Library of Congress's Blog, page 162

Celebrating Creative Women: Rare and Special Collections

I am obnoxious to each carping tongue

Who says my hand a needle better fits,

A Poets pen all scorn I should thus wrong,

For such despite they cast on Female wits:

If what I do prove well, it won’t advance,

They’l say it’s stoln, or else it was by chance.

– Anne Bradstreet, 1678

Anne Bradstreet (1613-1672), the first woman poet to be published in America, was praised by many of her male contemporaries for her work addressing home and family, philosophy, religion and sensitivity to prejudices against women’s writings. Her poetry collection, “The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America,” was showcased recently during a special display hosted by the Library’s Rare Book and Special Collections Division that highlighted creative women and celebrated Women’s History Month.

Rare, duodecimo first printing of the Report of the Woman’s Rights Convention. 1848. Rare Book and Special Collections Division. Photo by Shealah Craighead.

Curators exhibited items from the 16th through the 21st centuries, illustrating several areas of strength in the division, including the domestic role of women, reform efforts, women in popular culture, literary works and collections formed by women.

American History Specialist Rosemary Plakas arranged the intimate exhibit, calling on her more than 40 years experience working with the collections. During a quick walkthrough, she pinpointed some items of interest. One of her favorites is the Susan B. Anthony collection.

“In 1903, she gave to the Library of Congress her personal library, including abolitionist materials, speeches, suffrage scrapbooks,” said Plakas. “She wrote annotations in all her books.”

On display was her annotated copy of the printed transcript of her trial for illegally voting in the 1872 presidential and congressional election. The volume documents Anthony’s efforts in testing the citizenship clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Anthony was found guilty, although not by jury. The federal judge had made his decision before even hearing the case.

Also on display was one of seven scrapbooks from the National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection. Between 1897 and 1911 Elizabeth Smith Miller and her daughter, Anne Fitzhugh Miller, filled seven large scrapbooks with ephemera and memorabilia related to their work with the Geneva Political Equality Club, which they founded.

“You turn the pages and you never know what you might find,” Plakas said of the scrapbooks. “Teachers really use the material.”

Of particular note is a rare copy of a report from the first women’s rights convention, held at Seneca Falls, N.Y., in 1848.

Cigar label art featuring women. Rare Book and Special Collections Division. Photo by Shealah Craighead.

From the Copyright Deposit Collection was a selection of advertisements featuring women in cigar label art. Cigar smoking was popular during the 1870s, and women were often a favorite subject. With women’s suffrage such a hot button issue of the time, these ads capitalized on the resulting fear. In these ads, women can be seen smoking while voting and taking men’s jobs, as well as in the use of the brand name “Sixteenth Amendment,” which was expected to be the woman suffrage amendment in 1870.

Highlighting women as collectors, Plakas pointed out items from the Marian S. Carson Collection. Her interest in children’s literature brought to the Library some 300 early and rare books, games and amusements printed during the first half of the 19th century. On display was “The Diligent Girl as Lady of the House,” an “amusing game for good girls,” that gives a glimpse into the upper class family household.

[image error]

“The Diligent Girl as Lady of the House.” Ca. 1870s. Rare Book and Special Collections Division. Photo by Shealah Craighead.

The display was also particularly strong in items relating to the culinary arts and the household. Sixteenth century needlework designs joined a 17th century Japanese text on carving, with intricate block print illustrations depicting methods of preparing fish and fowl.

[image error]

“Manner of Cookery,” Ryori Shitsuke-sho. 1642. Rare Book and Special Collections Division. Photo by Shealah Craighead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

While the Rare Book and Special Collections Division is strong in its holdings related to women’s history, they complement materials from across the Library of Congress, which are some of the finest and most comprehensive anywhere.

Where Literacy Lives (And Doesn’t)

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

The number of organizations dedicated to eradicating illiteracy, raising time spent reading and increasing reading proficiency is legion because the problems are legion. These groups can be found throughout the world, including the United States, which, despite its immense wealth, is not immune to reading deficiencies among its people.

With that in mind, David M. Rubenstein established the Library of Congress Literacy Awards in 2013. Rubenstein is co-founder of The Carlyle Group and the sponsor of these awards, as well as the primary donor to the Library’s National Book Festival.

Last year, three longtime organizations won awards totaling $250,000 to enable them to continue the exemplary work they are doing to promote reading.

Reach Out and Read won the Rubenstein Prize of $150,000 in recognition of its successful program to enlist pediatricians in encouraging reading by offering free books and basic literacy awareness advice to parents as part of their children’s visits.

The American Prize of $50,000 went to 826 National, which has opened “literacy stores” in eight U.S. cities to address community reading problems.

PlanetRead in India received the $50,000 International Prize for its innovative program of adding subtitles to musical television programs in India, where access to TV is more widespread than access to books.

Award applications last year came from 187 organizations based in 28 U.S. states and 21 nations. The “Best Practices” of 26 of these groups are available in a publication whose intent is to encourage other organizations to emulate these practices.

The 2014 Literacy Awards cycle is about to close, but there is still time to submit an application. Just follow the simple instructions, which require a 750-word essay and two letters of recommendation. Applications are due by midnight March 31, 2014, Eastern Daylight Time.

Celebrating Women: On Your Mark! Get Set! Mush!

Iditarod Trail Portage Shelter Cabin, Golovin, Nome Census Area, Alaska. Prints and Photographs Division.

On this day in 1985, at 9 a.m., Libby Riddles became the first woman to win the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. She finished in 18 days, 20 minutes and 17 seconds. March is Women’s History Month, and this year’s theme is “Celebrating Women of Character, Courage and Commitment.” Riddles certainly fits that bill.

Often called the “last great race on earth,” the race covers more than 1,000 miles of beautifully rugged yet harsh terrain in Alaska, from Anchorage to Nome. Add below zero temperatures and other hazards, and you’ve got quite a Herculean feat.

A musher (term used to indicate a person who competes in cross-country races with a dog team and sled) since 1976, Riddles has actually placed in the Iditarod five times, finishing in the top 20 all but once. A Wisconsin native, Riddles moved to Alaska when she was 17. She fell in love with sled dogs but really had no intention of racing. According to Riddles, thanks to a push by a friend, she entered into a small five-dog race and won first place. The seed was then planted, which led Riddles to breed her own sled dogs and ultimately take first place at the 1985 Iditarod.

Dog sled arriving from Iditarod. Jan. 12, 1912. Prints and Photographs Division.

In addition to the Iditarod, Riddles has raced many different mid-distance races and participated in the European Alpirod (now defunct) several times, as well as the International Rocky Mountain Stage Stop Sled Dog Race. She has written several books, is a professional speaker and still raises champion sled dogs.

You can read more on the Iditarod here, which includes links to photographs of the race route and related resources to Alaskan history and culture.

The Library of Congress is an incomparable resource for research into women’s history and studies. Visit www.womenshistorymonth.gov to view some of those collections.  

Where Poetry Lives

The Library of Congress’s poetry blog, From the Catbird Seat,” has run a few posts on Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey’s second-term project, “Where Poetry Lives.” For her project, Trethewey has joined NewsHour Senior Correspondent Jeffrey Brown for a series of on-location reports in various cities across the United States to explore several large societal issues, through a focused lens offered by poetry and her own coming-to-the-art.

According to Robert Casper, head of the Library’s Poetry and Literature Center, “‘Where Poetry Lives,’ has offered her the opportunity to see first-hand how poetry strengthens our communities. She has travelled from coast-to-coast and met people from different backgrounds and at different parts of their lives, all of whom connected to her and to each other through the art.”

Since September of last year, Trethewey has traveled to Brooklyn to spend time with the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project, to Detroit to visit Motor City middle-schoolers and to Boston for a reading and writing workshop for medical students, among others.

Now all of the content from the series—the segments themselves as well as additional content the NewsHour staff have created—lives on one website. Visit “Where Poetry Lives” to watch all related content.

And, make sure to check out Casper’s blog posts on the series and some of his experiences traveling with the Poet Laureate to produce some of the segments: On the First NewHour Segment with the Poet Laureate, Tune In Tonight! and Finding “Where Poetry Lives.”

Celebrating Women’s History: Still Standing – The Story of Tammy Duckworth

(The following is a guest post by Lisa A. Taylor, liaison specialist with the Veterans History Project.)

Tammy Duckworth speaking at the Library of Congress. Photo by Christy Chason.

Disabled combat hero, veterans’ advocate, politician, woman. U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) is many things, most strikingly, a person who has not only survived but thrived. Her story is among thousands of other women veterans’ stories in the Veterans History Project (VHP) collections.

I had a chance to hear some of her story this past November, during the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Annual Salute to Veterans.

Duckworth was a member of the Illinois Army National Guard when she was deployed to Iraq in 2004. During her VHP interview, which was recorded in 2010, Duckworth said, “When I got to Iraq, my world focused in on one mission. It was incredibly rewarding.”

As a Blackhawk helicopter pilot, Duckworth was one of the first Army women to fly combat missions during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Eleven months into her tour, Duckworth’s helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG), which shot through the floor of the aircraft and exploded, causing her to lose both legs and partial use of her right arm. But she survived. Passing in and out of consciousness, Duckworth relied on her training to stay alive.

“You fly. You aviate. You do everything you can to get the aircraft safely on the ground.”

And that is just what she and her co-pilot did.

“I should have bled out in about four or five minutes. To this day, they’re not sure why I didn’t bleed out, other than maybe the blast actually cauterized my wounds a little bit.”

Duckworth was later awarded a Purple Heart for her combat injuries. And she thrived. Duckworth declined a military medical retirement and continues to drill as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Illinois Army National Guard.

Duckworth spent the next year recovering from her injuries at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.

“I was the highest ranking amputee at Walter Reed at the time, and because of that, I became sort of a spokesperson for wounded warriors.”

That experience was the spark that lit the flame for her to seek a Congressional seat in 2006. Although she lost that election, she was appointed the director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs and later assistant secretary of Veterans Affairs. During her tenure, Duckworth was able to create a tax credit for Illinois employers who hired veterans and to establish a first-in-the-nation 24/7 crisis hotline for veterans. She also pushed initiatives to end homelessness among veterans and programs to help Native American and female veterans. In 2012, Duckworth ran for Congress and won the democratic seat for Illinois’ 8th District where she continues to be an advocate for veterans.

As the HHS emcee was reading her introduction, Duckworth headed for the Great Hall stage via a back-stage wheelchair ramp.  My first thought was that someone on the HHS event committee had goofed. The podium and microphone were positioned at standard height. “How could they forget to make reasonable accommodations for the keynote speaker?” I thought. Then Tammy Duckworth proved me wrong. She rolled right up to the podium, locked the wheelchair’s wheels, pulled herself to a standing position and gave one of the most inspirational speeches I have ever witnessed.

Duckworth had not come to HHS to recount her harrowing tale of surviving an RPG explosion or the phantom pains she often experiences since losing her limbs. She was not there to tick off a checklist of her accomplishments or to advocate for wounded warriors. She was simply there to talk to a room full of her peers – military veterans who happen to be federal employees – about how critical they are to the function, and very survival, of the nation. She wanted them to know that their hard work and dedication was not overlooked. From the looks on their faces, that seemed to be all they needed to hear.

Visit the Veterans History Project Website at www.loc.gov/vets/ to view Tammy Duckworth’s VHP interview and access more than 90,000 other veterans’ stories, including several features on women in wartime: Women at War, Women of Four Wars and The WASP: First in Flight.

March marks Women’s History Month, and the Library of Congress is an incomparable resource for research into women’s history and studies. Visit www.womenshistorymonth.gov to view some of those collections.  

(Motion) Pic of the Week: An Award-Winning Memoir

 

“12 Years a Slave” won the Oscar for best picture at this year’s Academy Awards. The film, based on the 1853 memoir of Solomon Northrup, made history as the first movie from a black director (Steve McQueen) to win the film industry’s highest honor in 86 years of the awards ceremony.

In his memoir, Northrup, a free black man born in New York, recounts to editor David Wilson his kidnapping in Washington, D.C. and subsequent sale into slavery. He was kept in bondage for 12 years in Louisiana before securing his release.

The Library of Congress owns two versions: an 1859 edition from the General Collections and an 1853 edition in Rare Book and Special Collections Division. The 1859 version is available from the Library through the Internet Archive. Here you can turn the pages of the book as if you had it personally on hand. The volume has also been digitized in color to give a much more realistic impression of the book than other grayscale versions that are online of other printings.

Sports Gold

(The following is a guest post by Matthew Barton, curator of recorded sound in the Library’s Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division.)

Ron Barr with Fox Announcer and former NFL Coach Brian Billick.

Last year, the Library of Congress acquired the first of more than 10,000 radio interviews conducted by Ron Barr, founder and host of radio’s Sports Byline USA. The interviews date from 1988 and feature figures from across the world of sports: athletes, coaches, trainers, managers, owners, writers and others in the areas of baseball, football, basketball, hockey, soccer, tennis, golf, racing, boxing, track and field and numerous other sports. Throughout his career, Barr has sought out not only active competitors but the veterans of earlier sports generations, who have illuminated their eras and achievements for today’s listeners. Interviews such as these enrich the Library’s sports holdings in all media, going back many generations.

Sports coverage has been an ongoing fixture of radio broadcasting since its earliest days, one of the few constants in the ever-changing media world. The Sports Byline interviews form an invaluable archive of the nation’s athletic heritage, and an extensive resource for historians, researchers, fans and sports professionals. Notable interviewees include John Wooden, Reggie White, Mickey Mantle, Elgin Baylor, Hank Aaron, Oscar Robertson, John Elway, Jose Canseco, Charles Barkley, Mike Krzyzewski, Jimmie Johnson, John Mackey, Archie Griffin, Bonnie Blair, Bill Bradley, Willie Mays, Jim Brown, Barry Sanders, John McEnroe, Natalie Coughlin and Meadowlark Lemon. Some are available now online.

In this 1997 interview, the great Elgin Baylor talks about his early days of playground basketball in Washington, D.C. in the 1940s, and why, of all his achievements, he remains proudest of his rebounding.

[media player not shown]

This Friday, Barr is a featured speaker in a wide-ranging roundtable discussion of sports, broadcasting and preservation. Joining him are Brian Billick, football commentator and former Super Bowl-winning coach of the Baltimore Ravens, and Adonal Foyle, a 13-year NBA veteran who, through his charitable work, helps needy children and encourages civic involvement. Gene DeAnna, head of the Library’s Recorded Sound Section, and myself will be on hand to discuss the Library’s continuing commitment to the gathering and preservation of sports media.

The program will also feature highlights of some of Barr’s favorite interviews with various sports figures such as Negro Leagues baseball legend Buck O’Neill and wide receiver Jerry Rice.  Also in the mix will be unique broadcast clips from the Library of Congress collection, dating back to the early 1930s. Sports radio broadcasting and sports itself have changed enormously over the generations, and this event is a unique opportunity to experience its past, present and future. Plans to make further Sports Byline interviews available online in the near future will also be discussed during this panel.

Free and open to the public, the program begins at noon in the Mumford Room on the sixth floor of the James Madison Building Memorial Building, 101 Independence Ave., S.E., Washington, D.C.

 

A Grand Hotel on the Cycle of Creativity

(The following is a guest post by the Library’s Director of Communications, Gayle Osterberg.)

I have been reading with enthusiasm recent interviews with the screenwriter/director Wes Anderson about his forthcoming film “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” not only because I am a fan of Mr. Anderson’s work, but because he has been talking about the Library of Congress. Specifically, he’s been talking about how he has recently used the Library.

Ring Street, Budapest, Hungary. ca. 1890-1900. Prints and Photographs Division.

Anderson and his production designer, Adam Stockhausen, reportedly (The New York Times, Dazed) studied the Library’s online photochrom prints collection, which includes almost 6,000 images from the 1890s and 1910s created by photo companies in Zurich and Detroit.

The collection includes stunning landscapes and images of both interiors and exteriors of cathedrals, theaters and, of course, hotels. Anderson recently explained to the New York Times that after searching through the photos, they traveled around Eastern Europe looking at some of the locations – some of which look “very close to the old pictures” – and used the images to assist in recreating the look and feel of a hotel of that time and place.

In addition to making me want to immediately become a production designer (traveling the world – who knew?), the articles also reminded me of what I have come to regard as the “cycle of creativity” that the Library of Congress supports and safeguards through its work.

The Library adds about 12,000 items to its collections on average every business day. Those items are acquired through several means but most predominantly from copyright deposits.

Authors register their works and deposit original copies with the U.S. Copyright Office to support enforcement of their intellectual property rights – an important piece of our nation’s legal framework to encourage authorship.

Interlaken, hotels, Bernese Oberland, Switzerland. ca. 1890-1900. Prints and Photographs Division.

These new works join centuries old manuscripts, photographs, wax cylinders, books and other items in the Library’s 158 million-plus collection and are cared for and preserved using a range of specialized methods developed by the Library’s preservation and conservation teams. (You can read stories about just a few recent examples here.)

And finally, those collections are made available to the public, either on site at the Library’s research facilities or, in the case of the photochrom print collection, online. Practicing creators and scholars can look, study, read, touch, learn, be inspired and create new works that will themselves be registered for copyright and potentially not only entertain and inform audiences today but inspire and inform future generations of researchers and authors.

I wonder if the photographers based in Zurich and Detroit at the turn of the century imagined their images would one day more than 100 years later inspire a filmmaker’s efforts to remake a grand hotel?  I wonder whom Anderson’s new film will, in turn, inspire 100 years from now (his screenplay has already been registered with the Copyright Office, natch). We cannot know for sure. But someone a century from now at the Library of Congress will.

InRetrospect: February 2014 Blogging Edition

Between winter and the winter olympics, the Library of Congress blogosphere offered up a variety of posts during February. Here is a sampling:

In The Muse: Performing Arts Blog

ASCAP on the Occasion of its 100th Birthday with Jimmy Webb and Paul Williams

The Library celebrates ASCAP.

From the Catbird Seat: Poetry & Literature at the Library of Congress

Olympic Promotion Ads Inspire Through Poetry

Poetry features prominently in Olympic ad campaigns.

Picture This: Library of Congress Prints & Photos

Curling: Right on the Button 

Historical photographs showcase the sport of curling.

In Custodia Legis: Law Librarians of Congress

Snow, the Law Library of Congress and Congressional Coverage

Law librarians share snow-day recollections.

Inside Adams: Science, Technology & Business

King of Winter Sports

Hockey is highlighted in the Library of Congress collections.

The Signal: Digital Preservation

Saving Mementos from Virtual Worlds

Mike Ashenfelder shares preservation tips for the gamers.

Teaching with the Library of Congress

Preparing for Spring By Celebrating School Gardens

A lesson on school gardens can chase away winter blues.

Folklife Today

“The Fox”: A Song for Pete and Capitol Hill

Fox sighting inspires folksong reminiscences.

 

Library in the News: February 2014 Edition

News in February brought word of several Library of Congress collection resources. Here are a few headlines.

On January 30, the Library launched an online collection showcasing selected items from the Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan Archive, along with elements from other important science-related collections at the Library.

Gizmodo highlighted eight of the most fascinating items from the collection. Included in the list were a home movie of a young pianist Sagan, a rough draft of his novel “Contact” and ideas for a video game version of the novel “as exciting as most violent video games.”

“The Sagan archive gives us a close-up of the celebrity scientist’s frenetic existence and, more important, a documentary record of how Americans thought about science in the second half of the 20th century,” wrote Joel Achenbach for Smithsonian Magazine.

Also running articles were Boing Boing and The Verge.

Launching just a week later was the Library’s “Songs of America” presentation, which explores American history through music.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer featured highlights of the new presentation.

“Just how amazing is this collection? There are 55 items related soley to the song ‘Amazing Grace’ with versions from the likes of Johnny Cash, Elvis, Willie Nelson, The Byrds and Sam Cook.”

Other outlets running stories were CBS, WJLA and the Associated Press.

While this collection isn’t available online yet, the Archive of American Public Broadcasting will be an archive of countless hours footage and audio tape from the mid-20th century through the first decade of the 21st century that contain local, regional, and national history, news, public affairs, civic affairs, religion, education, environmental issues, music, art, literature, filmmaking, dance, and poetry. The digital preservation files the archive creates will be held at the Library of Congress, and the public-facing website launches in 2015.

According to an article in The Atlantic, the Library will preserve the material “for the life of the republic plus 500 years.”

One of the Library’s most popular online collections is its Prints and Photographs Online catalog, which includes more than 1.2 million digitized images from the Prints and Photographs Division. Scholars, researchers, enthusiasts and even celebrities from around the world have access to this resource. Noted film director Wes Anderson was inspired by the Photochrom Prints collection for his new film “The Budapest Hotel.”

“Using the U.S. Library of Congress archive of photochrom images from 1895 to 1910, Anderson pieced together a visual aesthetic that was brought to life by [Adam] Stockhausen and art director Stephan Gessler,” wrote Trey Taylor for Dazed.

The New York Times also wrote a travel and arts feature on the movie and Anderson’s inspiration for the hotel at the center of the film.