and Middle Eastern Division.)

Every age has its own image of the “woman of valor,” and in the crumbling Jewish world of post-exilic Spain, that image was embodied in the persons of two unique women: Doña Gracia Nasi and Signora Benvenida Abravanel. Born into households “alike in dignity” and alike in influence and wealth, each of these women experienced the traumas of the exile from Spain, lived her life on the stage of international politics, and, ultimately, comes alive for us today in rare Hebrew books housed at the Library of Congress.

A map depicting the nautical charts of the Eastern Mediterranean in the middle of the 16th century. By Battista Agnese, 1544. Geography and Map Division.

The exile from Spain in 1492 and from Portugal in 1497 were not single events in the annals of Jewish history but rather milestones in a process of destruction, disruption and, above all, an ongoing search for a new home that, in many cases, lasted over several generations. The lives of both Gracia Nasi and Benvenida Abravanel are telling examples of these processes and of the political maneuverings they involved.

Members of the two most important Jewish families in Spain, each of these women was born into a matrix of wealth and power that led them to take leading roles in the struggle for Jewish survival in the aftermath of the exile. Nasi’s path led from Lisbon to Antwerp, Venice, Ferrara and finally to Istanbul, capital of the Ottoman Empire. Abravanel’s path was centered largely in Naples, but the two women crossed paths, albeit unknowingly, at many points on the compass of international politics, as well as in their generosity to fellow Jewish exiles and support of Jewish culture.

“Le-Khol Hefets,” by Eliezer Mili. Venice, 1552. African and Middle Eastern Division.

 We do not know whether the two ladies ever met in person, but they do meet today on the shelves of the Library of Congress, through the books that their authors dedicated to their generous patronesses.

In an article published online in Jewish Women’s Archives, Howard Tzvi Adelman documents the good press enjoyed by Abravanel in contemporary Jewish literature; here in the Library of Congress we have evidence of her cultural patronage in a Hebrew book titled “Le-Khol Hefets” (“For Every Purpose”), published during her lifetime in 1552.

The book takes its name from a biblical verse: “For every purpose there is a time and a rule” (Ecclesiastes 3: 17), and as the title suggests it deals with the formal side of Jewish religious practice. With moving grace and notable alliteration, the author refers to Abravanel (“may her glory be exalted”) as “more perfect than all [other persons]”(“kulah kelulah min ha-kol”).

Illustration showing an elegantly dressed “modern noblewoman” of Naples from Signora Benvenida’s day. “Degli habiti, antichi et moderni di diversi parti del mondo” (Venice, 1590). Rare Book and Special Collections Division.

Like Abravanel, Nasi was known in her day as a patroness of Jewish culture; one contemporary writer called her quite simply “the heart of the body of the Portuguese nation” – the “Portuguese nation” being a kind of shorthand for the Jews forcibly converted in Spain and Portugal and now seeking to return to Judaism. The book was written in Portuguese, the mother-tongue of its author Samuel Usque, as well as most of the exiles.

Nasi’s daughter, Reyna, was the heir to her mother’s ideals as well as her wealth, and she, too, supported Jewish culture. Only in her case, the books she helped publish were in Hebrew rather than Portuguese, and she actually had the books printed in her own palace, Belvedere, using equipment that she herself commissioned. Of the 15 known books from her press (all exceedingly rare), five are now in the collections of the Library of Congress.

The books all bear similar information on the title page; the page shown here comes from a commentary on Genesis written by a rabbi visiting in Istanbul:

“Sefer Torat Moshe” (“The Book of the Teaching of Moses”),by Moses Alschich. Belvedere, ca. 1593. African and Middle Eastern Division.

“Printed in the home and with the letters of the illustrious lady, woman of valor, Doña Reyna Nasi, ‘may she be blessed above women in tents’ [Judges 5:24], widow of the prince and magnate in Israel, the lord Duke Don Joseph Nasi in her home here in Belvedere near the great city of Constantinople [i.e., Istanbul] under the rule of our lord the great and powerful Sultan Murad, may his glory be exalted.”

What books did Reyna choose to sponsor? Well, in addition to this commentary on Genesis, we find a commentary on the Book of Ruth and a volume of legal opinions by a local rabbi much admired in the Nasi circle. In his biography of Doña Nasi, the great scholar Cecil Roth deplores Reyna’s choices, dismissing the books as trivial works by local authors. Yet perhaps this judgment was over-harsh or misses the point altogether. By cultivating “local talent,” so to speak, Reyna Nasi may well have sought to create a living Hebrew culture in the best tradition of the great Jewish patrons who once lived in Spain and whose memory continued to inspire their descendants in exile.

Pic of the Week: Hedge Coke Honored as Witter Bynner Fellow

Witter Bynner Fellow Allison Hedge Coke reads from her work accompanied by musicians Laura Ortman and Kelvyn Bell. Photo by Shawn Miller.

On Wednesday, poet Allison Hedge Coke was honored as the 2016 Witter Bynner Fellow. She was selected and introduced by Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry at the Library of Congress, Juan Felipe Herrera.

In his selection, Herrera said he sought to honor Hedge Coke “for her precision of Earth, of suffering in and out of the Rez, of the workers unnamed, open roads knitted with tin shacks, Case ’45 tractors, ancestor dust and the spirit tuned to caribou, America and song. For her translation projects of First Peoples across the entire hemisphere. For her unceasing teaching, humility, courage, and pioneering—for these offerings to the small miracles of all our voices and the galaxies they aim to call out and admire.”

In a statement, Coke said, “I am utterly grateful, thrilled, and deeply moved to be selected for the 2016 Witter Bynner Fellowship, stunned really, as it is by far the most humbling public moment of my life. Moreover, to be selected by such an immeasurably active Poet Laureate is just an immense honor.”

The Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry was incorporated in 1972 in New Mexico to provide grant support for programs through non-profit organizations. Witter Bynner was an influential early-20th century poet and translator of the Chinese Classic “Tao Te Ching,” which he named “The Way of Life According to Laotzu.” He travelled with D.H. Lawrence and Frieda Lawrence and proposed to Edna St. Vincent Millay (she accepted, but then they changed their minds). He worked at McClure’s Magazine, where he published A.E. Housman for the first time in the United States, and was one of O. Henry’s early fans.

This is the 19th year that the fellowship has been awarded. You can view a list of all Witter Bynner Fellows here.

A Voice from Hoops History

(March Madness is right around the corner, and the Library of Congress has an interesting connection to basketball’s invention. The following is a story written by Mark Hartsell for the Gazette, the Library’s staff newsletter.)

A portrait of James Naismith, who in 1891 invented the game of basketball. New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection, Prints and Photographs Division.

Basketball, unique among major sports, has a clear creation story: We know when, where, why and how the game was invented, and by whom.

Now, some 125 years after the first game was played in a Massachusetts school gymnasium, we know something new: the sound of the creator’s voice.

A researcher recently discovered in the Library of Congress archives the only known audio recording of Dr. James Naismith – revealing, for the first time, the voice of the man who invented basketball, telling how he did it.

“Suddenly, out of nowhere, you have this very unique snapshot, kind of like putting your ear to the keyhole and hearing the past,” said Gene DeAnna, head of the Library’s Recorded Sound Section. “It’s really quite wonderful. There’s magic to it.”

The discovery was made by Michael J. Zogry, the director of indigenous studies and an associate professor of religious studies at the University of Kansas.

 

Zogry had been conducting research for a new book exploring the influence of Naismith’s religious beliefs on his work, including the invention of basketball.

“People tend to think of him as a sideline figure who created this game and that it kind of took off. But he was a very interesting person and he was a man of principle,” said Zogry, noting that Naismith declined to patent his game or try to get rich off it. “He lived those principles, he displayed those throughout his life – a great American success story.”

Seeking a Voice

Despite basketball’s great popularity in Naismith’s lifetime, no recorded interview with its inventor was known to exist. He appears in a least three films – all silent. Zogry, in the course of his research, had identified three potential audio recordings of interviews. Two leads were dead ends.

The third was a reference made in a Naismith biography to an interview on a popular radio program, “We the People,” in early 1939. Zogry was able to determine the broadcast date for that particular episode and eventually made an online reference request to the Recorded Sound Section.

The “We the People” recordings were part of the WOR-AM collection of radio programs donated to the Library on lacquer discs in 1984. The lacquer discs were transferred to tape and now are in the queue for digitization.

However, DeAnna said, many such collections come to the Library without in-depth cataloging – particularly variety shows such as “We the People.”

“The cataloging typically is pretty thin – usually the title of the show, the host and the date,” he said. “Beyond that, it’s difficult to analyze the content of these programs.”

In this case, the cataloging information didn’t include Naismith’s name. So, reference librarians in the Recorded Sound Research Center pulled the recording Zogry requested and heard history: Naismith describing, on the radio, the first basketball game ever played.

“I practically jumped – ‘My God, a recording of James Naismith,’ ” DeAnna said. “I had never heard that there was a recording of him, so it was pretty special.”

The Library provided the audio to Zogry, who soon had a special moment of his own: Zogry played the recording for Naismith’s 79-year-old grandson Jim Naismith – the first time he’d ever heard his grandfather’s voice.

“That was a terrific moment,” Zogry said.

Peach-Basket Ball

James Naismith had been working as a physical instructor at what is now Springfield College in Massachusetts during the winter of 1891, seeking something to occupy his students during a New England blizzard.

So, he nailed two peach baskets up at opposite ends of the gym floor, divided his charges into two teams of nine – sides would be reduced to five in later years – and told them the object of his new game: pass the ball up the court and throw the ball into the opposing team’s basket.

Naismith’s game, with modified rules, spread around the globe. The YMCA introduced basketball internationally by 1893, the first pro league formed in 1898, major colleges adopted the sport in the early 1900s and, in 1936, the Olympics added basketball as an official sport, with Naismith on hand to present the medals.

Three years later, Naismith went to New York in early January to attend a college basketball doubleheader at Madison Square Garden. While there, he submitted to the “We the People” interview with host Gabriel Heatter.

In the brief segment – the recording is about 2.5 minutes long – Naismith describes how he came up with the game and the first contest ever played.

Naismith quickly realized, he told Heatter, that he’d made a big mistake: This game seriously needed more rules.

“The boys began tackling, kicking and punching in the clinches. They ended up in a free-for-all in the middle of the gym floor,” Naismith said. “Before I could pull them apart, one boy was knocked out, several of them had black eyes, and one had a dislocated shoulder.

“It certainly was murder.”

The boys kept nagging Naismith to let them play again, so he sat down and wrote 13 basic rules that served as the foundation for how the game is played.

“The most important one was that there should be no running with the ball; that stopped tackling and slugging,” Naismith said. “We tried out the game with those rules, and we didn’t have one casualty – we had a fine, clean sport.”

No Brogue, New Mystery

 The recording offered something of a surprise: “Accounts suggested he had something of a Scottish brogue,” Zogry said. “He sounded like an elderly gentleman from the Midwest.”

It also created a mystery: Previous accounts said that the rules were written before the first game, not after. Zogry suggests that Naismith, trying to please the show’s producers, might have been reading from a script, perhaps provided by the program.

“Whether he wrote what he said or someone else did, I think that he felt it was in the spirit of what he was trying to get across,” Zogry said.

Naismith died only 10 months after the interview, leaving a newly discovered recording that, Zogry said, helps reveal a modest and humble man who invented something great.

“In this day and age where media is ubiquitous,” Zogry said, “to be able to find something like this is extraordinary.”

Inquiring Minds: Straight From the Sports Section

Sam Farber. Courtesy of ESPN.

The collections of the Library of Congress serve scholars and researchers in countless ways. Manuscripts, photographs and other ephemera documenting American culture and heritage have been inspiration for a variety of scholarship, books, programming and other projects. So, it’s always interesting to learn about those using the institution’s resources in intriguing manners. One doesn’t necessarily equate sports statistics with the Library, but a researcher has found opportunity to do just that.

Sam Farber, senior researcher at ESPN, has been using the Library’s historical newspaper collection to gather information for his work in the Stats & Information group primarily on SportsCenter and College Basketball GameDay. Thanks to a point in the right direction by a family friend who also works at the Library, Farber was introduced to the many possibilities the Library offers.

“Most of what I needed was dates on which old basketball games were played,” he explained. “That sounds pretty boring, but with those we were able to create a database of every game involving an AP-ranked team in Division I history (nearly 40,000 games dating to the first poll release in 1949).”

That wealth of information has allowed ESPN to lend perspective to contemporary sports stories, like West Virginia’s chance to beat No. 1 Kansas and No. 2 Oklahoma in consecutive games earlier this season. His research allows him to compile a variety of story angles that are pitched to ESPN’s various platforms and appear on both game broadcast and multiple studio shows.

“These archives allowed us to create a one-of-a-kind resource that’s really unrivaled in the industry,” said Farber. “We’ve gotten massive return on the database so far as its information has littered our college basketball coverage all season long.”

Another recent example involves ESPN’s coverage of the Baylor vs. Kansas game last month. According to Farber, Baylor claimed to be 0-15 all-time against the No. 1 and No. 2 teams when ESPN had it as 0-14 in such games.

Newspaper from Jan. 18, 1949, indicating the first AP Poll. Library of Congress.

“After going through the school’s media guide and identifying the relevant games, we cross-referenced that list with our resource and found the discrepancy,” he explained. “Baylor claimed that it played No. 2 Oklahoma A&M on December 29, 1948. Using the newspaper archives, I was able to prove that the AP Poll didn’t even exist for another 2-3 weeks.”

Farber admits to being fascinated with the “snapshot of history” the newspapers have provided. From the style of writing to the older photographs to the general newspaper construction, he’s really immersed himself into how reporters and fans viewed and wrote about sports during an earlier era.

“The window into the past that the Library affords is a unique resource that must be preserved,” he concluded. “The written word is our most direct connection to past generations and provides invaluable information that would otherwise pass as those who experienced it do.

“The Library is a fantastic resource that will hopefully grow and flourish so that others can discover the treasures that it holds.”

“Downton Abbey” Lives On at the Library of Congress

Highclere Castle, 13-bay perspective study in an Elizabethan style with larger corner towers and no central entrance. Prints and Photographs Division.

If you’re a fan of “Downton Abbey,” Sunday night was likely a bittersweet television moment – glad for the happy ending but sad to see the popular show go. As one Library colleague put it, we will all be experiencing “Downton” withdrawals.

The Library of Congress may be able to help with that, however. Recently acquired and added to the institution’s collections are a series of architectural drawings of Downton Abbey – or more accurately, Highclere Castle. These drawings join the Library’s unmatched architecture, design, and engineering collections, including the Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record (HABS/HAER) and the papers of many of the most distinguished figures in the area like Pierre Charles L’Enfant, Benjamin Henry Latrobe, James Renwick, Charles and Ray Eames, Eero Saarinen and many more.

Located in Hampshire, Highclere Castle has been home to the Carnarvon family since 1679. (The Crawley’s moved in six seasons ago.) You can read more about the estate’s real-life inhabitants in an article from the January/February 2015 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine.

Highclere Castle, 9-bay perspective study in the Italianate style with small corner towers and a large separate tower. Prints and Photographs Division.

The home, which sits atop the 1,000-acre property, was transformed to its current splendor in the mid-19th century. In 1838, the third Earl of Carnarvon hired Sir Charles Barry, the architect who designed the neo-Gothic Houses of Parliament in London, to head the renovation project.

According to architecture.com, “Barry’s qualities seem to lie in his versatility. He could deliver whatever the client required, as long as it included ornamentation. … Judging by the high level of decoration on his buildings, Barry seems to have disliked blank spaces.”

Elevation of Barry’s new central tower in an Elizabethan style above a section of the principal staircase and entrance hall. Prints and Photographs Division.

 

The mansion is designed in the Elizabethan style, but that wasn’t the original iteration of Barry’s plan. The architect’s early view was based on the Italianate style with small corner towers, pedimented windows and a large separate tower. But, what was old was new again, and, following a movement back to a distinctly British style, Barry transformed the large estate to Elizabethan gothic splendor. A focal point of the home is its central tower, and it is evident Barry was influenced by his design work of the Palace of Westminster.

“It’s the only country home that echoes the Palace of Westminster,” said C. Fort Peatross, director of the Library’s Center For Architecture, Design And Engineering. “Barry was rejecting Classicism and picking up the style of a glorious, previous period.”

“My ancestor asked for a really nice house to be built in bath stone,” explained the present earl of Carnarvon to Architectural Digest in 2012. “Barry said he couldn’t guarantee that it would last one hundred years, since the stone crumbles, but it is 133 years old now. The foundations are 16 feet deep, and so the castle will probably stand up for at least another 500 years.”

Elevations and sections of Barry’s new principal staircase and entrance hall. Prints and Photographs Division.

Barry supervised the project until his death in 1860. Thus, much of the interior work of the house is not his own. Thomas Allom, who had worked with Barry, completed the project. That’s not to say Barry’s influence isn’t around: he designed elements of the principal staircase and entrance hall.

“[Highclere Castle] is like a jewel box,” said Peatross. “It’s changing every moment of the day in the light.”

And, just as Downton Abbey exists in real life, the storyline isn’t far fetched either. You can read more about that in the Library of Congress blog post. More information about the Library’s architecture and design collections can be found at its Center for Architecture, Design and Engineering.

Three sketches highlight designs for Highclere: top left, three-bay interior wall elevation with coupled arched openings and a central doorway framed by four pilasters; top right, alternative scheme, here with an arched central doorway; middle, eight elevation details for parapets and decorative panels including one with the Carnarvon family motto: “Ung je serverai,” old French for “One will I serve.” Prints and Photographs Division.

Library in the News: February 2016 Edition

In February, the Library added a host of resources to its offerings, both onsite and online.

Early February, the Library debuted a new exhibition on “Jazz Singers,” which offers perspectives on the art of vocal jazz, featuring singers and song stylists from the 1920s to the present.

The ArtsBeat blog of the New York Times called the exhibition a “trove of rarities.”

Will Friedwald of the Wall Street Journal wrote, “Jazz is about singing with soul, rhythm and personality, and if you want a visual and inspirational definition of what the music is all about, look no further.”

Deborah Block of Voice of America wrote, “Past and present, they are keeping jazz alive for generations to come.”

The exhibition is also online.

With much anticipation, the Library’s Rosa Parks Collection was added to the Library’s online offerings in February. A selection of photographs, letters, manuscripts and other ephemera reveal many details of Parks’ life and personality.

“I think it’s a wonderful idea that people who cannot travel and do not have the opportunity to travel will have an opportunity to see the brilliance of the mother of the modern civil rights movement,” said Elaine Steele, who, along with Parks, co-founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development in Detroit. She spoke with the Detroit News regarding the Library’s collection.

The online presentation was also featured in the New York Times, The Washington Post, the Associated Press and Mashable, among many others.

In collaboration with the WGBH Educational Foundation, the Library launched the American Archive of Public Broadcasting, which recently acquired New Hampshire Public Radio’s digital collection of interviews and speeches by presidential candidates from 1995-2007.

The announcement was also made in Fine Books & Collections Magazine and Radio World.

The Library has also been featured in The Washington Post’s series of “Presidential” podcasts, highlighting our curatorial experts.

And, speaking of presidents, Slate’s “The Vault” blog took a look at a different aspect of George Washington’s career – that of surveyor. The Library holds several maps from his lifelong involvement in surveying and cartography, all of which are available online at the Library.

In addition to these new offerings, the Library recently added to its collections 96 original courtroom drawings by Aggie Kenny, Bill Robles and Elizabeth Williams that show high-profile trials from the past four decades.

“The hand-drawn moments take us inside some of the most famous trials of recent decades, to scenes only made visible by the ongoing work of courtroom artists,” wrote Allison Meier for Hyperallergic.com.

The New York Times and Associated Press also featured stories on the courtroom drawings acquisition.

Pic of the Week: Read Across America

“You’re never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read with a child.” ~ Dr. Seuss

Kahin Mohammad of the Young Readers Center displays a special braille and written edition of “Green Eggs Ham” to students during Read Across America day. Photo by Shawn Miller.

On Wednesday, children gathered at the Library’s Young Readers Center for “Read Across America” day, which also coincides with the birthday of Dr. Seuss.

The National Education Association’s signature program is now in its 19th year. The event at the Library was one of many across the nation to celebrate the joy of reading and motivate children and teens to read.

New Online: Rosa Parks, Page Upgrades, Search Functionality

(The following is a guest post by William Kellum, manager in the Library’s Web Services Division.)

This item from the Parks’ collection documents her reflections on her bus arrest, circa 1956-1958.

In February, the Library of Congress added the Rosa Parks Papers to its digitized collections. The collection contains approximately 7,500 manuscripts and 2,500 photographs and is on loan to the Library for 10 years from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. Included in the collection are personal correspondence, family photographs, letters from presidents, fragmentary drafts of some of her writings from the time of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, her Presidential Medal of Freedom, her Congressional Gold Medal and more.

The online presentation includes a video that contains highlights from the collection and a look behind the scenes at how the Library’s team of experts in cataloging, preservation, digitization, exhibitions and teacher training are making the Parks’ legacy available to the world.

To support teachers and students as they explore this one-of-a-kind collection, the Library is offering a Primary Source Gallery with classroom-ready highlights from the Rosa Parks Papers and teaching ideas for educators.

Along with digitized materials like the Rosa Parks Collection, the Library continues to add new born-digital materials to its website. The Library’s Web Archives have recently been updated with content collected during the 2012 and 2014 United States Elections.

February also brings some changes to our overall presentation – we’ve upgraded all of our item detail pages (the page where you view bibliographic data alongside a digital resource, like an image or video). All pages now feature an improved, simplified layout for all screen sizes, larger thumbnails, simplified download links and easier access to “rights and access” information. We’ve also added an overlay so that you can tell when an item has multiple pages, such as in a folder of manuscripts, or an atlas, like this circa 1700 volume with 14 images to view:

Also new on item pages is our beta Cite This Item widget. Users can click to see the bibliographic data for the item formatted in Chicago, APA and MLA styles.

Since searching our website is the way most users interact with our content, we’ve added a new search facet (aka filter) to help users find digital content based on whether it’s fully available online or not. Look down the left hand side of a search results page (like this search for photos of “Yoesmite”), and you’ll see a box labelled “Access Condition” – you can use that filter to limit your results to items fully available, or items that only display a thumbnail and that you need to come to our reading rooms to see in their entirety.

A few other new things worth noting are now online: “Jazz Singers,” a new exhibit on the art of vocal jazz from the 1920s to the present; The Mexican Revolution and the United States in the Collections of the Library of Congress, an upgraded presentation describing the “complex and turbulent relationship between Mexico and the United States during the Mexican Revolution, approximately 1910-1920” drawn from primary source items in the Library’s collections; and Women’s History Month 2016, an update of our collaborative portal with links to featured content from the Library and our partners at the Smithsonian, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Park Service, and the National Archives.