Library of Congress's Blog, page 145

Inquiring Minds: How a New Walt Whitman Poem was Found at the Library of Congress

(The following is a post written by Peter Armenti from the Poetry and Literature Center’s blog, From the Catbird Seat. Armenti spoke with a researcher who discovered a new Walt Whitman poem in the Library’s collections.)

Walt Whitman enthusiasts were treated to a surprise last December when news broke that Wendy Katz, an associate professor of art history at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, had discovered a new poem by Whitman. The poem, titled “To Bryant, the Poet of Nature,” was uncovered by Katz in May 2014 as she examined penny press newspapers in the Library of Congress’s Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room while a Fellow in Residence at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Appearing on page 2 of the June 23, 1842, issue of the Democratic Republican New Era, the poem was found serendipitously by Katz while conducting research for a forthcoming art history book, “The Politics of Art Criticism in the Penny Press, 1833-1861.”

“To BRYANT, the Poet of Nature.” Democratic Republican New Era, June 23, 1832, page 2.

Dr. Katz, who split her time in Washington, D.C., conducting research at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, and the Library of Congress was kind enough to discuss her discovery of the poem in an email exchange with me.

Whereas many recent discoveries of “lost” literary works are due to the increasing availability of keyword-searchable full-text databases that provide access to historical newspaper and periodical content, Dr. Katz found the Whitman poem through a more traditional method:

My typical day [at the Library] really was spent at one of the reading room tables, with foam supports, not browsing, but standing and methodically going through bound newspaper volumes. I would spend eight to 10 hours or more doing so. I identified volumes through the Library’s online catalog, but had assistance from the Newspaper circulation staff, who often could help me interpret the holdings more precisely. Since my time in Washington was short, I prioritized bound volumes, on the principle that subscription databases and microfilm “might” be obtainable elsewhere.

Dr. Katz took advantage of the Library’s late evening hours during the week and its Saturday hours to complete her research. She spent the first three months of her time at the Library going through the Library’s nearly complete run of New York’s Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer, noting that it’s “one of the most important and longest-running Whig papers during this period, and as far as I know, not microfilmed or digitized.” Dr. Katz also noted that the paper is “a blanket sheet—literally 3 or 4 feet high and wide,” and that while skimming the pages is difficult, “to do so online or on microfilm would take ten or more times as long, because you could not get anywhere near all of one page’s contents in any particular screen or view.”

After she finished searching the Morning Courier and New-York Enquirer, she moved on to papers that had shorter runs, at least in the Library’s collection, reviewing about 35 papers in all. It wasn’t until May, however—the final month of her Library research—that the Democratic Republican New Era attracted her attention. As Dr. Katz describes:

Democratic Republican New Era, June 23, 1832, page 2. “To BRYANT, the Poet of Nature” appears at top of column 4.

I had started to find quite a bit of coverage of the arts in the Sunday weeklies that had started off with a Democratic bent to them—the Sunday Dispatch, and Atlas, for example, but also the Mercury—many of them of course became Republican by the 1850s. So that gave me a particular interest in the newspapers in that ‘circle’—but I was also trying hard to work through some of the newspapers that like the New Era had only a relatively few issues in the [Library’s] collection, to see if I could get a feel for whether they would be productive sources and should be pursued. But I didn’t single the New Era out in advance, or have particular hopes for it.

Her hopes changed dramatically on May 22, at about 8 p.m., when she came across the poem “To Bryant, the Poet of Nature,” written by “W.W.” Even though the author’s full name wasn’t given, she had little doubt the poem was by Whitman:

Since I really do go through the newspapers page by page, I had noticed in earlier issues mentions (usually praising his work) of Whitman, first by Levi Slamm, and then by Parke Godwin. So when the “W.W.” poem appeared shortly after one of these comments, I was pretty immediately sure that it must be by him. Though nothing in the composition or language of the poem was recognizable to me as Whitman per se, the subject–(William Cullen) Bryant, who I knew he admired, but also the idea of a poet’s fame—also pointed toward Whitman, for me. As did the fact that I knew he had edited a Democratic paper himself so had contacts and patronage within those circles.

Despite Dr. Katz’s certainty, her husband, the Whitman scholar Kenneth Price, “with his track record of identifying some 3000 Whitman documents in the National Archives,” was initially more skeptical. He was eventually swayed by Katz’s arguments, which were published in the Fall 2014 issue of Walt Whitman Quarterly Review (“A Newly Discovered Whitman Poem about William Cullen Bryant“).

When I asked Dr. Katz about the contributions of Library staff to her research, she offered words of praise for employees in the Newspaper and Current Periodical Reading Room:

I worked most closely with the circulation staff, who helped me identify the bound volumes I needed, which sometimes weren’t where I thought they were. They were really wonderful; thoughtful, always helpful, interested in my work, with a really good balance between keeping the materials accessible to researchers and making sure that best practices for conservation were in place.

“To BRYANT, the Poet of Nature.” [Transcription]

Let Glory diadem the mighty dead—

Let monuments of brass and marble rise

To those who have upon our being shed

A golden halo, borrowed from the skies,

And given to time its most enduring prize;

For they but little less than angels were:

But not to thee, oh! nature’s OWN, we should

(When from this clod the minstrel-soul aspires

And joins the glorious band of purer lyres)

Tall columns build: thy monument is here—

For ever fixed in its eternity—

A monument God-built! ‘Tis seen around—

In mountains huge and many gliding streams—

Where’er the torrent lifts a melancholy sound,

Or modest flower in broad savannah gleams.

W.W.

For further reading and research, make sure to check out the Library’s Pinterest board on Walt Whitman, which you can read more about here. For more stories on researchers and scholars using the Library’s collections, check out other blog posts in our “Inquiring Minds” series. 

LC in the News: May 2015 Edition

In May, the Library’s Rosa Parks Collection continued to make news. Her niece, Sheila Keys, visited the Library of Congress to present a lecture on her book about her aunt. She, along with several other relatives, also had the opportunity to view items from the collection.

“I was pleased that it would go to a place where students and the public could view it, take from it and learn something from it, from her, from her humility,” Keys told the Associated Press. “The public will gain some knowledge, some insight into the wisdom of this woman.”

The AP story ran in other national outlets including ABC News and the Huffington Post.

The Library’s Veterans History Project made several headlines during May, for commemorations of Memorial Day and V-E Day.

Lily Rothman wrote a piece for Time Magazine and spoke with family members of veterans whose collections are part of the archive, as well as volunteers who collect the oral histories.

“If veterans are not interviewed before they pass on then no one else will be able to get that same perspective and story from them. It’s very important for us to continue doing this project so that everybody, no matter when it was in history, can know how it really was,” said Hetal Shah, who has been volunteering since she was 15.

Newsweek ran excerpts from the VHP collections that recalled World War II.

Speaking of wartime history, the Library’s collection of Civil War stereographs was featured on hyperallergic.com.

“There’s a less common breed of stereoscopic images that enthusiasts tend to drool over: the ones made by small town producers, for which very few prints were made, and for which the negatives no longer exist,” wrote Laura C. Mallonee. “Remarkably enough, the Library of Congress has acquired 540 of them.”

The National Journal put the spotlight on a collection of early American war and health posters.

Reporter Caroline Nyce called them “quirky and sometimes harrowing.”

A Hole-some Treat

Poster advertising the Salvation Army “lassies.” 1918. Prints and Photographs Division.

Doughnuts are as quintessential to America as apple pie. Who hasn’t happily licked glaze off his or her fingers or made a mess with powdered sugar? If there were never to be a Krispy Kreme, Dunkin’ Donuts, LaMar’s or neighborhood mom-and-pop bakery, life as we know it would be a less cheery place … these are calories many of us don’t mind.

So it should come as no surprise that a holiday has been set aside to celebrate these fried confections. National Doughnut Day is the first Friday in June (today!) and actually honors the Salvation Army “Lassies” of World War I.

The original Salvation Army doughnut was first served by the nonprofit organization in 1917. During WWI, the lassies were sent to the front lines of Europe, where they made home-cooked foods and provided a morale boost to the troops. Two Salvation Army volunteers – Ensign Margaret Sheldon and Adjutant Helen Purviance – came up with the idea of providing doughnuts. Sheldon wrote of one busy day: “Today I made 22 pies, 300 doughnuts, 700 cups of coffee.” Often, the doughnuts were cooked in oil poured into a soldier’s metal helmet.

National Doughnut Day started in 1938 as a fundraiser for the Chicago Salvation Army. Its goal was to help the needy during the Great Depression and to honor the Salvation Army Lassies of World War I, who were the only women outside of military personnel allowed to visit the front lines.

Sylvia Coney, a canteen worker from New York, serves doughnuts on the Italian front. 1917 or 1918. Prints and Photographs Division.

The Library’s collections are full of interesting and obscure items on the breakfast treat. A 1918 Cleveland Advocate newspaper article in The African-American Experience in Ohio presentation states that a “search through the American expeditionary force fails to disclose any man who sees nothing to the doughnut but the hole.”

“Don’t forget the Salvation Army, always remember my doughnut girl,” sings the chorus of 1919 song sheet that can be found in the Historical American Sheet Music presentation.

An excerpt from Horatio Nelson Taft’s diary, written Feb. 21, 1862, alludes to the fact that his wife is frying doughnuts in the kitchen at the time of the writing.

The Library’s Prints and Photographs Online Catalog also has historical images featuring donuts. Simply searching for the term there and in American Memory should satisfy your scholarly sweet tooth.

Creating Cartoons: Art and Controversy

(The following is an article written by Sara Duke and Martha Kennedy, both of the Prints and Photographs Division, for the May/June 2015 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine, LCM. You can read the issue in its entirety here.)

The Library’s vast collection of cartoon art chronicles the nation’s political controversies from its founding to the present.

Controversy sparks and fuels the art of political cartooning. Political cartoonists thrive in a climate that allows contention and freedom of expression. The compelling union of image and word that characterizes political cartoons sets them apart from other art forms, endowing them with the potential to inform, provoke and entertain.

Occasionally, cartoons can trigger violent reactions like those that occurred on Jan. 7, 2015. On that day, five cartoonists for Charlie Hebdo magazine were killed by Islamic extremists in Paris. A decade earlier, cartoon depictions of the prophet Mohammed by the Danish newspaper Jyllands- Posten sparked violent protests worldwide.

Political cartoons also have the power to generate healthy public debate, highlight pressing issues of the day, move some viewers to consider both sides of an issue and take positive action. Cartoons have contributed to political change by unmasking and condemning corruption, smear tactics and obstruction of justice. They have hastened the downfall of flawed leaders such as Sen. Joseph McCarthy and President Richard Nixon. And they have championed– and mocked–political movements such as the struggle for women’s suffrage and civil rights.

The following sampling from the vast array of political cartoon art in the Library’s collections provides just a glimpse of the rich holdings that can be explored online, and in person in the Prints and Photographs Division. The emphasis is on those that aroused controversy and likely contributed to the process of political and social change.

All images are from the Prints and Photographs Collection.

The horse “America” throws its master, King George III, in this 1779 etching published in Westminster by Wm. White.

 

President Abraham Lincoln is blamed for the Civil War’s huge human toll and for deflecting the issue with his notorious storytelling in this 1864 cartoon by Joseph E. Baker.               

Thomas Nast depicts corrupt New York politician William M. (“Boss”) Tweed and his cohorts as vultures picking over the remains of New York City government in this cartoon published in Harper’s Bazaar on Sept. 3, 1871.

 

Cartoonist Herbert Block (Herblock) invented the term “McCarthyism.” But his cartoon, published in The Washington Post on June 17, 1951, shows that he understood that the smear campaign used to combat communism was not the work of Wisconsin Sen. Joseph McCarthy alone but the result of others going along with the idea.                       

The climb to reach equality was a long and thorny one, as this cartoon by Bill Mauldin, which appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times on May 10, 1963, depicts.                        

Matt Wuerker offers this visually appealing take on the rise of the Tea Party and increasing polarization in national politics in this cartoon, which appeared in Politico Magazine on Oct. 21, 2009.

Ann Telnaes’ cartoon, distributed by Tribune Media Services on June 20, 2003, juxtaposes the view of some Americans about the role of religion in our society with that of the Iranians.

 

Sean Delonas lampoons former Vice President Al Gore’s propensity for talking about global warming in this 2006 cartoon that appeared in the New York Post.

 

“First Among Many”

(The following is a story featured in the Library of Congress Gazette, the staff newsletter, written by editor Mark Hartsell.)

Chris O’Connor, lead exhibition production specialist, prepares the “First Among Many: The Bay Psalm Book and Early Moments in American Printing” exhibition for the June 4 opening in the South Gallery. Photo by Shawn Miller.

The printing press that helped spread world-changing ideas of revolution, liberty and self-governance through early America grew from a humble beginning: a small, error-filled book of religious devotion, produced by a locksmith for settlers forging a home in the North American wilderness.

A new Library of Congress exhibition explores early printing in the American colonies, from that first book to the broadsides, pamphlets, newspapers and books that, over the next 150 years, helped shape a revolution and a new nation.

“First Among Many: The Bay Psalm Book and Early Moments in American Printing” opens June 4 and runs through Jan. 2.

 

The exhibition, located in the Jefferson Building’s South Gallery, is made possible through the support of philanthropist David M. Rubenstein, chairman of the Library’s private-sector advisory group, the Madison Council.

At the exhibition’s heart are two copies of the Bay Psalm Book, a small volume with a big title and a historic distinction: “The Whole Booke of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre” stands as the first book published in what now is the United States.

“The Whole Booke of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre,” Cambridge, 1640. Rare Book and Special Collections Division.

One copy was drawn from the Library’s Rare Book and Special Collections Division; the other, on display through Aug. 8, belongs to Rubenstein.

“The Library is extremely grateful to David Rubenstein for sharing his extraordinary copy of the Bay Psalm Book,” Librarian of Congress James H. Billington said. “The celebration of this book is the impetus for the Library’s exhibition. The Bay Psalm Book is a book of many firsts – the first English-language book in North America, the first book of American poetry and the first instance in a long and vital history of printing in America.”

The exhibition also showcases more than 30 other treasures that followed the Bay Psalm off the printing presses of early America: among them, the Dunlap Broadside of the Declaration of Independence; “Poor Richard’s Almanack” by Benjamin Franklin; “Common Sense” by Thomas Paine; “The Federalist,” essays by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay; “The Power of Sympathy,” the first novel printed in the colonies; and the Algonquian Indian Bible, the first complete Bible printed in the Western Hemisphere.

“It’s meant to be more than, say, just a string of pearls,” said Mark Dimunation, chief of Rare Book. “This exhibit really tells the story of how printing is introduced to America and how it actually participates in the growth and development of revolutionary America. It’s different than in other places.”

Still, the start and heart of the exhibition is the Bay Psalm Book, a small volume of verse – meant for singing in worship services – produced in 1640 by English settlers in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Creating such a book in that time and place – the colony was founded in this New World wilderness only a dozen years earlier – was an enormous project.

Printing a book required the settlers to import a press, paper and type. They also had to translate 150 psalms from the original Hebrew, then cast the new text into rhyming verse suitable for singing. The printer, Stephen Daye, was a locksmith just apprenticing in this new trade.

“These are very primitive conditions. They’re not far into settlement. They’re still building buildings,” Dimunation said. “It’s a huge undertaking.”

The result, in some ways, wasn’t great.

The print job was overinked, the typesetting coarse, the text rife with typographical errors and inconsistent spellings (is it “psalm” or psalme”?).

The verse frequently is awkward, as in the famous Psalm 23:

The Lord to mee a shepheard is,

want therefore shall not I,

Hee in the folds of tender-grasse,

doth cause mee downe to lie. …

Yea though in valley of deaths shade

I walk, none ill I’le feare:

Because thou art with mee, thy rod,

And staffe my comfort are.

“None of that carries any real merit as criticism of the book,” Dimunation said, considering the historical importance of the volume.

The Bay Psalm actually wasn’t the first piece printed on that new press in Massachusetts Bay Colony. Daye earlier had produced “Oath of a Freeman,” a loyalty oath he printed as a broadside in 1639. No copies survive.

The Bay Psalm is the first book, and the first surviving document, to be printed in what’s now the United States. And the first book of poetry. And the first piece of printed music: In the ninth and final printing of the book, music was added to accompany the text.

Though some 1,700 copies were produced over those nine printings, only 11 survive today – a consequence of constant use and the passage of time.

“They’re very scarce,” Dimunation said. “They have the same characteristic that children’s literature has: They’re used so frequently that they get used completely, get used up.”

“The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America,” Baltimore, 1777. Rare Book and Special Collections Division.

The Library acquired its copy, still in the original binding, in the 1960s. The book lacks the original title page, bearing instead an old calligraphic facsimile that, Dimunation said, frequently fools viewers into thinking it’s the real thing. The volume also is missing 12 pages. Years before the Library acquired the book, those pages were removed to complete a copy now held by the New York Public Library.

Rubenstein purchased his copy at auction in 2013 – the first time in more than 66 years a copy of the Bay Psalm was sold on the open market. That copy is complete and includes the original title page – one of only seven surviving copies that do so.

Around those two volumes in the exhibition, Dimunation said, are some of the great pieces of Americana: two printings of the Declaration of Independence; an extraordinarily rare Thomas Jefferson pamphlet, “A Summary View of Rights of British America,” annotated in Jefferson’s own hand; “Common Sense”; and “The Federalist,” also annotated by Jefferson.

“You could teach the Revolution with these books alone,” Dimunation said.

But it started with the humble, inelegant volume produced by a small group of settlers carving out a new home in the New World, for use in daily acts of devotion.

“It’s an ordinary book, in a way, especially in that period,” Dimunation said. “To them, this would be quite ordinary. To us, this book is hardly ordinary.”

An online version of the exhibition will be made available at www.loc.gov/exhibits/ .

Page From the Past: A Show About Nothing

Script page from pilot episode of “Seinfeld.” Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division.

When “The Seinfeld Chronicles” first aired on NBC on July 5, 1989, no one could have predicted that the “show about nothing” would become a cultural phenomenon. Inspired by real-life people and events, the show followed the life of a stand-up comedian and his friends.

The pilot episode (pictured left), written by show creators Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, featured sidekick George Costanza, played by Jason Alexander, and neighbor Kessler (later Kramer) played by Michael Richards. The plot centered on Jerry’s uncertainty about the romantic intentions of a female houseguest. Like the 179 episodes that followed over the series’ nine seasons, hilarity ensued.

But not everyone was laughing at first. The show was rated poorly by a test audience. Fortunately, television critics were kinder and network executives persisted in finding a spot for it in the 1990 line-up. Renamed “Seinfeld,” the show returned to the air on May 30, 1990, with an episode that introduced the character of ex-girlfriend Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). With a slow but growing following, the show reached Number 1 in the Nielsen ratings in its sixth season. More than 76 million viewed the finale on May 14, 1998–58 percent of all viewers that night–making it the fourth-most-watched series finale in U.S. television history.

The Library of Congress holds videotapes of all of the “Seinfeld” episodes, which were registered for copyright by Castle Rock Entertainment. Registrations were accompanied by deposit copies that became part of the Library’s Motion Picture and Television collections, along with “descriptive materials,” which range from a synopsis to a complete script.

(The above article is featured in the May/June 2015 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine, LCM. You can read the issue in its entirety here.)

Pics of the Week: Auntie Rosa Remembered

Sheila McCauley Keys

Rosa Parks is known as a pioneer of the civil rights movement, a heroine for her courage of convictions. Yet, few knew the other side of her life – one spent as a devoted mother figure to her nieces and nephews. One such niece, Sheila McCauley Keys, was at the Library last week to remember her Auntie Rosa, who is also the subject of Keys’ new book “Our Auntie Rosa: The Family of Rosa Parks Remembers Her Life and Lessons.” Many of the family members were also on hand for the book talk.

Following her act of bravery on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955, Rosa Parks and her husband moved to Detroit in 1957, where Parks largely disappeared from public view. There, Parks reconnected with her only sibling, Sylvester McCauley, and her nieces and nephews. They were her only family.

“Aunt Rosa helped raise all of us, that’s just what family did,” Keys said.

When Parks passed away in 2005, the family largely mourned in public, unable to retreat from the public eye. Putting the book together was finally a way for them to do so by sharing the memories and lessons learned of the civil rights activist.

“She was kind, loving and tolerant,” said Keys. “She taught us that we were responsible for our own actions.”

She also instilled in her family the maxim of treating others as they would like to be treated, also known as the “Golden Rule.”

The Manuscript Division presented a display of items from the Rosa Parks Collection following the event.

Keys said that if her aunt were here today, Parks would appreciate being remembered and loved. However, she hoped that people would put that appreciation into perspective by doing the right thing, a creed that Parks lived by.

The Rosa Parks Collection is on loan to the Library from the Buffett Foundation for 10 years. Several items from the Rosa Parks collection are included in the Library’s ongoing major exhibition “The Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Long Struggle for Freedom,” which is open through Jan. 2, 2016. Later this year, selected collection items will be accessible online.

Photos by Shawn Miller

Trending: Superheroes on Screen

“The Mask of Zorro'”(1954), Serial and Government Publications Division.

Superheroes continue to captivate audiences nearly a century after their film debut.

America loves its superheroes (and villains). These beloved and delightfully despised characters continue to take center stage at the movies and on television.

“The Mark of Zorro” (United Artists, 1920), a silent film starring Douglas Fairbanks, was among the 10 motion pictures featuring superheroes that were released by American film studios between 1920 and 1940. By comparison, four such films came out in 2014, five in 2015, and a record nine are in production for 2016 release.

“Batman” (No. 1, 1940). Serial and Government Publications Division.

The popularity of “The Mark of Zorro” and its subsequent spin-offs, sequels and adaptations paved the way for a rise of the superhero genre in film and television. Comic-book artist Bob Kane has credited Zorro as part of the inspiration for the creation of his DC Comics superhero Batman, who debuted in print in 1940–the same year a film remake of the original Zorro was released, starring Tyrone Power. The film was directed by Rouben Mamoulian (1898-1987) whose papers are held by the Library of Congress. Housed in the Library, the film is among 650 titles that the Library has named to its National Film Registry since its inception in 1990.

Through the years, scores of films and television shows have featured popular masked and caped avengers, from Captain Marvel to Superman and from Spider-Man to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Most recently, the pantheon of Marvel Comics characters has been brought to life, with films about the X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America and Thor grossing millions.

Television is even getting in on the action, with ABC’s “Marvel: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” and “Agent Carter” and Netflix original series, “Daredevil.”

The Library receives motion pictures and television broadcasts through copyright deposit. Included in the Library’s film and video collections are such films as the Superman series starring Christopher Reeve (1978-1987); “Batman” (1989) starring Michael Keaton, who also portrayed a faded film superhero in the Oscar-winning “Birdman” (2014); “The Dark Knight” (2008); “Iron Man” (2008) and several X-Men films, including animated and anime features. Also included in the Library’s collections are television episodes of “Smallville,” “Lois & Clark,” “The Incredible Hulk” and “Marvel: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D,” among others.

(The following article was featured in the May/June 2015 issue of LCM, the Library of Congress Magazine. You can read the issue in its entirety here.)

Pics of the Week: We Write the Songs

Natalie Merchant 

Last week, the Library hosted the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Foundation for its annual “We Write the Songs” concert, featuring the songwriters performing and telling the stories behind their own music. Taking the stage to perform some of their most notable music were Ne-Yo, Natalie Merchant (also formerly of 10,000 Maniacs), Donald Fagan of Steely Dan fame, Rupert Holmes and Rhymefest, who wrote “Glory,” the Oscar-winning song from the film “Selma.”

During the evening, the songwriters told some of the stories behind their music.

Ne-Yo

 

“Never had the guts to tell any of these girls how I felt about them,” said Ne-Yo of the girls who placed him in the friend zone. “Would write poems about them, the poems would stay in my little book and they would never see the light of day.”

Holmes, known for his hit “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)” talked about a last-minute change to the famous catch lyric of the song – imagine having Humphrey Bogart as the earworm instead of a delicious cocktail!

“The final lyric came to me in one hour, and there were a lot of critics who think I should have taken two hours,” he quipped.

Rupert Holmes

The Library is home to the ASCAP collection, which includes music manuscripts, printed music, lyrics (both published and unpublished), scrapbooks, correspondence and other personal, business, legal and financial documents, scrapbooks, and film, video and sound recordings.

Established in 1914, ASCAP is the first United States Performing Rights Organization (PRO), representing the world’s largest repertory of more than 10 million copyrighted musical works of every style and genre from 525,000 songwriter, composer and music-publisher members.

All photos by Shawn Miller

A Day at the Races

I’ve always been a sucker for a great hat. Before I came to work at the Library of Congress, I was a writer for a society magazine in Louisiana whose calling card was the hats we wore to cover local events. Needless to say, when given the opportunity to don a fashionable chapeau, I jump at the chance. This past Friday, I enjoyed a day at the races during Black-Eyed Susan Day – the precursor event to the Preakness Stakes in Baltimore, Maryland, at Pimlico Race Track – wearing a hat I actually made myself, out of placemats!

Kentucky Derby, Churchill Downs, Louisville, Ky. Photo by Caufield & Shook, 1937. Prints and Photographs Division.

Every year, the warmer weather heralds in the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing in the United States. The series kicks off with the Kentucky Derby (which was held this year on May 2), followed by the Preakness (May 16) and culminating with the Belmont Stakes (set for June 6 this year). All three events are more than a century old.

On May 17, 1875, the first Kentucky Derby was held, with horse Aristides winning the inaugural race. Prominent Louisville citizen Col. M. Lewis Clark, Jr., built Churchill Downs and patterned the event after the English Classic, the Epsom Derby.

“The inaugural meeting of the Louisville Jockey Club opened today under more favorable auspices than had been hoped by the most sanguine of its managers. The attendance was upwards of 12,000, and the grandstand was thronged by a brilliant assemblage of ladies and gentlemen.

“Altogether today’s meeting was extraordinarily successful, the weather being everything that could be expected, the track in fine order and everything to indicate a satisfactory meeting.” — Nashville Union and American, May 18, 1875

Old members clubhouse at Pimlico – oldest building in American racing, dates back to 1870. May 15, 1965. Prints and Photographs Division.

The Preakness was first run May 27, 1873, with Survivor winning the purse. However, Pimlico racetrack opened in October 1870 with the Dinner Party Stakes won by the colt Preakness. According to its website, the Preakness marked its 140th anniversary this year (much like the Kentucky Derby), perhaps in honor of the horse itself and the very first race at Pimlico. The Library’s Prints and Photographs Online Catalog has several images of the racetrack.

“A notable feature of the day was that, with the exception of the first race, which was really no contest whatsoever, the favorites were badly defeated. In once instance, a horse se’ling lowest in the pools was the winner.” — Evening Star, May 28, 1873

The oldest of the three, the Belmont stakes debuted on June 19, 1867, at Jerome Park in New York with horse Ruthless taking home the win. According to history.com, Ruthless was also the very first filly to win one of the three historical races.

“DeCourcey and Ruthless now along, still were full of game, and footed homeward at a good bat. It was now a close and beautiful run … The noble pair lay with each other for 60 rods, DeCourcey still leading; but now the filly drew on him. As they reached the grand stand she had her nose at his saddle-girths. Yard by yard as she strode along she gained, and at the middle of the stand had him beaten, and got her head in front. Fifty yards were left to run, and the struggle was kept up to the finish, DeCourcey battling bravely, but Ruthless went over the score by half a length the winner.” — New York Tribune, June 20, 1867

Couple at the races, by Ethel M’Clellan Plummer. 1916. Prints and Photographs Division.

Only two female thoroughbreds have captured the Belmont since (only 22 fillies have ever competed in the event.) Three have won the Kentucky Derby, and five have won the Preakness, the most recent being Rachel Alexandra in 2009.

As far as the history of wearing hats, we can thank our friends from across the pond, where hats and finery were de rigeur at races such as the Royal Ascot and Epsom. When Clark founded the Kentucky Derby, he also brought to it that fashionable European tradition.

According to the website of the Kentucky Derby, “What Colonel M. Lewis Clark Jr., envisioned was a racing environment that would feel comfortable and luxurious, an event that would remind people of European horse racing. For a well-to-do late 19th and early 20th century woman, a day at Churchill Downs, especially on Derby Day, was an opportunity to be seen in the latest of fashions.”