Library of Congress's Blog, page 172

Hands to the Skies

Amelia Earhart. Prints and Photographs Division.

In palmistry, a person’s personality traits, talents and interests are revealed through the topography of his or her hands. Amelia Earhart, born July 24, 1897, had her palm prints analyzed by palmist Nellie Simmons Meier four years before her mysterious disappearance. According to Meier’s analysis, the length and breadth of the famed aviator’s palm indicated a love of physical activity and a strong will. Earhart’s long fingers not only showed her conscientious attention to detail and pursuit of perfection but also revealed her ambitious yet rational nature. Her palm further reflected the reasoned and logistical manner of someone who considers all possibilities before making a decision.

Meier prepared Earhart’s palm print an analysis on June 28, 1933, and you can read it , as part of the Library’s American Memory collections.

Palm of Amelia Earhart. American Memory Collections.

“There is a wide stretch between her thumbs and fingers and between the fingers themselves which, coupled with the shape of the nails, is indicative of an impatience over restraining influence either from individuals or the conventionalities of social life. The diplomacy indicted by the little finger enables her to conform to such restrictions for a certain period, and then the urge for physical and mental activity becomes so strong that she seeks escape by a flight in her plane,” wrote Meier in her 1937 book, “Lions’ Paws: The Story of Famous Hands.”

The digital collections of the Library of Congress contain a wide variety of material associated with Lady Lindy, including manuscripts, photographs and books. This handy guide compiles all the available resources pooled from several Library divisions and collections.

Meier donated her papers to the Library, and the collection includes autographed original palm prints, autographed photographs and character sketches of 135 well-known individuals, including Walt Disney, Susan B. Anthony, George Gerswhin, Mary Pickford and Booker T. Washington.

One Scoop or Two

Little girl with ice cream cone in the zoological park, Detroit, Mich. 1942. Prints and Photographs Division.

The weather of late has been particularly hot, and I’m sure many of us have been looking for ways to cool off. Perhaps it’s very appropriate, then, that July is National Ice Cream Month. I’m a rocky road fan, and I love to scoop some ice cream between two warm cookies for a ice cream sandwich!

On this day in 1904, the ice cream cone was invented, according to the July 23 entry from the Library’s American Memory Today in History presentation.

Charles E. Menches and his brother Frank were ice cream purveyors in their hometown of St. Louis, Mo. During the St. Louis World’s Fair, the two were on hand scooping up the sweet confection for the hungry – and hot – masses. On July 23, so much ice cream was being sold at the fair, that the Menches brothers ran out of serving bowls. Next to their tent was pastry-maker Ernest A. Hamwi, who was selling sweet wafer pastries. Needing to come up with another way of serving the ice cream, Charles bought all the pastries, rolled them into cones and began scooping the dessert into them. And, thus according to popular legend, the ice cream cone was born.

It should be noted that no one really knows for sure who made the first cone. Paper and metal cones had been used in Europe for some time, and edible cones were mentioned in French cooking books as early as 1825.

And, if you want to know even more about the sweet treat, including how to make vanilla ice cream courtesy of Thomas Jefferson, you should read this Inside Adams blog post from the Library’s Science, Technology and Business Division.

What’s your favorite ice cream and way to eat it?

Witnesses to History, Keepers of the Flame

This is a guest post by Cheryl Fox of the Library’s Manuscript Division

The First Battle of Bull Run/Manassas (July 21, 1861) set many precedents in American history—key troops were transported by train, battle reconnaissance was attempted via observation balloon, battle scenes were sketched and the battle’s aftermath, photographed to be published in newspapers.  And word of the results of battle was transmitted via telegraph.

War correspondent and Librarian of Congress Ainsworth Spofford

Two men among the many journalists and battle spectators who observed the battle have special significance for the history of the Library of Congress – - Ainsworth Rand Spofford, correspondent for the Cincinnati Commercial, and John Russell Young, for the Philadelphia News.  Both later became Librarians of Congress, Spofford from 1864-1897, and Young from 1897-1899.

Both Spofford and Young transmitted news of the “rout of the Union forces” via telegraph.  Young wrote in his article for the News that he had rushed to Manassas Junction, Va. to reach a telegraph line, while Spofford wrote to his wife that he had to use “them legs” to return to Washington to be able to send his report via telegraph.  Spofford signed his reports with the pen name Sigma.

Oddly enough, the reason Spofford had an opportunity to become Librarian in 1864 was that his predecessor, physician John Gould Stephenson, was less interested in his library duties than in using his medical knowledge to assist the wounded in Washington, D.C. hospitals, and then as an aide-de-camp to Union officers, notably General Meredith at the battle of Gettysburg.

Stephenson began his tenure as Librarian in June 1861, just one month before the first Battle of Bull Run indicated that the Civil War would be a prolonged and bloody conflict.  Stephenson left Spofford in charge of the work of the Library until 1864, when Stephenson resigned.  Shortly thereafter, Spofford was officially appointed Librarian of Congress by President Lincoln.

Spofford is credited with taking a tiny Congressional library with a staff of seven and just 82,000 books and convincing Congress to build a new home for it – the Library’s beautiful Thomas Jefferson Building – and place the Copyright Office within the Library.  Those steps set the Library of Congress on the path that has made it the world’s largest, most comprehensive library. Today its collections in all formats number more than 155.3 million items.

Trending: Summer Vacation

All across the country, people are traveling for summer vacation. The Library’s collections document this age-old trend.

A contemporary country road in rural America. Photo by Carol Highsmith. Prints and Photographs Division.

HOTEL RESERVATIONS? CHECK. CAR GASSED UP? CHECK. It’s time for summer vacation. Prior to industrialization, people rarely traveled for pleasure, with the exception of the wealthy and those making religious pilgrimages.

The advent of paved roads in the early 1900s helped propel automobile travel in the United States, making cross-country travel possible. The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 authorized the construction of the nation’s Interstate System— now totaling more than 47,000 miles. Last summer, Americans traveled more than 520 billion miles on those roads, according to the Federal Highway Administration.

Today most people navigate the highways and byways with the aid of such handy technology as GPS systems and Google maps for their smartphones. But that doesn’t mean that road maps are a thing of the past. State road maps are available free from most states today, thanks to tourism bureaus and automobile clubs.

In 2001, Library map cataloger Charles Peterson donated his personal collection of 16,000 oil company roadmaps to the Library’s Geography and Map Division. With the bulk of material from such maps’ heyday, 1948-1973, the collection complements a substantial collection of similar material dating back to the early 20th century.

Travel and tourism are well-documented in the Library’s Prints and Photographs Division. The Panoramic Photograph Collection features many images of travel destinations such as amusement parks, beaches, fairs, hotels and resorts. Several years ago, the Library’s Junior Fellows Summer Interns discovered novelty postcards located among the copyright deposits and gifts that have come into the nation’s library. A wide variety of travel destinations are represented in this visual format.

A 1946 postcard promotes the Wheeler Dam in Decatur, Ala. Curt Teich & Co., Inc. Prints and Photographs Collection.

The Library’s American Memory collection “By the People, For the People: Posters from the Works Progress Administration (WPA), 1936-1943” includes a variety of artful and colorful posters promoting tourism during the 1930s, ‘40s and ‘50s.

Noted photographer Carol M. Highsmith has been on the road with her camera, capturing images of present-day California as part of her multi-state “This is America!” project. The images have been donated to the Library and are available, copyright free, to the public (see story on page 27).

This article is featured in the July-August 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.

Ink-Stained Riches

This year’s casting call for the Library of Congress National Book Festival is complete, and our lineup for the free event Sept. 21 and 22 will include writers Don DeLillo, Joyce Carol Oates and Khaled Hosseini, graphic novelists Lynda Barry, Fred Chao, Jonathan Hennessey, Gilbert Hernandez and Jaime Hernandez, and authors Linda Ronstadt, Christopher Buckley, Stuart Eizenstat, Hoda Kotb, Thomas Keneally, Giada De Laurentiis, and author/photographer William Wegman.

The two-day event, between 9th and 14th streets on the National Mall (from 10 a.m. – 5:30 pm. Saturday and noon to 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, rain or shine) will also offer you an opportunity to nominate “Books That Shaped the World,” which you can also do online at the Festival website.

Check out the site for the authors’ speaking and signing schedules and download the poster by Festival artist Suzy Lee, who will be there to speak and sign posters on Sunday.

Other poets and authors slated to appear at the festival include Katherine Applegate, Marie Arana, Rick Atkinson, Margaret Atwood, Paolo Bacigalupi, Nicholson Baker, Bonnie Benwick, A. Scott Berg, Holly Black, Taylor Branch, Monica Brown, Fred Bowen, Jeff Chu, Susan Cooper, Alfred Corchado, Justin Cronin, Matt de la Pena, Daniel DeSimone, Kathryn Erskine, Richard Paul Evans, David Finkel, Brian Floca, Amity Gaige, Eric Gansworth, Cristina Garcia, Albert Goldbarth, Alyson Hagy, Mark Helprin, Kevin Henkes, Juan Felipe Herrera, John Hessler, Jennifer and Matthew Holm,  Kay Bailey Hutchison, Sheila Miyoshi Jager, Oliver Jeffers, Pati Jinich, Adam Johnson, William P. Jones, Cynthia Kadohata, Jamaica Kincaid, Matthew J. Kirby, Jon Klassen, Kirby Larson, Grace Lin, Mario Livio, Rafael López, Kenneth W. Mack, William Martin, Ayana Mathis, D.T. Max, James McBride, D.J. MacHale, Heather McHugh, Lisa McMann, Terry McMillan, Brad Meltzer, Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, Elizabeth Moon, Christopher Myers, David Nasaw, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Kadir Nelson, Patrick Ness, Katherine Paterson, Richard Peck, Benjamin Percy, Tamora Pierce, Daniel Pink, Andrea and Brian Pinkney, Matthew Quick, Lesa Cline-Ransome and James Ransome, Vaddey Ratner, Veronica Roth, Christel Schmidt, Jon Scieszka, Chad “Corntassel” Smith, Andrew Solomon, Sonya Sones, Walter Stahr, Manil Suri, James L. Swanson, Mark Teague, Evan Thomas, U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey, Steve Vogel, Rick Yancey, Dean Young, Charles Whelan and Henry Wiencek.

The 2013 Library of Congress National Book Festival will give you a chance to meet and hear firsthand from your favorite poets and authors, purchase books and get them signed, have photos taken with PBS storybook characters and participate in a variety of activities. More than 200,000 people were estimated to have attended the festival in 2012.

Inquiring Minds: An Interview with Author Jason Emerson

Jason Emerson is a journalist and an independent historian who has been researching and writing about the Lincoln family for nearly 20 years. He is a former National Park Service park ranger at the Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield, Ill. His previous books include “The Madness of Mary Lincoln,” “Lincoln the Inventor” and “The Dark Days of Abraham Lincoln’s Widow, as Revealed by Her Own Letters.” He discusses his newest book on Robert T. Lincoln, Abraham and Mary’s oldest and last-surviving son, today at the Library. Read more about it here.

Q. Tell us about your new book, “Giant in the Shadows: The Life of Robert T. Lincoln” and how you came to  be interested in him.

A. My book is a cradle-to-grave biography of Robert Lincoln — only the second ever done and the first since 1969 — that examines him not only as his father’s son but also as his own man. Robert was an amazing person with numerous accomplishments, and myriads faults and mistakes, during his 82 years of life. He is generally considered the most successful presidential son in American history (financially and as a private citizen) not including Adams and Bush who became presidents like their fathers.

Professionally and politically, Robert was a Chicago attorney (eventually one of the biggest in the city), supervisor of the town of South Chicago, secretary of war under Presidents Garfield and Arthur, minister to Great Britain, president or board member to numerous telephone, railroad, electricity and other companies, and, finally, president and chairman of the board for the Pullman Car Company. He was also the keeper and protector of his father’s papers and legacy for more than 60 years. He was a self-made man who died a multi-millionaire.

I became fascinated by Robert many years ago when I learned that the Republican Party tried five times to get him to run for president, but he had no interest in the White House and so demurred every time. I wrote an article about it, and as I did research for that article, I kept finding more and more unknown, unpublished information about Robert that really needed to be told. I prefer writing about aspects of history that have not been written about ad nauseum, and Robert, I discovered, was not only practically ignored in the annals of Lincoln scholarship, but the few things actually written about him were typically mistaken, misinterpreted or downright mendacious. So after numerous articles about aspects of his life I decided I should just write his life.

Q. Little has been published about Robert Lincoln. What has made him such a previously unknown historical figure?

A. Robert was an extremely private and reticent person, which was one reason. During his life, he almost always refused to insert himself into his father’s (or his mother’s) legacy, often by stating he really knew nothing interesting enough to tell. It turns out Robert had volumes of fascinating stories to tell (which he did in his personal correspondence to family and close friends), but his self-effacing refusals were his way of politely excusing himself from the spotlight.

Also, because Robert was at Harvard College during the Civil War, historians have assumed (incorrectly) that he was never in Washington and therefore knew nothing about his father’s administration — and therefore knew nothing of interest to their work. I actually discovered that Robert was not only in Washington constantly, but he was in fact his father’s confidant during some of the most trying times of the war.

I have never understood why Robert has been a persona non grata in Lincoln studies. As the oldest son, he was alive and aware of his parents private lives in Springfield moreso than anyone else; as a college student he was not only aware but could comprehend what his father suffered through the war; and as the only surviving son for the next 60-plus years, Robert knew everyone and everything relating to his father that writers and historians continuously searched for. During my research I found a literal treasure-trove of documents not only about Robert but about Abraham, Mary, Willie and Tad, the Civil War, the Lincoln papers, and on and on that no historian had ever used merely because they felt Robert too inconsequential to look into.

Q. Much of your research was done at the Library of Congress. What collections and/or items did you find most illuminating? What were the “previously undiscovered” materials you drew upon?

A. If you totaled up all my research time at the Library of Congress for this book I probably spent years there. I used dozens of collections in the Manuscript Division, looked through probably hundreds of old newspapers, consulted the legal law library, used the library’s general book collection and of course the prints and photographs division.

Every day I found something unknown or unpublished in Lincoln history. I found amazing items in the papers of every president after Abraham Lincoln during Robert’s life — they all wanted to be his friend, his mentor, his ally, to have that link to the Great Emancipator. And whenever they contributed to Lincoln’s legacy or memory, first they consulted Robert, so his hands are all over his father’s legacy. For example, Robert was intricately involved in the creation of The Lincoln Memorial for 20 years, and of course Robert donated his father’s papers to the Library of Congress.

The best thing I ever found was in Robert’s personal papers in the Library, which was only two folders at the time. I found a 15-page handwritten letter by Secretary of War Lincoln detailing day by day, even minute by minute, everything that happened from the moment President Garfield was shot by Charles Guiteau for the next seven days in the White House. Robert was only 40 feet away from Garfield during the shooting, and during the first week thereafter, Robert and Secretary of State James G. Blaine really ran the government. It was an amazing letter that I discovered had never been quoted, used or even referenced by any scholar. Ever. That was a great day.

Q. What is the story behind how you found Robert Lincoln’s papers? And how did you help the Library acquire them?

A. That is a long story that I tell in full in the last chapter of my book “The Madness of Mary Lincoln.” But, succinctly, I was doing research at Robert’s Vermont house, Hildene, where I found two letters that made reference to Mary Todd Lincoln’s “lost insanity letters,” or the letters she wrote from inside the insane asylum in 1875 that have been missing for over 80 years. Those two letters led me on a quest that ended five months later when I found the children of Robert Lincoln’s private attorney. They had in their attic (unknown to them) for 40 years a steamer trunk filled with Lincoln family documents, among them Mary’s missing letters. Most of the rest of the letters related to Robert, his wife and children and his grandchildren, but there was also some about his father.

The owners of the trunk did not know what to do with it, or if it was even valuable or should simply be destroyed. I told them the papers were invaluable and should certainly be kept intact. They decided to donate them to a safe historical repository and had many offers and ideas. When they asked my opinion I told them the three most appropriate places they should consider: the Library of Congress, the Lincoln presidential Library in Springfield, and Hildene, Robert’s Vermont Home. The family wanted a place that would be the most accessible to the public and that would appreciate the trunk, and I gave them the best advice I could. In the end they chose the Library.

Q. You’ve been researching and writing about the Lincoln family for nearly 20 years. What’s your interest/fascination with them?

A. They are just a fascinating family. But also, as I mentioned previously, I prefer ignored, untouched, unknown history and both Robert and Mary Todd Lincoln have lives that have been really ignored, maligned and misunderstood. So it is not only interesting to me to research and write about them, but the research almost always yields amazing discoveries. And since so few writers do anything about Robert and Mary, I have found my niche. Finally, the more I research, the more unknown and unpublished information I keep finding that forces me to continue on researching and writing about them, because I can’t just find this great information and then do nothing with 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 the importance of the Library’s mission to collect and preserve our historical and cultural heritage?

A. As Abraham Lincoln (and many others I’m sure) previously said, we can’t know where we are going if we don’t know where we’ve been. The study of history guides us, teaches us and, hopefully, its understanding prevents us from continually making the same mistakes as a society. Preserving historical collections is simply invaluable. It’s such a weighty idea and so important to me I don’t know how else to describe it.

Without knowing the history of our country, our communities, our extraordinary individuals humanity would be at a loss, a dog chasing its tail continually repeating itself because it would never learn how to evolve and strive for greatness and change.

The mission of the Library to preserve our historical and cultural heritage is one of the keystones of our collective identity. Its importance is evident in the number of people that visit and utilize the library every day, in the number of new books and materials donated and acquired every day, in the sheer ubiquity of the Library’s importance to understanding all academic disciplines.

When the Library was burned during the war of 1812, one of the first things Thomas Jefferson did was to give the country his own personal library as a foundation to rebuild the national library. Anything that important and essential to Thomas Jefferson is something to which we should all pay attention.

InRetrospect: June Blogging Edition

While school may be out for summer, Library of Congress blogs continue to educate and inform readers on interesting and valuable subjects. Following are a few selections from the month of June.

In the Muse: Performing Arts Blog

Gelukkige verjaardag! Eugène Ysaÿe at 155

Remembering the great Belgian violinist

Inside Adams: Science, Technology & Business

“Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” — the ZIP Code is 50

A history of ZIP Codes

In Custodia Legis: Law Librarians of Congress

How Robin Hood Defied King John and Brought Magna Carta to Sherwood Forest

A retelling of the classic tale

The Signal: Digital Preservation

10 Resources for Community Digital Archives

Insightful resources for developing a community collection

Teaching with the Library of Congress

Our Second Anniversary

Celebrating two years in the Library blogosphere

Picture This: Library of Congress Prints & Photos

Whistler’s Butterfly 

An artist’s monogram signature

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

Stay Gold: Robert Frost and First Poems

A coming-of-age poem

Inquiring Minds: Historian Sanjay Subrahmanyam

(The following is a guest post by Jason Steinhauer, program specialist in the Library’s John W. Kluge Center.)

Historian Sanjay Subrahmanyam is now concluding his tenure as the Kluge Chair in Countries and Cultures of the South at The John W. Kluge Center. His research looks at the first person narratives of early modern India and the new questions facing Indian historians. He lectures on the topic at the Library of Congress on Thursday, July 11. Read more about it here.

Q: Tell us about your current research.

A: This is ongoing research with Muzaffar Alam from the University of Chicago. We’re concerned with first person narratives of India written in a variety of different forms between 1500 and 1800, during the Mughal Empire. This is what we call the early modern period. There’s been a lot of interest in these types of narratives in Europe, the Middle East and China. But in India, for whatever reason, no one has paid too much attention. To the extent that attention has been paid, it’s been mostly focused on memoirs written by the emperors. To get the emperor’s point of view is one thing; it’s quite another to get the view of others in the social structure.

Q: Can you give us a few examples of the kinds of first person texts you’re looking at?

A: One text that is relatively well-known is a text written by a merchant in the 17th century, written in a language similar to today’s Hindi. Interestingly, it is written in verse. It reflects on the author’s life as a merchant and an intellectual. Of the more obscure texts that I’ll be mentioning in my lecture, one is a text written by a man named Bhimsen Saksena who was a secretary, or a scribe, involved in the Mughal campaigns in Southern India. This is a funny case because the text has never actually been published—we are working from the manuscript. The last author is Anand Ram, a very prolific author from the 18th century. He was in the court in Delhi. These are interesting texts because he’s living in a moment with political turmoil. He also enjoys the good life and talks a lot about food. We don’t have a very good history of food in South Asia, so it’s interesting to see the names of dishes and recipes which are essentially the same as now.

Q: Do we have these materials at the Library of Congress?

A: At the Library we have editions and translations. For example, the Library has the whole set of works by the first of these authors. Print editions are rarely available digitally. Many of these things are still in copyright.

Q: What are the ramifications for this research? What gaps does it fill?

A: Actually, historians don’t reason anymore in terms of gaps. That kind of assumes that history is a building that you go at brick by brick. Instead, the attention of historians in India has shifted. The main questions used to be about taxation, peasants and merchants—sometimes with the big question behind us of why we didn’t have an Industrial Revolution in India. We’ve now moved onto other questions. By looking at these autobiographies, we’re opening social and cultural history and finding a different angle of vision.

Q: Does South Asian history particularly resonate with you given your heritage?

A: Yes, but I don’t think that one should insist too much on this. It’s my job to teach everybody, and everyone can learn from each other’s histories. So I like to separate those questions out. No one should be ashamed to study one’s own culture. But sometimes we have a tendency to insist too much that things must associate with our own identity and heritage.

Q: How do you reflect on your time at the Kluge Center and as the Kluge Chair in Countries and Cultures of the South?

A: The Kluge Chair has significance because I know two of the previous holders, who are both senior colleagues and friends: Romila Thapar and Christopher Bayly. The main thing, though, is the huge set of collections available under one roof here at the Library of Congress. That makes a big difference. Quite nice, too, has been the interaction with the post-doctoral fellows at the Kluge Center. Also it has been a pleasure to get to know the staff in the various reading rooms. It turns out that someone in the Russia Section is the son of an old friend. So that’s been a real treat.

Library in the News: June Edition

Leading the news headlines in June was the announcement that Natasha Trethewey would return for a second term as U.S. poet laureate.

“Natasha Trethewey likened her most recent poetry reading at the Library of Congress to a church revival in the South, complete with tents and believers making enough noise to make nonbelievers come in and listen,” wrote Deborah Barfield Barry for Gannett News Service. “Trethewey marked the end of her first year as the nation’s poet laureate last month with a personal and emotional lecture about why poetry matters to people in their everyday lives. She isn’t done spreading the word.”

“Her signature project will involve filming a regular feature on the PBS NewsHour Poetry Series, in which she and NewsHour senior correspondent Jeffrey Brown travel the country for a series of on-location specials that examine societal issues through a poetic lens,” announced Washington Post reporter Monica Hesse on Trethewey’s second-term plans.

Trethewey spoke with Entertainment Weekly’s Adam Carlson about her appointment and project with PBS.

“Because I’m a younger laureate, it seemed important to me to do something, not to just accept the honor of the position but actually make it useful,” she said in the interview. “Deciding to put a personal slant on it seemed to be what I might be good at. NewsHour is very interested in poetry, but they’re also interested in not just that something’s cute to add on at the end of their programming, but something that actually is integrated into the news.”

Also running an announcement was the New York Times, Christian Science Monitor and the Associated Press.

Also in the news were stories on the Library’s week-long Teacher Institutes promoting the use of primary sources in the classroom. Community newspapers far and wide ran stories of local teachers who participated in the program. Teachers came from Washington, Illinois, Minnesota, Virginia, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Missouri and California to name a few.

For a final piece of interesting news, the National Journal ran several historic photographs from the Library’s collections on baseball, specifically the Congressional baseball game.

A Presidential Fourth

George Washington. Published by Currier & Ives, [between 1856 and 1907]. Prints and Photographs Division.

Recently my dad gave me an interesting little tidbit concerning further research he has done on our family tree that is particularly auspicious for the occasion of today’s Fourth of July celebrations. (As you may recall from this previous blog post, my father has found a new hobby in ancestry research.) As it turns out, his research has led him to believe I’m related to George Washington – specifically as a cousin on Dad’s side of the family. Incidentally, he also found out that a relation on my mother’s side, Charles Lee, served as Washington’s attorney general during his second term, but that’s a story for another time perhaps.

This revelation started me wondering how Washington commemorated our country’s independence, considering he was a distinguished general and commander in chief of the colonial armies during the American Revolution and later the nation’s first president.

Although July 4 didn’t become a legal holiday until 1870, the tradition of Independence Day celebrations goes back to the 18th century, following the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Concerts, bonfires, parades and the firing of cannons and muskets often accompanied the first public readings of the important document. In his general orders, dated July 3, 1778, Washington gives these instructions:

“Tomorrow, the Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence will be celebrated by the firing of thirteen pieces of cannon and a feu de joie of the whole line; the Army will be formed on the Brunswick side of the Rariton at five o’clock in the afternoon on the ground pointed out by the Quarter Master General. The soldiers are to adorn their hats with green-boughs and to make the best appearance possible. The disposition will be given in the orders of tomorrow. Double allowance of rum will be served out.”

The following year, Washington wrote in his general orders that the day would be commemorated “by the firing of thirteen cannon from West Point at one o’clock p.m.” In the same missive, he granted a general pardon to all army prisoners under sentence of death.

A few diary entries make passing commentary on Washington’s celebration plans. On , while visiting Lancaster, Penn., during a presidential tour of the “southern” part of the country, Washington wrote, “This being the anniversary of American independence and being kindly requested to do it, I agreed to halt here this day and partake of the entertainment which was preparing for the celebration of it.”

It was here he made his one and only speech about the Fourth of July.

After his presidency, Washington retired to his Mount Vernon estate where he received guests and was seen about town. According to his diary entry of July 4, 1798, the morning was clear but breezy with temperatures around 78 degrees. He participated in an Independence Day event near Alexandria.

From an annotation to his diary entry: Gen. Washington was escorted into town by a detachment from the troop of Dragoons. He was dressed in full uniform and appeared in good health and spirits. At 10 o’clock . . . uniform companies paraded . . . the different corps were reviewed in King Street by General Washington and Col. Little, who expressed the highest satisfaction at their appearance and manoeuvering; after which they proceeded to the Episcopal Church, where a suitable discourse was delivered by the Rev. Dr. Davis.

The Library of Congress is home to the papers of George Washington.