Library of Congress's Blog, page 178

Inquiring Minds: An Interview with Kluge Fellow Lindsay Tuggle

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

Lindsay Tuggle

Lindsay Tuggle, Ph.D., teaches English Literary Studies at the University of Sydney, Australia. Her dissertation dealt with mourning and ecology in the work of Walt Whitman. As a Kluge Fellow, she has been researching and writing her first book, “The Afterlives of Specimens: Science and Mourning in Whitman’s America.” She lectures on the topic today at noon in the Woodrow Wilson room (LJ-113).

Q: Tell us about your research.

A: I’m at the Library of Congress researching and writing my book, “The Afterlives of Specimens: Science and Mourning in Whitman’s America.” The book explores the shrinking distinction between the body as object of mourning and subject of scientific enquiry throughout the 19th century.

Q: Your lecture explores Walt Whitman and Union surgeon John Brinton. What is the connection between the two and the larger story of death in the Civil War?

A: Whitman and surgeon John H. Brinton, founding curator of the Army Medical Museum, led parallel lives during the war. Both arrived at Falmouth, Va., in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Fredericksburg. Both frequented the Washington hospitals. Whitman spent the majority of his waking hours caring for wounded soldiers. Brinton recruited hospital surgeons to submit examples of unusual injuries and amputations.

On August 1, 1862, Brinton was directed to establish the Army Medical Museum. This was the beginning of an anatomical collection that would incorporate thousands of Civil War remains, many of which are still on display at the National Museum of Health and Medicine. The preservation of the body became of paramount importance during the Civil War.  While the practice of embalming would have been repulsive to many antebellum mourners, the war altered this perception, due to the collective desire to prolong the visibility of fallen soldiers. This corpse fever was reflected in the popularity of mourning manuals, elegies, séances and posthumous portraiture. The Civil War ushered in an era of national mourning that centered around the memorialisation of bodies en masse.

Q: How did you get interested in Walt Whitman’s perspectives on the dead?

A: Although I live in Australia, I grew up in Alabama and Kentucky, both states where the scars of the Civil War remain unhealed. I’ve always been fascinated by that bloody chapter in our history.

The idea for the book arrived because I wanted to understand how Walt Whitman came to an understanding of the corporeal afterlife so far removed from his initial anxiety in the face of posthumous wounds. What catalyzed this transformation, and how did it respond to cultural changes in medical, mourning and burial practices? “The Afterlives of Specimens” establishes Whitman’s role in evolving cultural understandings of the body as an object of posthumous discovery and desire.

Q: You’ve discovered some rare treasures in the Library’s collection. Tell us about them.

A: I’ve uncovered correspondence between Whitman and Army Medical Museum staff in the post-war years. This evidence of a direct connection between Whitman and the museum is invaluable to my work.  I’m especially excited about two items that I found in the Thomas Harned Whitman Collection. One is an untitled draft poem that Whitman composed about his observation of an amputation in a Civil War hospital.  The other, which I was most thrilled to discover, is a fragment of an unpublished poem about skeletal human remains that almost certainly relates to specimens at the Army Medical Museum.  I will be discussing both of these poems in my lecture on January 24.

Lindsay Tuggle lectures today, Jan. 24, at noon — one of many Library of Congress programs in conjunction with the Library’s acclaimed exhibit “The Civil War in America.” Learn more on the exhibit homepage.

 

Presidential Precedents

The Library of Congress holds the papers of 23 U.S. presidents, from George Washington to Calvin Coolidge. These collections, housed in the Manuscript Division—and the Library’s holdings in other formats such as rare books, photographs, films, sound recordings, sheet music and maps—inform us about the time and tenor of each of their administrations.

Unique to each president were the circumstances surrounding his inauguration. One was the first to hold the office. Others were elected to the office during trying times in the nation’s history. Some of those elected to office reflected a major shift in the nature of the electorate. Still others were thrust into the role by the deaths of their predecessors. Following many of the precedents set by the first president—with some variations on the theme introduced by those who followed—the presidential inauguration remains a pivotal event.

The following is an excerpt from an article on presidential inaugurations in the January-February 2013 issue of the LCM. Written by Julie Miller of the Manuscript Division, this story takes a look at the inauguration of George Washington.

George Washington is depicted delivering his inaugural address on April 30, 1789, in this painting by T.H. Matteson, 1849.

April 30, 1789

George Washington’s inauguration on April 30, 1789, was literally without precedent. The Constitution mandated only that the president take an oath of office, and it prescribed the language of the oath, but it said nothing about how an inauguration day should go. Washington told the House and Senate committees formed to plan the inauguration that he would accept “any time or place” and “any manner” they chose. Finally, the shape of the day was determined not only by the committees but also by Washington himself and by the citizens of the capital city, New York.

The committees’ plan was set in motion when they escorted Washington, his speech folded in the pocket of his suit of American-made cloth, to Federal Hall at Wall and Broad Streets. A crowd of citizens followed behind the president-elect’s carriage. At Federal Hall, Washington stepped out from the Senate chamber onto the balcony. There, overlooking a large crowd of citizens, he took his oath on a Bible acquired at the last minute from a nearby Masonic lodge. “Long live George Washington!” shouted Chancellor Robert R. Livingston, who had administered the oath, reinterpreting the cheer traditionally used to greet monarchs. The crowd shouted back their approval.

The next part of the ceremony, the delivery of Washington’s inaugural speech before Congress, took place inside. Washington’s speech established a precedent that has been used by every elected president since, although its self-effacing tone was the mark of the 18th-century gentleman. He felt unequal, Washington told his listeners, to “the magnitude and difficulty of the trust” to which he had been called. As he spoke he trembled with nerves and emotion. Pennsylvania Senator William Maclay recorded in his journal that “This great man was agitated and embarrassed more than ever he was by the leveled cannon or pointed musket.” The president continued— reminding his audience, which represented “many distinct communities” that had not always been in concord—that the “sacred fire of liberty, and the destiny of the Republican model of Government, are justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally staked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.”

That evening the celebrations began. Like those that followed, the first presidential inaugural was celebrated with a ball, which was postponed for a week pending the arrival of Martha Washington from Virginia. But that night a ship in the harbor shot off 13 cannon, houses were bright with illuminations, and fireworks lit the sky. When it was all over the streets were so crowded with people that Washington had to abandon his carriage and walk home. The next day the Daily Advertiser congratulated its readers: “Every honest man must feel a singular felicity in contemplating this day. – Good government, the best of blessings, now commences under favourable auspices.”

MORE INFORMATION

Research the Library’s holdings of presidential papers

View a web presentation of presidential inaugurations

View an online exhibition of inaugural collection items

You can read more about the inaugurations of presidents Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln and Calvin Coolidge here by downloading the complete January-February 2013 issue of the LCM .

Oath of Office

(The following is a guest article written by my colleague Mark Hartsell, editor of the Library’s staff newsletter, The Gazette.)

President Barack Obama next week will again take the oath of office on the Bible, drawn from the Library of Congress collections, that President Abraham Lincoln used at his first inauguration more than 150 years ago.

Obama took the oath on the Lincoln Bible at his first inauguration, in 2009. On Monday, the small, burgundy volume will have a companion at the swearing-in ceremony staged on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol: A Bible that belonged to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Obama will place his hand on the stacked Bibles as he takes the oath of office administered by U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts – symbolically linking the president who emancipated the slaves during the Civil War with the reverend who led the civil rights movement a century later.

The 1861 Lincoln Inaugural Bible, opened to the page signed by the clerk of the Supreme Court, William Thomas Carroll, attesting that the book was used for Lincoln’s oath of office

“President Obama is honored to use these Bibles at the swearing-in ceremonies,” Steve Kerrigan, president and CEO of the Presidential Inaugural Committee, said on Jan. 10 in announcing the selections. “On the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, this historic moment is a reflection of the extraordinary progress we’ve made as a nation.”

The Lincoln Bible, housed in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, originally was purchased by William Thomas Carroll, clerk of the Supreme Court, for use during Lincoln’s swearing-in ceremony on March 4, 1861.

The Bible, a King James translation printed by Oxford University Press in 1853, is bound in burgundy velvet with a gilt metal rim around the outside edges.

The cover bears a metal shield inscribed with the words “Holy Bible.” The 1,280-page book is 5.9 inches long, 3.9 inches wide and 1.8 inches deep.

On inside pages, Carroll affixed a blue seal of the Supreme Court and inscribed a note certifying that the Bible was the volume upon which Lincoln took the oath. He also inscribed a personal note – a dedication to his wife: “to Mrs. Sally Carroll from her devoted husband Wm. Thos. Carroll.”

The book eventually found its way to the Lincoln family. In 1928, Mary Harlan Lincoln, the widow of Lincoln’s first son, Robert Todd, gave the Bible to the Library.

The Bible will be placed on display in the Civil War exhibition in the Jefferson Building from Jan. 23 to Feb. 18.

The Lincoln Bible’s companion at the inauguration on Monday will be a volume that, according to the King family, once served as the “traveling Bible” for the civil rights icon.

King usually traveled with a selection of books, often with this Bible. He used the book for inspiration and in preparing sermons and speeches – including during his time as pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala.

“We know our father would be deeply moved to see President Obama take the oath of office using his Bible,” King’s children said in a statement. “His ‘traveling Bible’ inspired him as he fought for freedom, justice and equality, and we hope it can be a source of strength for the president as he begins his second term.

“We join Americans across the country in embracing this opportunity to celebrate how far we have come, honor the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. through service, and rededicate ourselves to the work ahead.”

Presidents traditionally have used Bibles during the swearing-in – there is no constitutional requirement – and often choose a volume with personal or historical significance.

At the first inauguration, George Washington used The Holy Bible from St. John’s Masonic Lodge No. 1 – opened at random and in haste to Genesis 49:13, according to the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies.

Presidents occasionally use that Bible for the swearing-in ceremony – Warren G. Harding, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush, for example, all took the oath on the same volume used by Washington.

Most have used a single book, but Obama won’t be the first to be sworn in using two Bibles.

Richard M. Nixon, for example, used two family Bibles. In 1949, Truman used a facsimile of a Gutenberg Bible as well as the Bible on which he was sworn in following the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt nearly four years earlier. Eisenhower used the Washington Bible as well as his own “West Point Bible.”

In 2009, Obama became the first president since Lincoln to be sworn in on that small, burgundy book.

On Monday, he’ll place his hand the King Bible and once more on the Lincoln Bible, connecting one of the nation’s great presidents with its greatest civil rights leader.

“Bibles used in inaugural ceremonies take on a certain resonance,” said Mark Dimunation, chief of Rare Book. “Certainly the use of the Lincoln Bible by President Obama has elevated this object to an iconic status – one that carries a great deal of emotional meaning to visitors when they view it. Employing it a second time and connecting it to such important anniversaries will only enhance this quality.”

You can see more images of the Lincoln Bible in this blog post from 2009, for President Obama’s first inauguration.

Library in the News: November and December Edition

With the whirlwind of the holiday season come to a close, let’s take a look back at some of the headlines the Library made in November and December.

One of our big announcements was the opening of the Library exhibition “The Civil War in America” on Nov. 12.

The Washington Post chose to highlight a select item – a little-known diary written by a wartime teenager –  for its coverage of the exhibition. “A century and a half later, LeRoy Wiley Gresham’s smudges still mark the page, in a kind of communion with students of his remarkable record of the Civil War, the collapse of the Old South, and the last years of his privileged but afflicted life,” wrote Michael Ruane.

Where Guestbook did a great pictorial feature highlighting Civil War ambrotypes and a look at the Lincoln White House.  And both CNN and The Examiner did website pictorials including such display items as a copy of President Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural address, a copy of Lincoln’s Gettysburg address, a set of children’s tinker toys and a lock of Ulysses S. Grant’s hair.

Martha M. Boltz of the Washington Times wrote about her tour of the exhibition, which had previously been thwarted because of Hurricane Sandy. “The exhibition on the Civil War, with its 200 unique items, is extraordinary and exhaustive … It was wonderful to tour with such a knowledgeable staff of archivists and curators. When one of them would start talking about a given display or artifact and paused for a moment, another would step in and add to it. The depth of knowledge of these dedicated professionals would be hard to find anywhere else.”

The Associated Press looked at the letters and diaries in the exhibition that “offer a new glimpse at the arguments that split the nation 150 years ago and some of the festering debates that survive today.”

Other outlets picking up the AP story included The Denver Post, The Huffington Post, ABC News, USA Today, Fox News, Yahoo! and several local papers in Mississippi, South Carolina, Missouri, Utah, Montana, Nebraska, Washington and Georgia.

In late November, the Library announced it would make available on its website a group of audio recordings featuring interviews from music icons. The audio recordings are part of the Joe Smith Collection of more than 225 recordings of noted artists and executives in the industry. NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams aired a brief segment. And outlets like the Los Angeles Times and examiner.com also ran headlines.

“The interviews are fascinating and worth a break from literary pursuits,” said Dave Rosenthal of the Baltimore Sun.

Speaking of the music industry, the Library announced in December that Carole King would be the recipient of the 2013 Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.

Featuring the announcement were the New York Times, Washington Post, Rolling Stone, playbill.com, UPI, Reuters and the Associated Press. The AP story also ran in outlets including Billboard, the Washington Times, the Miami Herald, the Huffington Post, Salon.com and FoxNews.com. Broadcast affiliates far and wide for ABC, NBC, Fox and CBS also ran brief news segments.

In other entertainment news, the Library, also in December, added 25 new selections to its National Film Registry.

“‘Dirty Harry’ Callahan, Neo, Ralphie and his Red Ryder BB gun and the baseball-playing women of ‘A League of Their Own’ are taking a permanent field trip to the Library of Congress,” wrote Brian Truitt for USA Today, whose story includes brief segments of several of the films.

“One of the greatest productions on the long list of masterpieces produced by NFL Films has been selected for recognition in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress for its place in American culture,” said Josh Alper for the Pro Football Talk blog on NBC Sports. “They couldn’t have picked a better film than the one the Library of Congress calls the ‘Citizen Kane’ of sports movies to represent football’s enduring importance.”

Many other national and local outlets, including broadcast media, ran stories following the Library’s announcement.

On a final note, Library benefactor David Rubenstein gave the institution $1.5 million to fund three new literacy awards. Brett Zongker of the Associated Press reported the story, which was picked up by a variety of news media throughout the country.

Happy Birthday Flickr Commons!

Today marks five years since the launch of the Flickr Commons with two photo collections from the Library of Congress. Since then, more than 250,000 photographs with no known copyright restrictions have been contributed by 56 libraries, archives and museums worldwide, with new images added each week.

The Library’s blog, Picture This: Library of Congress Prints and Photos, celebrates this milestone with today’s post highlighting Flickr Commons contributors’ most viewed or interesting photos and other tidbits from the project.

Happy birthday Flickr Commons!

 

A Gift for President Karzai — and for You

On Thursday evening, a very nice gift was given, and received, in an ornate room at the U.S. Department of State.  Afghan President Hamid Karzai was the recipient – on behalf of several libraries and research institutions in his nation – of a trove of digitized treasures from the Library of Congress and its associated World Digital Library, during a meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

This “virtual repatriation” of materials largely found in the Library’s African and Middle Eastern Division (including poems and calligraphy by Mir’Ali Heravi, who worked in Afghanistan in the 16thcentury and manuscripts, rare books, maps, and photographs) was in turn part of a recent grant of $2 million by the Carnegie Corporation of New York to the World Digital Library (www.wdl.org).

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton greets Afghan President Hamid Karzai, joined by Carnegie Corporation of New York President Vartan Gregorian (left) and Librarian of Congress James H. Billington (right)

Now, here’s the part where you come in: the World Digital Library is waiting for you to dig into its manuscripts (and more manuscripts), maps, rare books (and more rare books), sound recordings, films, prints and photographs – all available free of charge – any time at all, 24 hours a day.  And you can access it in any of seven languages. WDL, online since 2009, is a cooperative international project led by the Library of Congress.

It’s like being admitted to the antiquities rooms of the world’s great libraries, museums and archives (160 institutions from 77 nations have submitted their most exciting holdings to the World Digital Library) and just being allowed to leaf through the materials at will. Illustrations, pictures or maps can be zoomed in on to bring up amazing levels of detail.

So, dig in – what’s your favorite item in the World Digital Library?

Forever Free

Three-hundred-and-twenty-five words made up the first draft of the Emancipation Proclamation. So simple a start for what would become a pivotal document in our nation’s history – one that would also provide groundwork in passing the 13th amendment abolishing slavery.

Currently on view in the Library’s “The Civil War in America” exhibition through Feb. 18, the draft – in President Abraham Lincoln’s own hand –  was really the first time he put forth a statement saying that slaves should be free, not just of their masters but living as free people in those states in rebellion during the war.

On July 22, 1862, Lincoln presented that draft to his cabinet. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton and Attorney General Edward Bates advocated the document’s immediate release, but Secretary of State William Henry Seward advised the president to hold issuing the proclamation until a “more auspicious period,” which would come at the Battle of Antietam on Sept. 17, when Union forces stopped the Confederate advance into Maryland. On Sept. 22, Lincoln put forward an official preliminary proclamation.

For the first time, the Library’s first draft of the Emancipation Proclamation was brought together with two artifacts associated with the important document for a photo shoot and article in this month’s issue of Smithsonian Magazine. An inkwell used by Lincoln as he formulated the proclamation in the telegraph room of the War Department is in the collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. And, a pen that Lincoln used to sign the final proclamation resides with the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Inspired by the Smithsonian story, the Library produced a piece on the three objects and their significance in transforming a nation. You can see it here.

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The final draft of the Emancipation Proclamation was signed Jan. 1, 1863, but it ultimately was a wartime measure that would not ensure freedom after the war. The only way to truly eliminate the institution of slavery was an amendment to the United States Constitution, which Lincoln successfully lobbied the U.S. Congress to adopt. The 13th Amendment was ratified on Dec. 6, 1865.

“I never in my life felt more certain that I was doing right than I do in signing this paper,” said Lincoln of the proclamation, according to the Smithsonian story. “If my name goes into history, it will be for this act, and my whole soul is in it.”

InRetrospect: December Blogging Edition

Library curators and staff decked the blogs in December with a variety of posts. Here are some highlights.

In the Muse: Performing Arts Blog

A Miro on Which to Dwell

The Miro Quartet pays homage to Schubert and Stradivarius

The Signal: Digital Preservation

Why Does Digital Preservation Matter

Bill LeFurgy talks about the importance of digital stewardship

Picture This: Library of Congress Prints & Photos

Puck Cartoons: “Launched at Last!”

More than 2,500 color cartoon illustrations published in Puck magazine

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

A Grimm Beginning

The 200th anniversary of the publication of the first volume of “Grimms’ Fairy Tales” is celebrated

Inside Adams: Science, Technology & Business

Greatest Inventions: 2012 and 1913 Editions

Jennifer Harbster asks what are the top inventions of 2012.

In Custodia Legis: Law Librarians of Congress

Unusual Laws: The Tudor Vermin Acts

A bounty is placed on nuisance animals.

Teaching with the Library of Congress

It’s Snowing: Plowing Ahead with Primary Sources from the Library

Ann Savage looks at the lesson in snow.

Copyright Matters: Digitization and Public Access

Getting Ready for Data Capture: Sorting Out the Details in the Catalog Cards

Mike Burke talks about work being done to capture data from pre-1978 Copyright records.

 

Inquiring Minds: An Interview with British Research Council Fellow Maria Shmygol

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

Maria Shmygol

In 2012, the John W. Kluge Center welcomed 28 promising young scholars from the United Kingdom to conduct research at the Library of Congress. The scholars – all currently pursuing doctorate degrees – are funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Economic and Social Research Council, which have been collaborating with the Library since 2006 to provide short-term opportunities for scholars based in the U.K.

British Research Council Fellow Maria Shmygol talks about her research and her three-month tenure at the Kluge Center.

Q: Tell us about yourself and your research.

A: I’m from the University of Liverpool, and I’m in my final year of my doctorate, which is about performing “sea change” in early modern literature and drama. I’m exploring how developments in commerce, navigation and exploration impacted the early modern imagination and the representation of the sea as a cultural, historical and aesthetic space on the Renaissance stage in plays like “The Tempest,” for example.

Q: How did you get interested in the Renaissance and the sea?

A: I started specializing in the Renaissance quite early during my undergraduate program. I developed an interest in Renaissance drama during my masters’ year, when I also became interested in cartography. I’ve always liked old maps, and when I started coming into contact with more, I couldn’t stop! I became very interested in how cartographers were representing maritime space. The study of images on maps got me interested in other kinds of illustrations that have pictorial articulations of marine creatures. There’s something interesting in exploring the anxiety to fill the emptiness of the sea with some sort of recognizable images.

Q: How is it that you came to the Kluge Center?

A: I found out about the program on the AHRC website. I thought it would be a great experience to be at this library, have my own space to work, be immersed in the collections and have absolutely no distractions at all. I thought I’d apply to work with the extensive collections that the Library has in the Renaissance period.

Q:How has your experience been?

Image from Ingrid Faust’s six-volume edition of “Zoologische Einblattdrucke und Flugschriften vor 1800.”

A:It’s been great. I’ve had time to continue my work uninterrupted. I’ve talked with experts who’ve had really interesting things to share with me, especially in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division. Mark Dimunation, the head of Rare Books, had a batch of lettering and calligraphy manuals, one of which had images of mermaids and tritons made of calligraphy flourishes. That’s not something I’ve come across before, so it was quite an exciting find. He also introduced me to Giovanni Battista Bracelli’s “Bizzarie di Varie Figure,” a collection of unusual sketches by a little-known Florentine artist, which is one of only two surviving copies worldwide. One of the sketches looks a lot like a Florentine fountain I’m writing about, so I’m interested in whether the artist would possibly have seen that statue and then drawn the sketch.

Q: Tell us also about this book that you’ve had at your desk throughout your fellowship.

A: This is a part of Ingrid Faust’s six-volume edition of European early modern zoological pamphlets and broadsheets. It has quite an extensive collection of animal prints and pretty much covers every kind of animal, including sea monsters. One example is a French pamphlet about an anthropomorphic sea monster. The entry has some references to some other similar pamphlets that were previously unknown to me. I’ve tracked down such pamphlets with the help of the references in this book, and after emailing the Royal Library in Denmark, I was able to procure a PDF of a rare German pamphlet that deals with a similar kind of monster. I’m looking forward to translating that when I get home.

Q: Apart from translating German sea monster pamphlets, what are your future plans?

A: I’ll be applying for post-doctoral positions and teaching jobs and hoping to develop some new research projects. Maybe I’ll even return to the Library of Congress as a Kluge Fellow!

Q: Any final thoughts as you head home?

A: This has been a really great experience. The staff here are really, really helpful. It’s been amazing to have so many people that know so much about everything! To be here among the Kluge scholars every day has been wonderful, and I would encourage anyone to apply for this fellowship – it’s been an amazing three months.

Update on the Twitter Archive at the Library of Congress

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

An element of our mission at the Library of Congress is to collect the story of America and to acquire collections that will have research value. So when the Library had the opportunity to acquire an archive from the popular social media service Twitter, we decided this was a collection that should be here.

In April 2010, the Library and Twitter signed an agreement providing the Library the public tweets from the company’s inception through the date of the agreement, an archive of tweets from 2006 through April 2010. Additionally, the Library and Twitter agreed that Twitter would provide all public tweets on an ongoing basis under the same terms.

The Library’s first objectives were to acquire and preserve the 2006-10 archive; to establish a secure, sustainable process for receiving and preserving a daily, ongoing stream of tweets through the present day; and to create a structure for organizing the entire archive by date.

This month, all those objectives will be completed. We now have an archive of approximately 170 billion tweets and growing. The volume of tweets the Library receives each day has grown from 140 million beginning in February 2011 to nearly half a billion tweets each day as of October 2012.

The Library’s focus now is on addressing the significant technology challenges to making the archive accessible to researchers in a comprehensive, useful way. These efforts are ongoing and a priority for the Library.

Twitter is a new kind of collection for the Library of Congress but an important one to its mission. As society turns to social media as a primary method of communication and creative expression, social media is supplementing, and in some cases supplanting, letters, journals, serial publications and other sources routinely collected by research libraries.

Although the Library has been building and stabilizing the archive and has not yet offered researchers access, we have nevertheless received approximately 400 inquiries from researchers all over the world. Some broad topics of interest expressed by researchers run from patterns in the rise of citizen journalism and elected officials’ communications to tracking vaccination rates and predicting stock market activity.

Attached is a white paper [PDF] that summarizes the Library’s work to date and outlines present-day progress and challenges.