Library of Congress's Blog, page 168

Library in the News: October 2013 Edition

The Library of Congress has made headlines in the last month with a variety of initiatives and projects, including some of its preservation efforts.

In early September, the Library ran a blog post discussing some work its Preservation Directorate was doing to conserve its pulp-fiction magazine collection.

CBS News picked up the story to run in both its morning and evening editions.

Other pop culture the Library is committed to preserving is films. Recently, the institution completed work to restore the 1911 Mary Pickford Film, titled “Their First Misunderstanding.” The film marked a turning point in the actress’s career, as it was the first time she was given credit in the advertising materials.

You can read more about it in these articles from CBS News and the Huffington Post.

Even Rachel Maddow picked up the story for a segment on her MSNBC show. In a salute to the person she calls “greatest movie star ever,” Maddow concocted the “Mary Pickford,” a frothy rum drink named after the famed actress.

Continuing to make news was the Library’s work in archiving and preserving Twitter. C-SPAN spoke with Robert Dizard, Deputy Librarian of Congress, to discuss the institution’s efforts.

“The Library of Congress is a library that acquires and preserves the creative and historical records of the United States, so when you look at a collection like Twitter, it will be valuable both in terms of seeing how society as a whole are reacting to events and life in general, but it will also be valuable in terms of individuals’ records of what they have published on Twitter,” said Dizard.

In late October, the Library announced it would be putting on display the first presumed draft of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, known as the Nicolay copy.

“The rare privilege of seeing these items brings this crucial history back to life,” wrote Marsha Dubrow of the Washington Examiner.

And, for a bit of fun, Bing, a popular Internet search website, featured a photo of the Library on its home page. Included in the interactive were several potential Library-related searches, including other images of the institution and links to Library history and news.

 

Inquiring Minds: David Grinspoon Reflects on His Tenure at Library of Congress

(The following is a story written by Jason Steinhauer of the John W. Kluge Center for the Library of Congress staff newsletter, The Gazette.)

Photo by Shealah Craighead

David Grinspoon expected an office inside the Library of Congress to be a great opportunity to write and research. How it would enable him to shape the debate on the future of our planet – that he did not anticipate.

“It’s been incredible. A dream-come-true. Unbelievable,” the outgoing Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology said recently when asked about his yearlong residence at The John W. Kluge Center.

“The community of scholars at the Kluge Center has surprised me,” said Grinspoon, whose tenure ended Oct. 31. “You want to hide in your office and write, but in the center people are working on fascinating projects that have unexpected synergies with yours.

“A scholar says, ‘Have you read this?’ and it turns out to be invaluable to your research. The contact with other scholars has been so stimulating and so fruitful.”

The Library collections and staff proved another surprise.

“The Library has everything a scholar could want,” Grinspoon said. “But the people who navigate that – they perform wizardry, digging things out that I didn’t know existed.”

Grinspoon cited as an example the philosophical writings of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, a Soviet rocket scientist and pioneer of astronautic theory – and an important source in Grinspoon’s research.

“Tsiolkovsky had writings related to how we would evolve and transcend Earth,” Grinspoon said. “But everyone I contacted said the writings were only in Russian. I mentioned this to Peg Clifton, one of the science librarians, and a week later English translations, books, pamphlets and theses started showing up in my office.

“I now have a half a shelf in my office of Tsiolkovsky philosophy in English. That seemed miraculous and encapsulates what’s so great about working here.”

The greatest impact has been Grinspoon’s ideas. Grinspoon’s research has been astrobiological investigation into the Anthropocene Era, the name given by some scientists to the current era in the Earth’s history wherein humans are the key drivers of geological and climatic change. It’s a controversial topic, involving issues of climate change, evolution and the future of human life on the planet.

Astrobiology, Grinspoon said, brings an important perspective to the debate.

“Astrobiology is the scientific study of life in universe,” Grinspoon said. “Another way to say it is that astrobiology is about the relationship between life and planets. If you look at it that way, the Anthropocene is an interesting phase. It’s a fundamental change in the relationship between life and Earth. Life has always perturbed Earth, but are we now fundamentally transforming it? Studying the Anthropocene helps us answer what happens to complex life on planets, and what challenges life faces if it is to continue.”

The longevity of human life has been a central theme of discussion at the Kluge Center during Grinspoon’s tenure.

Throughout the year, he invited scientists and scholars to the center to confer on the Anthropocene. As astrobiology chair, he lectured at the Library of Congress, NASA headquarters, NASA Goddard Research Center, the Philosophical Society of Washington, the Carnegie Institute, the National Academy of Sciences and The American Association for the Advancement of Science.

His research at the center was cited by the New Yorker Elements, New York Times DotEarth blog, Air & Space Smithsonian Magazine, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Slate and Astrobiology Magazine.

And, on Sept.12, he convened scientists, scholars, science-fiction authors and journalists in a daylong symposium to discuss the longevity of human civilization. The event was attended by 150 people and live-tweeted more than 700 times around the world.

Grinspoon also met with U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, in a relationship brokered by the Kluge Center and the Congressional Relations Office.

“It’s been enlightening,” Grinspoon said of the conversations. “I’m working on a perspective, not policy, which I think makes it easier to converse. I’m working on ideas about humanity and how we need to engage with our planet and fellow humans. We as scholars can engage in a less-threatening way on the big-picture questions facing Members of Congress. I like to think that can percolate down into the kinds of decisions policymaker have to make.”

The big-picture questions are where Grinspoon is turning his focus.

“We’ve entered a new era in the geological evolution of the Earth,” he said. “We’re not just another species. Our presence is a significant perturbation, a fundamental change in the way the planet is operating. We’re managing this planet. But we don’t really know how to manage a planet.”

Grinspoon said it’s analogous to waking up and realizing you’re at the wheel of a truck you don’t know how to drive.

“We better learn, or we’ll drive ourselves off the road,” he said.

His ideas include fostering more global decision-making and encouraging more long-term thinking. But he stressed he’s advocating a mindset, not policy.

“I’m trying to express an informed perspective on how the human race needs to see itself,” he said. “I’ve become more optimistic during this year. There’s a global community that is slowly evolving that may bring us to be where we need to be. I’m eager to see where we go from here.”

As where Grinspoon does go from here?

“I want to keep doing space research and comparative climatology,” he said. “But the year here has made me more focused on Earth and how to solve our problems. I want to try to be helpful in a more direct way. I want to align space and planetary science to ensure human survival.”

The Library previously caught up with Grinspoon when he began his research at the Kluge Center. You can read about it here. 

Honoring Achievements in Literacy

This year marks the debut of three awards administered by the Library of Congress and sponsored by philanthropist David M. Rubenstein to recognize and support achievements in the field of literacy, both in the United States and abroad.

Recipients of the first annual awards, announced in September at the Library’s National Book Festival, are Reach Out and Read (David M. Rubenstein Prize), 826 National (American Prize) and PlanetRead (International Prize). The Library caught up with Anne-Marie Fitzgerald, executive director of Reach Out and Read, and Gerald Richards, CEO of 826 National, to talk about their organizations and being the first recipients of the awards. Here are a couple of clips:

{
shortName: '',
detailUrl: '',
derivatives: [ {derivativeUrl: 'rtmp://stream.media.loc.gov/vod/blogs/fitzge...'} ],
mediaType: 'V',
autoPlay: false,
playerSize: 'smallWide'
}





{
shortName: '',
detailUrl: '',
derivatives: [ {derivativeUrl: 'rtmp://stream.media.loc.gov/vod/blogs/richar...'} ],
mediaType: 'V',
autoPlay: false,
playerSize: 'smallWide'
}

Headlining the 2013 Library of Congress Literacy Awards ceremony, which will be held on Monday, Nov. 4, are best-selling authors and literacy advocates David Baldacci and James Patterson. You can read more about the event here. The event, sponsored by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, is free and open to the public; no tickets are required.

Welcome to Folklife Today

Today we welcome the  newest member of the Library of Congress blogosphere: Folklife Today, a new blog produced by the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

AFC has one of the largest archives in the world relating to traditional folk culture.  The center’s team of bloggers will be posting regularly with interesting information about its collections and services and other folklore and folklife topics of interest.

With a look at one of America’s favorite holidays, Folklife Today debuts with its first post on the history and folklore of Halloween.

Folklife Today joins this blog, as well as others from the Library of Congress, including our Music Division and our Science, Technology and Business Division. You can access all of the Library’s blogs here.

Tell Me a Story

“100 years from now, what will it mean to have recorded and preserved the voices and experiences of everyday people?”

StoryCorps mobile recording booth in front of the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building. 2005.

Celebrating its “10 years of listening to America” this month, Storycorps asks that very question. The oral history project’s mission is to provide people of all backgrounds and beliefs with the opportunity to record, share and preserve their stories. And, the Library of Congress is committed to safeguarding those stories as well.

According to Stephen Winick of the Library’s American Folklife Center (AFC),  project founder David Isay intended the audio recordings to be preserved in the AFC. Today, more than 45,000 audio interviews comprise the StoryCorps project. They join other complementary Library collections, including like the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Writers’ Project, the Veterans History Project and the Civil Rights History Project.

Ordinary Americans from all walks of life participate in these interviews. They are intimate and detailed, personal and poignant, charming and amusing.

“We find urban and town life, teachers, traumatic memories and coming-of-age stories,” said Winick. “There’s an unparalleled wealth of firsthand recollections.”

“You see, the thing of it is, I always feel guilty when I say I love you, to you, and I say it so often, I say it to remind you that as dumpy as I am, it’s coming from me- it’s like hearing a beautiful song from a busted old radio. And it’s nice of you to keep the radio around the house,” said Danny Perasa, in an 2004 oral history excerpt from he and his wife Annie.

The Perasas came back to Storycorps a few more times, including when he was diagnosed with cancer in 2006, and Annie alone seven years after Danny’s death. “You know, like people say, ‘You must miss Danny terribly.’ No. It was an honor to be married to him. So it’s not terrible that I had the time to be with him. You know, life is too short. You come and you’re gone. But Danny didn’t go. He’s not gone because of StoryCorps.”

In 1991, Bryan Lindsay, who was 7 at the time, was hit by a van and almost killed. Rowan Allen was the paramedic on the scene. The two recently recorded a StoryCorps interview to remember the day.

“You had a massive dent on your forehead. And I remember your mother asking me in the ambulance, ‘Is he going to be all right?’” said Allen. “I played it down. And I said to her, ‘Oh it’s just a little bump on the head.’ But to this day when I start thinking about the details, I get choked up.”

“You know, just to be here with you is more than I could ever ask. And it’s a privilege to be around you. I really sincerely thank you,” said Lindsay.

Aside from StoryCorps being an opportunity to preserve people’s stories and life experiences, the project also serves as a study in sociology and cultural history.

“The audio recordings also allows researchers to study language itself,” said Winick.

In addition, the StoryCorps interviews lend themselves to a variety of projects. Currently, National Public Radio broadcasts them as part of a regular feature and has made animated shorts, which can be viewed on NPR’s website. The collection can also be useful to the information technology industry for such things as speech-recognition software.

“Last year my sister and I came to StoryCorps with my then-91-year-old grandmother. We had this fantastic interview, in which my grandma was candid and funny and loving,” said Sharon DeLevie-Orey, who conducted an oral-history interview with her grandmother in StoryCorps’ first stationary recording booth in New York’s Grand Central Station in 2003. “Yesterday she died. I just took out my StoryCorps CD and noticed the date, a year to the day. Tomorrow will be her funeral. I could only listen to about 20 seconds before bursting into tears. But I am so grateful that I have this. Sure, I could have taped her anytime in the last 41 years. But I didn’t. Now the reward is so huge. Everyone should do StoryCorps—because we don’t live forever.”

 

Inquiring Minds: Sabor! Latin American and Hispanic Cookbooks in the Library of Congress Collections

Natalia Silva Prada

(The following is a guest post by Kaydee McCann, humanities editor for the “Handbook of Latin American Studies” and  reference librarian in the Hispanic Division.)

Historian Natalia Silva Prada is a visiting researcher in the Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress. Supported by a fellowship from Goya Foods, she spent two months preparing an annotated bibliography of Latin American and Hispanic cookbooks from the Library’s collections. The bibliography will be made available in the coming months on the Hispanic Division website. She is continuing research in the Hispanic Division, writing a book on the role of political lampoons and political prophecies in 16th- to 18th-century Latin America.

Q: Why do you think there’s been a recent surge of scholarly interest in food history?

The growing interest in the history of gastronomy is really tied to two related subdisciplines – social history and cultural history. Social history took hold in the first half of the 20th century and cultural history reached a peak in the 1990s. The academic interest in the daily lives and experiences of ordinary people and in popular culture has recently been matched by a popular interest in food, cooking, restaurants and so forth. And you can see this interest reflected in the many television shows about cooking competitions and chefs, for example. So there’s been a sort of meeting of scholarly and popular interest.

Q: How many individual cookbook titles did you find during your research? And how many titles did you include in your bibliography?

There were many more titles in the Library on the food and cooking of Latin America and United States Hispanics than I expected to find. I located 1,300 titles and included 200 in the final bibliography. (I had two months to work on the bibliography, which placed some limits on the numbers of books that I had time to review and include).

Q: How did you decide which ones to include?

It seemed to me that it would be really interesting for people to know about the historical works from each country, so I included some of the oldest books. At the same time, I thought it would be really useful to highlight some of the most recent gastronomic works, so I looked for titles published between 1990-2012. I didn’t completely exclude works from other periods. For example, about two-thirds of the titles I included on Surinamese cooking were published in the 1970s.

Q: The Library has an incredible wealth of resources. How did you begin your research?

Before beginning a new project, a researcher has to do some investigation into previous bibliographic studies to understand which works are the best and what remains to be done. Earlier works help you understand what and how to search: specific terms and subject headings, specific concepts, specific authors. Bibliographic reviews are another essential tool for preselecting materials, for example the books that are indexed in the databases available at the Library of Congress and the abstracts in the “Handbook of Latin American Studies.”

Q: Food can be a way to maintain and preserve culture, and it can also be an indication of the influences that different cultures have on one another. Was there an identifiable moment when Latin American cooking emerged, as something new and separate from Spanish and Portuguese cooking?

Rice in a lunch of a sugar worker on a Puerto Rican plantation. 1942. Prints and Photographs Division.

And similarly, was there a moment when Hispanic/Latin American food-related influences began to find their way into mainstream U.S. tastes?

From the very first moment, when European and African populations made contact with the American continent, the foundations were established for new types of foods, new choices of food, new patterns of consumption and cooking. New tastes evolved and food taboos were broken as they tried new foods. European, indigenous, and African traditions all made a mark on New World cooking and eating.

As for the United States and Mexico, you could say that they have shared flavors and tastes since the early days when California and the Southwest states were part of the Spanish colonies. That sharing has continued right up to the present day – the use of chiles to preserve meat, for example, isn’t a tradition that belongs to just one nationality. Then, at the end of the 19th century, due to the Spanish-American War, Cuba and Puerto Rico began to interact with the United States and that marked another period of the spread of different foods and ways of cooking.

A similar situation occurred as Latin American migrants to the United States continued cooking and eating the foods from their own countries, which little by little were then adopted by North Americans. During the second half of the 20th century, there was a proliferation of [Latin and Hispanic] restaurants and many Hispanic dishes have been popularized by the fast food chains.

Q: Your recent work has looked at political dissent in the colonies under Spanish rule. Do you see any connections between food and political dissent in the colonial context?

A page from the Huexotzinco Codex showing the turkeys, chiles, and corn paid in tribute to Spanish Crown in the 16th century by the peoples of Huexotzinco. Library of Congress

Well, at first it didn’t seem to me that there was any connection between food and political discord, but if you consider the social discontent at the root of many rebellions, then you do see links between a lack of food (corn, for example), social discord and political dissent. And if you look at the abuses of colonial authorities, such as unlawful imposition of taxes or excessive tax increases on provisions, or changes in the rules related to the supply of food and provisions, then you do find these connections. And the resulting protests over this unfair taxation probably helped [the colonists] recognize what was rightfully theirs and to see themselves as different from the Spanish.

Q: Food styles change over time. For example, in the United States, there’s been a growing interest in local and organic foods, and we’ve seen the rise of the farm-to-table movement. Did you see any trends in the cookbooks that you reviewed?

In the most recent cookbooks, there’s a growing recognition of the use of organic foods and interest in recipes featuring organic foods and also an interest in the recovery and preservation of local food traditions.

In the Andes, particularly in Bolivia, there’s been a strong emphasis on recovering the use of grains, like quinoa, that were eaten by pre-Hispanic indigenous populations. Other countries, especially Mexico and Paraguay, are also showing this interest in preserving local food traditions. Cooking and health are also very closely linked these days, for example, with recipes for people with diabetes.

Q: What surprised you most or impressed you most over the course of your research in the Library of Congress?

I was impressed by the indigenous populations of Mexico who eat insects and poisonous grasses and also by the many recipes from Nicaragua using tortoises; the latter really had an impact on me. Also quite striking were the food offerings made to the saints. Although I already knew about this tradition in Mexico, it’s also quite prevalent in Brazil. There are also books on music and food and on food as an aphrodisiac.

Tortilla making. Between 1950 and 1970. Prints and Photographs Division.

Q: In addition to your work as an historian, you’re a blogger. You have two blogs, one on political culture in the New World and one that explores Latin American food history . Were any of your posts inspired by research that you did at the Library?

Yes, all of the posts on the blog “Love Cooking, Love History,” are based on research done at the Library of Congress with the support of the Goya Fellowship. From reading this enormous number of books, I developed lots of ideas and noted many things of interest that I wanted to explore in greater depth. Whenever I’m not feeling inspired, I just look over the introduction to my bibliography once or twice to remember the amazing things that might be of interest to the blog readers. The best example is one of my most recent entries about entomofagy or the art of eating insects, as I called it!

Q:  You grew up in Colombia, received your doctorate and taught for many years in Mexico, lived in Italy, and now live here in the U.S. Are there any foods that hold special memories for you?

I was born and raised in Colombia and lived there for almost 27 years. Besides the influences from Mexican food, the friends I had in Mexico, who were from all over Latin America and from Italy, also had an important impact. From them and, in particular from my Italian husband, there have been many cultural influences.

The food I miss the most is from my country, Colombia. I especially miss the tamales santandereanos. And from the years I lived in Italy, I miss the delicious pizzas, the hams, the gelato. Strangely enough, now that I live in the United States, I eat more Mexican food than ever because the “Americanization” of it is more to my taste – it’s a little less spicy and a little more “friendly” for my relatively intolerant palate.

Q: Your husband is also a researcher here in the Hispanic Division. Who’s the chef in your family?

Well, my husband was really the one who inspired me to cook – I learned to cook for love. When we met, he cooked a little bit more than me, but over time I became the chef of the house! I was also inspired by a book that my mother gave me when I left Colombia – “La buena mesa,” by doña Sofia Ospina de Navarro – and for which I have great affection. With that little book I started to experiment with Colombian recipes and from my husband and a few good friends, I learned to make excellent pasta! For my own wedding reception, I made a tuna soufflé that was a great success and from then on I was really excited by cooking.

For more information on foods native to the Americas and on food history and cooking, see the following guides produced by the Science and Business Division of the Library and links to gastronomy collections in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division:

How the squash got its name

Chocolate: a resource guide

Food Writing: a resource guide

Rare Book Collections on cooking and gastronomy

Katherine Golden Bitting Collection

Elizabeth Pennell Collection

 

 

A Congressional Legacy: The Peter Force Library

1865 portrait of Peter Force / Mathew Brady, Prints and Photographs Division.

Purchased through an act of Congress in 1867, the Peter Force Library became the foundation of the Library’s Americana collections. 

As the nation sought to reconstruct the Union after the Civil War, so, too, did the Library of Congress seek to build a collection that documented fully America’s history. At the time, the nearly 100,000 volumes in the Library of Congress fell short of the task.

“It is not creditable to our national spirit to have to admit the fact … that the largest and most complete collection of books relating to America in the world is now gathered on the shelves of the British Museum,” wrote Librarian of Congress Ainsworth Rand Spofford in his “Special Report” to Congress’ Joint Committee on the Library, dated Jan. 25, 1867. Spofford appealed to the committee to approve the purchase of the private library of Peter Force. The report ends with an appeal “to the judgment and liberality of this committee and of Congress to secure the chance of adding to this National Library the largest and best collection of the sources of American history yet brought together in this country.”

The response was quick and unanimous. A recommendation to appropriate the sum of $100,000 would be made to the full Congress. President Andrew Johnson’s signature, five weeks later, made it law.

Born in New Jersey, Peter Force (1790- 1868) was the son of a Revolutionary War soldier. A lieutenant in the War of 1812, Force settled in the nation’s capital where he worked as a printer, newspaper editor and politician—serving as mayor of Washington, D.C., from 1836-1840.

In this letter, dated Jan. 26, 1867, Librarian of Congress Ainsworth Rand Spofford informs Peter Force that the Joint Committee on the Library has recommended the purchase of his private library. Library of Congress Archives, Manuscript Division

But at his core, Force was a collector and editor of historical documents. His life’s work was the compilation of a “Documentary History of the American Revolution,” better known as the nine- volume “American Archives.” The manuscript materials acquired by Force to compile the work were part of his personal library. Spofford observed, “The value to the Library of Congress, which is wholly destitute of manuscripts as unpublished materials for history, would be very great.”

All told, Force’s private library comprises more than 60,000 items relating to the discovery, settlement and history of America. With the acquisition of the collection, the nation’s library, in one stroke, established its first major collections of 18th-century American newspapers, incunabula (pre-16th-century publications), American imprints, manuscripts and rare maps and atlases. The 420 manuscript items in the collection include several autograph journals of George Washington. The 245 bound volumes of pre-1800 American newspapers cover the Stamp Act controversy, the Revolutionary War and the establishment of the U.S. Constitution.

With the acquisition of Force’s library, the Library of Congress also acquired a perfect copy of Eliot’s Indian Bible (1663), the first complete Bible printed in America. Several years ago, a member of Congress requested this item for his swearing-in ceremony. This congressional request and many others underscore Thomas Jefferson’s belief that “there is no subject to which a Member of Congress may not have occasion to refer,” which was one of the justifications for the congressional purchase of Jefferson’s eclectic personal library in 1815.

This article is featured in the September-October 2013 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine, LCM, now available for download here. You can also view the archives of the Library’s former publication from 1993 to 2011.

Inquiring Minds: An Interview with History Prize Recipient Danielle Johnson

Paul Ridgway, Danielle Johnson (center) and Nanette Ridgway at the “Discovery or Exploration in History Prize” ceremony. National History Day.

Earlier this summer, the Library of Congress awarded the first “Discovery or Exploration in History Prize” as part of National History Day (NHD) to Danielle Johnson of Faiss Middle School in Las Vegas. Johnson was honored for her project, “The Erie Canal: ‘A Little Short of Madness.’” The prize is sponsored by the Elizabeth Ridgway Fund, established two years ago in memory of the former director of Educational Outreach at the Library of Congress. Ridgway, who served in that position for seven years, died in 2010 of injuries suffered in a fall while horseback riding. She was 41.

Q. Tell us about your research project on the Erie Canal and how/why you became interested in that particular subject?

I first became interested in the Erie Canal when I saw it on the sample topic list for the 2013 National History Day theme, “Turning Points in History.” I had heard of the canal before, but I didn’t really know what it was so I was eager to learn about it. I also felt a connection to the topic because my grandparents lived in Erie, Penn. Out of the [project] options of performance, documentary, exhibit, website and paper, I was drawn to the exhibit because it allows more hands-on learning and shows more creativity. Along with the display, each student/group had to create a process paper showing how their research had been transformed into the project and an annotated bibliography that cited all of the sources used and the importance of each source.

Q. Your research led you to the Library of Congress. What collections and/or items did you find most informative?

The Library of Congress was the first place my teacher suggested for sources and was where I found my first primary source. This source was a letter written by Abraham Lincoln concerning the Erie Canal. In his letter, Abraham Lincoln said he had chosen a certain engineer to enlarge the locks on the canal. Later, I found another letter written by the New York legislature to the president asking him to decide on the engineer that would enlarge the locks on the Erie Canal to keep the people safe. I realized this letter was the original letter sent to President Abraham Lincoln. This was interesting to see the involvement of New York and the president because the Erie Canal was built entirely by New York State, not the government. Another source I used from the Library was a portrait of DeWitt Clinton. DeWitt Clinton was the man in charge of the whole Erie Canal project, so the portrait helped show others the driving force behind the canal.

Q. What did you learn about the canal that you may not have previously known? Any interesting discoveries found through your research?

Because I created a project on a topic I knew nothing about at the beginning of the year, I became an expert on my topic by the end of the year. This was because I had no limits to my research. My goal was to know more about my topic than anyone else, so I went to every source I could find and learned everything I could. Everything I learned throughout the project was new information. I learned everything from the speed limit of the boats to the worker wages. My favorite discovery towards the end of my research was the quote, “America can never forget to acknowledge that they have built the longest canal in the world, in the least time, with the least experience, for the least money, and to the greatest public benefit,” by William Stone. This quote completed my project. It made the whole thing make sense and showed why the Erie Canal was a turning point in history. Although America was so inexperienced in engineering, they made this amazing canal that helped the country in so many ways, including expanding west, improving transportation and creating jobs.

Q. How did you feel when you were awarded the first “Discovery or Exploration in History Prize” from the Library?

That was just pure excitement. I already knew I hadn’t won for the junior individual exhibit category or outstanding state entry, so this was my last chance to win – not only for me but for Nevada, too. Nevada had quietly sat through nearly three hours of other states running on and off stage, so when the “Discovery or Exploration” award came up on the screen, we were on the edge of our seats. Once my name was called we all just freaked out. I hugged my teacher and ran down to the stage while my mom was crying and cheering at the same time she was trying to record me. I have no idea what I was thinking when I was getting the award other than, “Oh my gosh!!!!” I was just very excited to have won an award at a national competition my first year participating in National History Day (NHD). This was such an amazing award to win because of the backstory of it and Elizabeth Ridgway.

Q. Why do you think it’s important for people to have an understanding and appreciation of history?

I believe it is important for people to have an understanding and appreciation of history because it is the reason we are who we are. It’s our ancestors, our roots and our heritage. History shapes us into the people and the country we are. It’s just like America was shaped by the Erie Canal. America went from a young, inexperienced country to a wiser and more knowledgeable country because of all of the events and history that has happened to it.

Q. Why do you think it’s valuable for the Library to preserve such historical collections, and what do you think the public should know about using them and doing research here?

It’s valuable for the Library to preserve historical collections for research projects just like NHD so people can learn more about their project topics or anything that interests them by using the many primary sources the Library has available. The Library of Congress is the most reliable source website out there and it has information on almost anything you could imagine.

More information about National History Day, the annual contest and all prizes is available at www.nhd.org.

 

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage: The Voice of Hispanic Literature

(The following is a guest post by Catalina Gomez of the Library of Congress Hispanic Division.)

The Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape, most commonly referred to as the AHLOT, is one of those rare gems that readers can come across in the hidden corners of the Library of Congress. Compiled and carefully curated by the Hispanic Division since the 1940s, this extensive audio archive has collected close to 700 recordings of the most prominent poets, novelists and essayists from the Luso-Hispanic world reading from their works. Throughout the years, the AHLOT has captured works in Spanish, Portuguese, English, French, Dutch, Catalan, Basque, Nahuatl, Zapotec and Aymara, becoming a unique treasure of the cultural patrimony of Spain, Portugal, Latin America, the Caribbean, the United States and the world.

Pablo Neruda, recording for Library of Congress in its recording studio. Prints and Photographs Division.

Among the writers included in the archive are Nobel Prize winners Gabriel García Márquez (Colombia), Gabriela Mistral, Pablo Neruda (both from Chile), Miguel Angel Asturias (Guatemala), Octavio Paz (Mexico), Juan Ramón Jiménez, Vicente Aleixandre, Camilo José Cela (all from Spain), and Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru). Other noteworthy authors included are Argentinians Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortázar, and Mexicans Elena Poniatowska and Carlos Fuentes. Cuban-American poet Richard Blanco, who read his poem “One Today” in the 2013 presidential inauguration, was recently recorded and added to the collection in the spring of 2013.

Listening to Neruda read his beloved poem “Las Alturas de Machu Picchu” (“The Heights of Machu Picchu”), Paz read his “Piedra Nativa” (“Native Stone”), or Mistral read “Canción Qechua” (“Quechua Song”), will suffice in making one understand the magic of these recordings, which are available for the public to listen to in the Hispanic Reading Room of the Library. The idea behind the AHLOT has been to provide poets and prose writers with a unique space and opportunity to interact intimately with their work, where they can express it, and, in some cases, dissect it. As they record, writers choose which selections to read from, in what order to do so and what tone to use – hence the uniqueness and value of each session. Another fundamental aspect of the archive is the great significance of a literary work when read aloud. It could be said that in the voices of these writers live the essence of their creation in its purest form.

Jorge Luis Borges. 1962. Prints and Photographs Division

In a great number of AHLOT recordings, authors provide rich reflections on the meaning of their work. Borges, for example, speaks about the concepts of happiness and the profound nature of poetry during his recording: “… it might be said that to a poet unhappiness is essential.” He says, “Happiness, as you all know, is an end in itself. Happiness does not desire anything more. But to have been unhappy, to be unhappy, is something that a poet has to turn… has to change into music, into passion, into some strange harmony.”

Novelist Cortázar explains how surrealist cinema and reading anthropology fuel his creativity, and how John Keats has been one of his most influential figures (translated from the Spanish): “I oftentimes imagine that Keats is still alive and that he is my buddy.” Cortázar also gives advice to young writers during his recording (translated from the Spanish): “I would offer some advice to young writers, and that is to never ask for advice from other writers. I would advise them to search alone and through reading … reading books. My advice is for them to search for that indirect advice that can only come from a poet that has long been dead, or by a philosopher far, far away. Never ask another writer for advice, as that is a sign of weakness, and those who ask for advice will never become great writers.”

Even though the bulk of the recordings in the AHLOT are literary, the archive also delves into other disciplines such as philology, history, essays and non-fiction. The recording of Angel María Garibay (Mexico), an encyclopedic compiler, biblical scholar and expert on Nahuatl and ancient Greek is one example. Garibay’s recording contains commentary on his important philological study of the Aztec languages, and he reads Nahuatl poetry both in its original language and in Spanish. Another example of a rare recording is that of Lewis Hanke, the first chief of the Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress, and the founding editor of the “Handbook of Latin American Studies” (HLAS). In his AHLOT interview, Hanke tells the story of the beginnings of the Division and of the building of the beautiful Hispanic Reading Room.

Building this collection has been no easy feat. In 1943, the then assistant chief of the Hispanic Division, Francisco Aguilera, spearheaded the project, and for 27 years he served as the curator of the AHLOT before passing it on to the Hispanic Division’s current chief, Georgette Dorn. Aguilera and Dorn, throughout their years as curators, have actively reached out to authors, poets, publishers and embassies, in order to cast a wide net and capture as many voices as possible.

Staff members of the Hispanic Division are currently working with the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division (MBRS), to transfer the recordings from their original format (magnetic tape reels) to digital form – a task made possible thanks to the cutting-edge technology housed in MBRS’s Culpeper campus. The goal of the Hispanic Division is to one day provide this special collection to an online audience making it available to the entire world. For now, those who live locally or those who come to visit the nation’s Capital can come and experience the collection onsite in the historic Hispanic Reading Room of the Library of Congress.

 

If You Build It, They Will Learn

(The following is a story written by Daniel De Simone, curator of the Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection in the Library’s Rare Book and Special Collections Division, for the September-October 2013 issue of the Library of Congress Magazine. You can download the issue in its entirety here.)

Booker T. Washington, circa 1905-1915 | Harris & Ewing Collection, Prints and Photographs Division.

The year 1912 was a pivotal one for African American educator Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) and Chicago businessman Julius Rosenwald (1862-1932). The two men were acquainted, with Washington as the founder and principal of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute for the training of black teachers (now Tuskegee University) and Rosenwald serving as a member of the school’s Board of Trustees.

That year, Washington had the idea to build schools for African American children throughout the rural South. “Separate but equal” was the law of the land, but black children were learning in underfunded and dilapidated buildings across the South. Why not replicate the success of Tuskegee by providing the necessary academic skills in clean, well-lit modern structures for students on the K-12 level? For funding, he turned first to Tuskegee’s benefactors.

Rosenwald, the president of Sears, Roebuck and Co., was approaching his 50th birthday and had decided to celebrate by donating funds to various causes. He shared Washington’s concern about the lack of educational resources for black children in the South. He had already launched a program to offer matching grants for the construction of African American YMCAs and was interested in Washington’s plans to do the same for schools.

In a letter to Washington dated July 15, 1912, Rosenwald offered to help.

“If you had $25,000 to distribute among institutions which were offshoots of Tuskegee or doing similar works to Tuskegee, how would you divide it?”

Washington replied five days later in a long and heartfelt letter.

Julius Rosenwald, 1917 | Harris & Ewing Collection, Prints and Photographs Division,

“I shall be very glad to send you recommendations and opinions regarding the use of $25,000 in helping institutions. … Such a sum of money will prove a Godsend to those institutions and can be made to accomplish much more good just now than any one realizes. I think I am not stating it too strongly when I say that a wise expenditure of such a sum of money will enable these schools to do fifty or one hundred percent better work than they are now doing.”

Rosenwald requested from Washington a list of schools that “in your judgment should participate, naming the amount for each and the purpose for which the money is to be used … and as soon as any school you name has raised an equal amount, I will pay to it such an amount as you have designated.”

Both men shared a belief in the importance of self-reliance. So it is not surprising that the plan called for monies from the Rosenwald Fund to be matched by the African American community. The call was met and exceeded.

Cadentown Rosenwald School, Lexington, Ky., 2004 | Dean A. Doerrfeld, Historic American Buildings Survey/ Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey, Prints and Photographs Division

Washington pushed the concept further by suggesting that “the people themselves build the [school] houses…” The design for the Rosenwald Schools was simple – a two-room schoolhouse with plenty of windows to aid in lighting and ventilation. Their modern construction stood as a symbol of black aspiration and potential.

After Washington’s death in 1915, Margaret Murray Washington continued to work with Rosenwald in her late husband’s stead. At the program’s conclusion in 1932, it had produced 4,977 new schools, 217 teachers’ homes, and 163 shop buildings. It is estimated that the schools served more than 663,000 students in 883 counties in 15 states.

Following the 1954 Supreme Court decision declaring racial segregation unconstitutional, the Rosenwald Schools became obsolete. Many of the structures were repurposed to serve other community functions while others were abandoned. In 2002, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named the Rosenwald Schools to its list of America’s Most Endangered Historic Places, and declared the building program as “one of the most important partnerships to advance African American education in the early 20th century.”