Library of Congress's Blog, page 150

Instrumentally Yours

The late 19th century gave rise to some truly imaginative, public-minded Americans. We all know about the Thomas Edisons, the Henry Fords, the Garrett Morgans. But there were others who, while not household names today, lived very interesting lives and left behind fascinating legacies.

Among these we find Dayton C. Miller, born on a farm in Ohio in 1866, who worked his way through college in his home state and eventually became a professor of astronomy and physics at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Miller’s was an inquiring mind, and he investigated many aspects of science throughout his life.

But his real devotion – you might even call it an obsession – was wind instruments, specifically flutes.

Flutes and a statuette from the Dayton C. Miller Collection on display this month. Photo by Shawn Miller

He amassed a collection of nearly 1,700 flutes and other wind instruments, plus hundreds of other objects related to the flute: statues, artwork, books, music, trade catalogs, instruction manuals. Then he donated it all to the Library of Congress, shortly before his death in 1941.

Some of the most elegant and interesting objects in this colossal collection are on display in the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building this month, in a trio of glass cases on the first floor.

The display includes several of the rarest and most unusual flutes in the collection – a golden flute, some crafted of glass or crystal and some beautifully carved wooden flutes – as well as a selection of rare recorders and piccolos, including a Sioux tribe “courting flute” with a bird motif. One flute is designed to be used as a walking stick and resembles a wooden branch; there’s a knob at the closed end to grasp for walking and the keys are decorated to look like little branch shoots.

Carol Lynn Ward-Bamford, the Library’s curator of musical instruments, said it was “quite fun” putting the display together. But, she noted, it was a bit “daunting” trying to determine what to choose from such a huge collection. “It’s like going into a toy shop and having to pick from thousands of items,” she said.The display also includes a selection of Miller’s flute-themed statuary from many nations, including a lovely piece of Meissen porcelain.

The ability to view the objects from several angles makes the flute end-caps visible, and that’s something many flute displays don’t afford, Ward-Bamford says. “With these flutes, some of the end-caps are made of beautiful materials – mother-of-pearl or ruby or garnet.”

The Dayton C. Miller Collection also will be the focus of the presentation “Two Thousand Flutes” on May 1 at 2 p.m. in the Library’s Coolidge Auditorium. Ward-Bamford will be joined by Pittsburgh Symphony principal flutist Lorna McGhee and prize-winning piano soloist Ryo Yanagitani for a performance and talk about the Miller flutes; several will also be displayed that day in the Coolidge foyer. The concert is free, but tickets are available through Ticketmaster for a small service fee; to obtain tickets, click here.

If you miss the chance to view the flutes in person, significant portions of the Dayton C. Miller Collection can be accessed online. Here, for example, is a photo of Miller himself playing a special, vertical bass flute known as the “albisiphon,” which he described as having “a very rich and beautiful tone.”

His collection also includes artwork, such as antique prints and woodcuts, showing not only flutes being played but also depicting instruments rarely found today, from an ophicleide (a keyed brass instrument rather like a tuba) and a cittern (like a 10-string bouzouki) to a theorbo (basically, a lute with a lengthy, extended neck).

Researchers can view items in the Dayton C. Miller collection at the Library, by appointment with Ms. Ward-Bamford.

 

 

 

Inquiring Minds: The Document Man

Christopher Woods

Armed guards? Check. Secret rendezvous points? Check. Mysterious steel briefcase? Check. Sounds like a James Bond movie. But it’s just a day in the life of Christopher Woods, director of the National Conservation Service in Britain. By day, he’s a leading conservator in the field with more than 29 years experience working in the heritage sector, including serving as head of Conservation and Collection Care at the Bodleian Library at Oxford University and director of Collection and Programme Services at the Tate Gallery in London. By night – well, more like special assignment – he is the man tasked with transporting Lincoln Cathedral’s original copy of Magna Carta when it’s on travel.

The 800-year-old charter, signed by England’s King John in 1215, details the rights and liberties granted to his barons in order to halt their rebellion and restore their allegiance to his throne. The document is widely recognized as influencing America’s own Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Woods deposited the historical document at the Library of Congress in November to be placed on view in the exhibition, “Magna Carta: Muse and Mentor.” The 10-week exhibition closes next Monday, Jan. 19, and Woods will return to pack up his precious cargo for its journey home.

Woods said traveling with Magna Carta is pretty “low key.”

“People don’t know when and where it’s traveling,” he added.

The document is secured in an insulated box system that protects it from temperature change, pressure and movement and flies first class to its destination. Woods quipped that he’s not handcuffed to the steel travel case during transport.

When leaving the U.K. with Magna Carta for his trips abroad, Woods is escorted to the plane.

“Then, in the United States, I’m met by armed guards upon arrival,” he added.

Woods admitted the first few times he traveled with Magna Carta he was nervous.

“There was a time when it was such a relief to get the plane in the air,” he said.

However well traveled he may be at this point, he’s always vigilant, especially considering the planning and work that goes into keeping Magna Carta safe and protected while away from its home at the cathedral.

The charter undergoes an annual inspection, multiple condition reports pre- and post-loan, and lots of photographs are taken, including ones of key areas needing monitoring.

Magna Carta has a special display case specifically for U.S. loans, with features that allow Woods to monitor conditions inside, even while he’s back in Britain, using his smart phone.

Woods explained that humidity control is of utmost importance.

“No man” (as in “No man shall be taken or imprisoned … except by the lawful judgement of his peers …,” clause 39.

“As long as we keep the humidity stable, the ink will remain well-attached,” he said.

Lighting can also impact condition of the document, although Woods explained that as long as there isn’t any ultraviolet light, there isn’t much concern about fading.

“Magna Carta has a light allowance – how many hours of light allowed in any one year,” he said. “In theory, three months out of the year the document is taken off display, which gives it enough allowance to be loaned.”

Woods is tasked with a great responsibility, and having this close a relationship with such an important document isn’t unobserved.

“I’ve learned a lot about Magna Carta as a document, and I’ve learned even more with the Library’s exhibit,” he said. “I’ve learned the importance of the document to its people, and I’ve come to understand my capacity to do the job right.

“It’s important for this original item to be preserved, because there is nothing quite like it. When the real thing is in front of you, it becomes less an academic object and more a talisman. It becomes an icon.”

Join Christopher Woods at 10 a.m. on Jan. 19 in the exhibition, located in the second floor South Gallery of the Thomas Jefferson Building, where he will discuss the care and conservation of Magna Carta.

From Dollars to Distinction

I’m a big fan of “Downton Abbey,” so naturally I have been anticipating this season’s series premiere for several months. Following the episode, there was a special on how the show accurately represents the customs and manners of 1900s Britain. If you’re not familiar with “Downton,” the show centers around the wealthy Crawley family, headed by the Earl of Grantham and his multi-millionaire American heiress wife Cora. As it turns out, the idea of an American woman becoming a titled aristocrat isn’t as sensationalized for television as you might think.

The Herald, Los Angeles, Calif., Sept. 21, 1895. Serial and Government Publication Division, Library of Congress.

During the late 19th century, hundreds of rich bachelorettes crossed the pond in hopes of snagging a member of the British aristocracy. At the time, a depression in agriculture threatened the fortunes and estates of the noblemen. The money brought with these “Dollar Princesses,” as they came to be known, provided the much-needed cash to keep the estates and family fortunes afloat. Their dowries were built from the prosperity of Industrialism, where iron and steel manufacturing, oil production and shipbuilding meant big money. In exchange, the American heiresses received social status and a title.

They read pamphlets that identified the European royal bachelors and sought out self-help guides that offered instruction on etiquette of the aristocracy. A quarterly publication called “The Titled American” listed the successfully married ladies, as well as the names of eligible titled bachelors.

These Gilded Age heiresses married more than a third of the titles represented in the House of Lords, and announcements of these transatlantic marriages were pervasive in the newspapers of the day.

Notable names included Jennie Jerome, who married Lord Randolph Spencer Churchill and later gave birth to son Winston Churchill; Nancy Langhorne, who married William Waldorf Astor and later became the first woman to take a seat in the British parliament (her sister Irene married Charles Dana Gibson and became a prototype for the Gibson Girl); and Mary Leiter, whose husband Lord Curzon was appointed Viceroy of India, giving Mary the highest position an American woman has ever held in the British empire. (According to the Daily Mail, she was the inspiration for the character of Lady Cora in “Downton Abby.”)

Duchess of Marlborough. Between 1910 and 1920. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

Chronicling America, the Library’s collection of historical newspapers, has no shortage of headlines recounting stories of this turn-of-the-century phenomenon.

An accompanying graphic to the article “She Has Landed Her Duke,” (The Herald, Los Angeles, Calif., Sept. 21, 1895) likens Dollar Princess Consuelo Vanderbilt as “merchandise” and she and her intended, the Duke of Marlborough, as commercial commodities to be traded.

One of Vanderbilt’s bridesmaids, May Goelet, was also much sought after. According to “The Duke of Roxburghe Gets His Heiress-Bride,” (The Pacific Commercial Advertiser, Honolulu, Hawaii, Nov. 11, 1903), her suitors included the Duke of Roxburghe (whom she married), the Grand Duke Boris of Russia, Prince Francis of Teck, Prince Henri of Orleans, Prince Hugo of Hohenlohe, the Prince of Saga, the Duke of Abruzzi, the Duke of Manchester, the Earl of Shaftesbury, Lord Ingestre, Lord Dalmeny and Lord Crichton.

And, in a headline that you just can’t make up, “How the Heiress’s Horses Picked Her Husband,” (The Richmond-Dispatch, Richmond, Va., April 22, 1917) lumber heiress Loula Long measured the worth of her suitors by the reaction of her horses.

“I’m quite sure no man could ever pass muster with me unless he not only loves my dog and my horse, but was loved as well by them,” she said.

Loula Long Combs. 1920. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

While she was courted by such nobility as Prince Ledochowski of Poland and Grand Duke Michael Michaelovitch of Russia, her horses literally lead her to the arms of her husband, Pryor R. Combs, the son of the minister of the Independence Boulevard Christian Church where her family attended services.

“Downton Abbey” is filmed at Highclere Castle in West Berkshire, a real estate that is the country seat of the Earl of Carnarvon. The history of the estate and its real-life inhabitants include the contributions of a dollar princess. The 5th Earl of Carnarvon married Almina Wombwell, illegitimate daughter of millionaire banker Alfred de Rothschild. Her dowry helped sustain the family estate. Most notably, her husband was a key figure in the discovery of King Tut’s tomb in 1922. You can read more about Highclere Castle and the Carnarvon family in the January-February 2015 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine.

Also searching for “Highclere Castle” or “Earl of Carnarvon” in Chronicling America will turn up several articles about the family.

Sources: Smithsonian Magazine; “To Marry an English Lord,” by Gail MacColl and Carol McD. Wallace

Library in the News: December 2014 Edition

Every year, the Library of Congress announces the addition of 25 films to the National Film Registry, and we are always excited about the enthusiasm for the selected films and the opportunity to spread the word about our preservation efforts.

The Washington Post reached out to some of the filmmakers for their thoughts on their work being added to the registry.

Mark Jonathan (“Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport” [2001]): “The Academy Awards, as everyone knows, are a snapshot of one year. This film’s selection by the National Film Registry means that the movie has had a long life and will continue to going forward.”

In its “Reading the Times With” column, the New York Times featured actress Laura Dern, who said she was “ecstatic” about this year’s list of films.

National outlets running stories included Variety, Los Angeles Times, CBS News, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, CNN, Reuters and PBS Newshour, which featured clips of the films.

Regional outlets in Ohio, Oregon, Michigan, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Florida, Canada, Italy and Germany, among others also highlighted the registry.

Speaking of film preservation, the Library’s Packard Campus for Audio Visual Conservation continues to make headlines.

Martha Teichner of CBS Sunday Morning visited the campus.

“The vaults look like they’re straight out of some sinister, surreal movie,” she said. “Monsters lurk behind these locked doors — like the original camera negative of ‘Frankenstein,’ from 1931, starring Boris Karloff — and treasures.”

During her visit, she was shown a copy of a “CBS Evening News With Walter Cronkite” broadcast from Nov. 8, 1977, which featured her very first story for the network.

“It was, like, nine days after my first day of work,” she said.

In addition to the moving image collections, a large photographic archive – more than 13.7 million – also resides at the Library.

James Estrin of the New York Times Lens Blog spoke with the Library’s Beverly Brannan about photographer Dorothea Lange, whose photographs are part of the Library’s collections.

“She was a humanist,” Brannan said. “She could look at a person’s face and know a lot about that person, and her photos capture something very accurate and meaningful of that person.”

Brannan said that after 40 years at the Library, she is still discovering new things about Lange.

ABC News featured a series of photographs of bulldogs dressed in human attire, taken by an unknown photographer.

The Library welcomes more than 1.5 million visitors each year. Brandon Wetherbee and Jonny Grave of BrightestYoungThings took a whirlwind tour of the institution and wrote a photo essay about their experience.

“We’re inside a building re-built from the shreds of what survived the Burning of Washington two centuries ago,” Grave wrote. “Along with the card catalog cabinets, this building holds the Magna Carta, a Gutenberg bible, George Gershwin’s piano, the only portrait Beethoven ever sat for, and a copy of almost every book ever printed. And I’m shooting as fast as I possibly can.

“What I find most striking about the Library of Congress is not how much they have behind their doors, but how it is all available to the public,” he added. “The Library of Congress is not just an archive, or a compendium of knowledge. All of the knowledge within the very brick and mortar of the building (or archived away in Culpepper, one of the Library’s satellite locations) is meant to be disseminated to the public, for free.”

Also paying us a visit was MLB.com who wrote about the Library’s baseball collections.

“The nation’s greatest storehouse of knowledge has developed a healthy baseball habit,” wrote Spencer Fordin. “The Library of Congress has traced the history and maturation of America for more than 200 years, and baseball has weaved its way into the national consciousness in surprising ways.”

Leading the way for the Library’s initiatives and innovations is Librarian of Congress James H. Billington.

“The 85-year-old scholar has been one of the country’s most aggressive advocates, moving the resources of the library online and expanding its educational outreach through 21st century technology,” wrote Maria Recio for McClatchy News Service. “Billington is, quite simply, a keeper of American culture, not just the keeper of books. He is charged with preserving the past while also expanding the library’s reach by keeping it tune with the moment – in music, in film, in various forms of human literary and artistic expression.”

Sensationalism! Yellow Journalism! More, More, More!

It’s the day after Christmas, ho-ho-ho-hum. The presents are already open, your elbows are getting rubbed a little raw with all these relatives around, and you’re sick of holiday cookies and candy and fruitcake. It’s all too tempting to jump on the old cellphone and see what snarky things are being said on social media, or flip on the tube and see what they’re saying on TMZ.

WWI put the year 1914 six feet under

Stop! You can do that anytime. Instead, go to the website “Chronicling America” and check out a newspaper that is 100 years old today – the Philadelphia Evening Ledger of Dec. 26, 1914. There was a lot going on, even though the day being reported on was Christmas:

World War I, from “Peace for an Hour as Soldiers Pray on Battlefields” to “Czar Breaks German Line: Gains Ground in Poland”
Pancho Villa was on the move: “Villistas Drive Defenders Back Near Vera Cruz”
Really peculiar cartoons were being published;
The sale of the New York Yankees was pending;
Washington, D.C., experienced a small earthquake on Christmas Eve, at 10:51 p.m. ;
A religious revival was slated, by the famous baseball-player-turned-preacher, Billy Sunday;
The doings of every service club in Philly were noted, from the Royal Arcanum to the Artisans Order of Mutual Protection
And, you can read episode IV of a piece of fiction: “Zudora, A Great Mystic Story by Harold MacGrath.” (Not to worry – it has a synopsis).

Old newspapers are addictive. Predating TV, radio and (of course) the internet, they were the go-to public source for entertainment. They do, in fact, serve up “history as it is being written,” but they also show you what our society was like at a brief moment in time. The ads are fascinating (“Newton Coal Answers the Burning Question!” “First Canaries Since the War Arrive on Steamer Sloterdyk from Rotterdam!”). Just looking at the differences and the similarities in what was considered news is fascinating. You can get lost in these old papers. My grandpa Phil, on my mother’s side, served in the U.S. Army infantry in WWI; he probably was in some of the battles reported in this newspaper (after the U.S. got in, of course). These are the kinds of papers he, and my grandma, and their parents would have been getting all of their news out of.

Chronicling America, which offers digitized copies of thousands of newspapers of yore, is a site backed by the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities. In addition to the huge trove of searchable papers it offers, the site also selects several papers 100 years old today for your perusal, daily.

Old news is good news. Check it out.

Pic of the Week: A Tree Grows … in the Great Hall

The Library of Congress Christmas tree adorns the Great Hall in the Thomas Jefferson Building. Photo by Shawn Miller.

Every year, the Library of Congress decorates the Great Hall with a tall tree for the holidays, replete with lights and ornaments for the enjoyment of visitors.

Zelma Cook of Tryon, N.C., recalls her first Christmas tree and holidays spent with her family and the mill workers of the village in this excerpt from American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1940.

“Christmas we always had a big tree. The Company did that for us. My, but it was always a grand affair. We didn’t just gather and sing songs and then maybe get a bag of candy and an orange. We had toys and everything else. There were plays and songs as well, and after that, when we’d all been given our presents, we had hot chocolate and fancy cakes before we went home.”

“I’ll never forget how scared I was when Pa took me to the first Christmas tree there in our little church. That tree just jumped at me as I went in, it was so bright and wonderful; the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life.”

How do you celebrate the season? More holiday history from the Library of Congress can be found here. Merry Christmas!

Highlighting the Holidays: A Visit From St. Nick

“The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there…” reads the familiar poem most of us know as “The Night Before Christmas.”

However, that title isn’t really correct.

Santa Claus, rosy-cheeked as usual. Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, between 1980 and 2006. Prints and Photographs Division.

Clement Moore first penned the poem in 1822, under the title  Moore is thought to have composed the tale on Christmas Eve of that year, while traveling home from Greenwich Village, where he had bought a turkey for his family’s Christmas dinner.

Inspired by the plump, bearded Dutchman who took him by sleigh on his errand through the snow-covered streets of New York City, Moore wrote the poem for the amusement of his six children. His vision of St. Nicholas draws upon Dutch-American and Norwegian traditions of a magical, gift-giving figure that appears at Christmas time, as well as the German legend of a visitor who enters homes through chimneys.

A graduate of Columbia, Moore was a scholar of Hebrew and a professor of Oriental and Greek literature at the General Theological Seminary in Manhattan. He was said to have been embarrassed by the work, which was made public without his knowledge in December 1823. Moore did not publish it under his name until 1844.

“Twas the night before Christmas.” 1898. Prints and Photographs Division.

The Library has other reproductions of Moore’s famous poem in the online presentation An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera.

While not quite an audio-book, the Library has a couple of sound recordings in the National Jukebox of the poem being recited.

Also make sure to follow the Library on Pinterest where you’ll find boards related to the holiday season, including one on Santa Claus.

More historical treasures from the Library of Congress can be found here. Happy Holidays!

* Source: Today in History: Dec. 24 

Highlighting the Holidays: Home for the Holidays

(The following is a guest post by Monica Mohindra of the Veterans History Project.)

“Home for the holidays”- it’s a sentiment that can cut across lines we might otherwise let divide us. For my dad, it means a longing to be with his family in India for Diwali, a multi-day festival of light that falls each year on dates determined by the Hindu calendar. For a neighbor this year, it meant having her children and grandchildren at home with her for at least one night of Hanukkah.

Home can also be less of a location and more of an idea. For a dear friend, it doesn’t matter where in the world he is for New Year’s, as long as he’s with his loved ones. For me, raised on a holiday culture diet replete with Irving Berlin and Bing Crosby, the idea of home evokes a nostalgic gathering of friends and family, with images of winsome young men in uniform and quaint “make-do” decorations and treats flitting across the projector screen in the back of my mind.

For Alexander Standish, a 45-year-old intelligence officer stationed in Luxemburg near the end of World War II, the significance of Christmas at home was shared with a local family separated by war.

Edith and Yvonne de Muyser, Luxembourg. Alexander Standish Collection, Veterans History Project.

A veteran of World War I, Standish found himself yet again away from his own loved ones during the holiday and sought solace in sharing Christmas festivities with his landlady and her children:

“For weeks the excitement built up in the household — the children became more and more excited, “Mutter” was busy working on dolls’ clothes, dresses, etc. and hiding them in my room where the children would not find them. I decided that Christmas was the same the world over in a family of children.”

While we love the romantic notion of a Christmas-time truce, for Alexander Standish, the war continued unabated through Christmas 1944. Within the Veterans History Project’s “Making it Home” blog series, Standish’s collection has become emblematic for me, illustrating how VHP collections illuminate the commonality of our hopes and dreams for even small moments of peace. I echo his declaration “I decided that Christmas was the same the world over in a family of children.” Despite decades, despite conflict, despite geography, I have decided that the holidays are the same for much of the world: we yearn to be with our loved ones, sharing in a moment of joy and hoping for peace.

Nicholas W. Phillips in front of Christmas tree decorated with beer cans. “Korea Xmas ’52” on reverse. Nicholas W. Phillips Collection, Veterans History Project.

Join us over on Folklife Today to see other ways veterans have made manifest their desires to be home for the holidays and share your own thoughts and memories in the comments. Help us spread these collections that so eloquently voice these universal themes. Please post the images and links wherever you share compelling information-Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram or Pinterest-using the hashtag #VHPatHome. If you’re home with loved ones please consider recording the memories of the veteran in your life.

Highlighting the Holidays: The Poinsettia

(The following is a guest post from Francisco Macias of the Law Library of Congress.)

Nativity scene sculpture with poinsettias. Photo by Theodor Horydczak, ca. 1920-1950. Prints and Photographs Division.

Each winter we see poinsettias adorning houses, shopping centers and offices throughout the country. But a little known fact is that the poinsettia is an endemic flora of Mexico. In Spanish it is often called “flor de nochebuena” or simply “nochebuena,” which translates to “holy-night flower.”

According to Mexico City’s Agency for Urban Management, its use as a holiday decoration originates from the early colonial encounter by Franciscan friars, who in turn came to use it to decorate the crèches or nativity scenes. In the Náhuatl language, the flower is called “cuetlaxóchitl,” which means “flower that withers.” It was a symbol of purity, and as such it is more poetically said to be a “mortal flower that withers and perishes like all that is pure.”

According to an entry about “cuetlaxsuchitl” by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún in the “General History of the Things of New Spain“:

“Ay unos arboles en las flor estas que se llama Cuetlaxsuchitl que quando quiebran las ramas destos arboles mana dellas leche on un humor blanco como leche: estos arboles crian unos flores que se llama Cuetlaxsuchitl: las hojas de las quales [sic] son como hojas de cerezo: pero muy coloradas y blandas tiene colorado muy fino pero no tienen ningun olor son hermosas por eso son preciadas.” (pg. 379 – 80; transcribed from the original, as it appears, which serves to explain inconsistencies with modern orthography and omission of diacritics.)

“There are trees that bear these flowers called ‘Cuetlaxsuchitl’ whose branches produce a milk-like substance when they are broken. These trees produce flowers called ‘Cuetlaxsuchitl.‘ The leafs are like those of the cherry tree, but they are very red and pliable. They feature a very fine hue of red, but they have no fragrance. They are indeed beautiful, hence the reason why they are prized.” [Translation with modifications to make it more legible.]

The plant made its way to the United States in the 1820s, thanks to Joel Roberts Poinsett, who was appointed the first U.S. Minister to Mexico (1825-1829) and whose death, on Dec. 12, 1851, resulted in the English re-naming of poinsettia as we know it in today.

More stories on historical holiday-themed items from the Library of Congress can be found here.

Highlighting the Holidays: Happy Hanukkah

The Chanucka celebration by the Young Men’s Hebrew Association at the Academy of Music, New York City. 1880. Prints and Photographs Division.

In 2014, December 16 marked the first day of Hanukkah, the Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem after its desecration by the forces of Antiochus IV. Also referred to as the Festival of Lights, Hanukkah recalls the event. According to the Talmud, a central text of Rabbinic Judaism, at the re-dedication following the victory of the Maccabees over the Seleucid Empire, there was only enough consecrated olive oil to fuel the eternal flame in the temple for one day. Miraculously, the oil burned for eight days, which was the length of time it took to press, prepare and consecrate fresh olive oil.

“And Judas, and his brethren, and all the church of Israel decreed, that the day of the dedication of the altar should be kept in its season from year to year for eight days, from the five and twentieth day of the month of Casleu, with joy and gladness.” The First Book of the Maccabees, Old Testament, 4:59.

Design drawing for stained glass contemporary tondo window with flames and seven-branch Days-of-Creation menorah. J. & R. Lamb Studios, between 1950-1990. Prints and Photographs Division.

Thus Hanukkah was born to commemorate these miracles. A nightly menorah lighting is at the heart of the festival: in addition to the Shamash, the ninth candle on top, on the first night, a single flame is lit, two on the second and so forth until night eight, when all flames are set alight.

Some typical customs of Hanukkah include eating foods such as latkes (potato pancakes) and sufganiot (doughnuts), all fried in oil; spinning the dreidel, a four-sided spinning top; and exchanging gifts each night.

Hanukkah begins on the 25th day of the Jewish month of Kislev. The Jewish calendar is primarily based on the lunar cycle, and its dates fluctuate with respect to other calendar systems. Thus, the first day of Hanukkah can fall anywhere between November 28 and December 26.

The Hebraic Section in the Library’s African and Middle Eastern Division has long been recognized as one of the world’s foremost centers for the study of Hebrew and Yiddish materials. Established in 1914 as part of the Division of Semitica and Oriental Literature, it grew from Jacob H. Schiff’s 1912 gift of nearly 10,000 books and pamphlets from the private collection of a well-known bibliographer and bookseller Ephraim Deinard. The gift is commemorated with the exhibition, “Words Like Sapphires: 100 Years of Hebraica at the Library of Congress, 1912-2012.”

The Hebraic Section houses works in Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, Judeo-Persian, Judeo-Arabic, Aramaic, Syriac, Coptic and Amharic. Holdings are especially strong in the areas of the Bible and rabbinics, liturgy, responsa, Jewish history and Hebrew language and literature.

American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1940 contains both personal recollections and examples of Yiddish folklore. Search the collection for “Jewish” to locate accounts of Jewish culture and traditions such as “A Genzil for the Holidays.”

The collection American Variety Stage: Vaudeville and Popular Entertainment, 1870-1920 features more than 70 unpublished Yiddish play-scripts. “Chanukah Party: A Drama in 4 Acts,” written in 1909 is one such play.

In commemoration of Jewish settlers’ emigration to the New World and their more than 350-year history in America, the Library presents the online exhibition “From Haven to Home,” which features more than 200 treasures of American Judaica from the collections and examines the Jewish experience in the United States through the prisms of “Haven” and “Home.”

In addition, the online exhibition Scrolls From the Dead Sea offers a selection of scrolls from the late Second Temple period.

The Library highlights other holiday stories here.

*Sources: history.org, Today in History