Library of Congress's Blog, page 48

Mystery Photo, February Edition!

Cary O’Dell at the Library’s National Recording Registry runs our Mystery Photo Contest. He most recently wrote about five solved photos that readers identified from our Thanksgiving edition. 

Hey kids, we’re back with another Mystery Photo Contest!

As careful readers of this space know, we’re down to our final 25 mystery photos. Remarkable. We started out with more than 800 unidentified people in a cache of show-biz stills that we obtained several years ago. When we posted our most recent batch in November, you guys stepped up and solved five of them.

So, buoyed by that performance, we’re posting these dozen to see if the eagle-eyed among you can help us put a name to a few more unidentified faces.

Ready?

1.) Yes, we have identified Mary Martin. (Clever, I know.) But who’s the gent in front of the poster? Your clue: This was taken in Boston in 1958, when Martin was appearing at the city’s Symphony Hall. The photos we obtained in this huge cache are people both in performance and in production, so this could be almost anyone involved with the show. A stage manager? Musician? Producer? The guy who designed the poster? Just a fan?

2.) No, this isn’t an outtake from the shoot of the Rolling Stones’ “Tattoo You” album cover. We have a clue for you on this one, too: The photographer was from Ashley & Associates in New York. (They are now out of business.) But we don’t know the woman or what the deal is with her unique 3-D make-up. This could be from an ad campaign, a theater production or movie still, almost anything. Look familiar?

3.) We assume this lady is from New York, given the very subtle clue that she’s holding a huge plaque of the state. Ditto on a guess for a time period of late ’60s to mid ’70s, given the bandana and short dress. She’s not a former Miss New York; we checked. Maybe she’s an athlete who won a state title that came with a weird trophy? And that plaque — is that a reflection in the middle? Or is it highlighting the Finger Lakes region, thus giving us a clue to her identity?

4.) This sepia-toned photo is credited on the back to Katherine Russell Bleecker, one of film’s very first female camera operators. But is this from one of her films? She was active in the silent era, so it’s possible. And who are the men seen here? We’re guessing actors, given the poses, but no way to know for sure.

5.) Does this lady not know the proper way to wear a necklace? Was this a hippie-era headband? The bird symbol at the center might or might not have some Native American significance, as it appears to resemble some Native designs. Does it matter that the heart has a band across the middle? The beads, the halter top, the hair — it all suggests the flower-power days of the late ’60s to mid ’70s. In any event, we’d like to know who she is.

6.) This is a tough one, as there are no clues on the back to give us a start. The gentlemen are in tuxedos, so we’re guessing this is an evening event of some type, but it doesn’t look like it’s on a huge stage. The singer is wearing a nice gown, but it doesn’t really place a specific era.

7.) This is brutal. It really could be just a shot of someone’s dad showing off his vintage radio. But it was in a huge collection of show biz photos — maybe he was a broadcaster? A radio executive? Maybe he was being featured on a broadcast?

8.) Finally, another one with a clue, and this is a good one. In the center is actress Ann Carter, who was just 8 years old when she appeared in “The Curse of the Cat People” in 1944.  That was an RKO horror flick and the sequel to “Cat People,” which was remade in 1982 with Malcolm McDowell and Nastassja Kinski, but you already knew all of that. What we want do want to know is the identity of the the little girls on each side of Carter. They might just be school chums—or were they, too, one-time young stars?

9 .) Quite possibly, this is a production of the Slavic folktale “Baba Yaga.” It’s a cheerful story about a female ogre who kills, cooks and eats people, usually children. (Just like the cannibalistic witch in “Hansel and Gretel” from “Grimm’s Fairy Tales.”) Baba Yaga, though, can fly and eat dead souls. The fence around her hut is lined with human skulls. You get the idea. But can you give a clue as to the production of the show? Or, if we’re way off, a definitive idea about what we’re looking at here?

10.) This baby robot illustration almost certainly was inspired by the work of Japanese artist Hajime Sorayama. But it is not by him. (Again, we checked.)  Was this in a film? An ad?

11.) This shot—according to what’s on the back—is from the vicinity of Cincinnati. The cartoon behind the man is by Herb Gardner, but that’s not Gardner in the foreground.  Several people have suggested that there is something “I’m Not Rappaport” about the man’s look—might this be from a local theater production of that play?

12.) How else could we close but with a mystery woman from yesteryear? This is pretty much the Girl Next Door of your dad’s generation — the nice-but-not-flashy pearls, the high-neck sweater and neatly done ‘do. The info on the back of the picture tells us this young model was represented by the Bradford Agency at 515 Madison Ave. in New York. We’re pretty sure she’s wearing sensible shoes and won’t stay out too late but….who is she?

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Jason Reynolds: Grab the Mic Newsletter, Black History Month Edition

Jason Reynolds, the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, is back from his mid-winter break with a February newsletter.

First things first: Happy Black History Month!

Second things second: I hope you’ve all had a wonderful holiday full of rest and … more rest. And maybe some laughter. But mostly rest. Me? Well, I’ve done my best. But we’re not here to talk about me, right? No, there are far more important things to talk about, like …

Black History Month!

I’m not going to give you the usual spiel about how important Black History Month is as a way to shine light on the accomplishments and contributions of Black people over the course of the history of this country. You know that. I’m not going to mention Dr. King, Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, slavery, Black inventors, or even the new heroes of our day like Amanda Gorman. You know them as well. Instead, I figured we could take a moment to drill down on the word “history.”

What does it mean? When I was young it pretty much meant “boring.” It meant time to sleep in class, or doodle, or pass notes (Do y’all still pass notes? Is that a thing?) or daydream about french fries, or … you get the point. Just the word “history” could send me on a distant voyage into the imagination, far from any classroom or teacher trying to convince me that it was important. Of course, history is important. But it almost felt too important to be interesting, like the 5 o’clock news. Or the 6 o’clock news. Or the 7 o’clock news.

But when I started digging into the word, when I decided to do a little research on my own about the meaning of “history” and where that word came from, I discovered something important and interesting. “History,” by most definitions, is a story outlining past events. I guess that shouldn’t be much of a surprise. I mean, the word “story” literally makes up 80 percent of the word. But I found a few other old definitions, other meanings attached to the inception of this word, the most interesting coming from the Greeks. The way they defined “history” was all about learning. A knowing by inquiry. What this means is, history is all about documenting the questions you ask. Which would mean … according to my calculations … to make history would be to ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS.

A-ha!

So, as we celebrate Black History Month this year, let’s not just give presentations on the great people who have shaped our country and our world; let’s also work to figure out what questions they may have asked to do so, and what questions we should be asking now—right now—to make history ourselves, every day.

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Library Enriches America’s Story by Connecting with Minority Communities, Funded by $15M Mellon Grant

Former U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith (second from right), meeting with Santa Clara Pueblo community members during her American Conversations tour in 2018, the type of program the Mellon Foundation grant will promote. Photo: Shawn Miller.

The Library today announced a new, multiyear initiative to connect more deeply with Black, Hispanic, Indigenous and other minority communities by expanding its collections, using technology to enable storytelling and offering more internship and fellowship opportunities, supported by a $15 million investment from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The new initiative, Of the People: Widening the Path, creates new opportunities for more people to engage with the Library, thus weaving a more inclusive American story. This work will expand the Library’s efforts to ensure that a diversity of experiences is reflected in our historical record and inform how we use those materials to understand our past.

The initiative will be accomplished through three programs: investing in community-based documentarians who will expand the Library’s collections with new perspectives; funding paid internships and fellowships to benefit from the wisdom of students and engage the next generation of diverse librarians; and creating a range of digital engagements to connect with underserved communities and institutions.

“The Mellon Foundation’s generous grant will enhance the Library’s efforts to develop deeper and mutually empowering relationships with those who are too often left out of the American story,” said Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. “By inviting communities of color and other underrepresented groups to partner on a wider, more inclusive path for connection to the Library of Congress, we invest in an enduring legacy of the multifaceted American story that truly is ‘Of the People.’”

The new initiative is part of a larger vision at the Library to connect with all Americans by inviting new generations to participate in creating, preserving and sharing the nation’s cultural treasures and building on the Library’s commitment to collect and preserve more underrepresented perspectives and experiences.

The $15 million invested by the Mellon Foundation in the Of the People initiative represents the largest grant from a private foundation in the Library’s history and is among the largest grants that the foundation awarded in its 2020 cycle.

“We are proud to support Carla Hayden and the Of the People initiative as the Library of Congress envisions and implements new ways to connect all Americans with its unparalleled resources,” said Mellon Foundation President Elizabeth Alexander. “The Library of Congress is the people’s public library, and we are delighted that it will engage diverse and inclusive public participation in expanding our country’s historical and creative records.”

News, stories and opportunities related to the initiative will be shared on a new blog related to this new initiative in the months and years ahead. Subscribe for updates at blogs.loc.gov/OfThePeople.

The Of the People initiative accomplishes these objectives through three programs: community documentarians working with the American Folklife Center; internships and fellowships for students from minority-serving institutions; and a digital futures program that combines the power of technology with the Library’s digital collections to help communities engage with the Library in ways that have never before been possible.

These are the grant’s main programs:

Community Documentarians with the American Folklife Center

The American Folklife Center  will expand its collection by funding and supporting individuals and organizations in collecting and archiving contemporary community-driven cultural expressions and traditions. The Library will offer fellowships to individuals to work within their communities to produce ethnographic cultural documentation, such as oral history interviews and audio-visual recordings of cultural activity, from the community perspective. The center will archive and showcase this fieldwork.

Internship and Fellowships for Students from Minority-Serving Institutions.

The Library will expand internship opportunities and enhance outreach to students attending historically Black colleges and universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, Tribal colleges and universities and institutions that serve Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. The internship and fellowship programs offered will provide experiential learning opportunities to develop a new generation of diverse talent for cultural heritage organizations. The Library has begun work in this area by creating new training opportunities through a pilot program with Howard University.

The Black, Indigenous and Minority Americans Digital Futures Program

A digital strategy program will encourage creators in minority communities to combine Library materials with technology to connect Americans with a more expansive understanding of our past and future. Grants to cultural heritage institutions, community colleges and minority-serving institutions will support engagement with the Library’s collections in communities exploring their own histories. Through the program, creative people making content like videos, photo collages, new music and digital exhibits will bring to the foreground the experiences of Black, Indigenous and Americans from other racial and ethnic minority communities in the documents that comprise the story of our national identity. A scholar-in-residence program will connect experts with the richness of the collection and Library expertise. Projects funded through this program will serve as inspiration for those who want to use the Library’s collections to tell their own story. Together, these and other elements of the program will work to strengthen the Library’s connection to communities of color and help the Library engage with all Americans.

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When Rebecca the Raccoon Ruled the White House

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Calvin Coolidge, 1925. Prints and Photographs Division.

Since we have new presidential pets, Champ and Major, a pair of German Shepherds, we take a quick look back at one of the nation’s most famous four-legged White House inhabitants.

Calvin Coolidge does not exactly enjoy a historical reputation for being a freewheeling sort of guy. He was a staid, serious president; gray flannel might have been a daring sartorial choice. But it has to be said that not even the boisterous Teddy Roosevelt — who let his kids bring snakes into government meetings — had a pet raccoon that ran around the White House knocking over plants, unscrewing jar lids, cavorting in the bathtub and generally living la vida loca.

That would be Coolidge.

As Library historian Margaret McAleer explains in the video above, some Coolidge supporters in Mississippi sent the man a live raccoon in November 1926, so that the first family could kill and eat it for Thanksgiving dinner. Yes, you may read that sentence again.

But perhaps led by first lady Grace Coolidge, the family decided to make it a pet instead, to the delight of small children and the White House press corps, if that’s not redundant (we kid because we love!). The raccoon, quickly named Rebecca, became a fixture at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. The Coolidge family, who also kept dogs and canaries, were kind pet owners and quickly built her a little house of her own. They let her roam the trees on the White House property. Her adventures were routinely reported in newspapers and she gained quite a bit of fame, making a star appearance at the 1927 Easter Egg Roll at the White House, for example.

Otherwise, she often wandered around the White House at will. Her favorite activity, the first lady reported, was playing in a half-filled bath with a bar of soap. When Rebecca went out on the town with the first lady, she sported bling –  an embroidered collar identifying her as the “White House Raccoon.” She vacationed with the first family, escaped often, and pretty much ruled in the way she saw fit until heading off to a graceful retirement at the Rock Creek Zoo (now the National Zoo) when Coolidge left office in 1929.

Rebecca, living the life at the 1927 White House Easter Egg Roll, with first lady Grace Coolidge. Prints and Photographs Division.

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Inauguration Stories: George Washington’s Surprising Speech

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George Washington really didn’t want to be president.

Sure, he might have led the rag-tag American forces to victory on the battlefield over Britain in the American Revolution, but taking political leadership over the new nation filled him with dread. When a messenger arrived at Mount Vernon with the news that he’d been elected, he all but said he’d rather not.

Obviously, he bit his lip and accepted the job, but this was not a feeling that soon passed. After a trip by horseback to New York, then the seat of the national government, he decided to give an inaugural speech — no one was expecting him too — and he reiterated that “no event could have filled me with greater anxieties” than becoming president.

In the video above, Julie Miller, the Library’s historian on early America, explains Washington’s trip to New York, the reception he got and that unexpected speech, which contains the famous phrase, “the sacred fire of liberty.”

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Congratulations to Amanda Gorman!

Amanda Gorman, delivering her poem at the inauguration. Photo: Architect of the Capitol.

This year’s presidential inauguration ceremony had so many connections to the Library, but I would like to highlight one in particular: the recitation of the Inaugural Poem, “The Hill We Climb,” by Amanda Gorman.

In 2017, I met Amanda when she read one of her poems at a Library event. Our Poetry Office staff had suggested Amanda read a poem to kick things off that night. She was the first National Youth Poet Laureate, a program run by Urban Word NYC as an extension of their city and regional poets laureate. Even then, she was a sensation.

The night of the reading, I saw first-hand her power, passion and intensity as she recited her poem, “In This Place (An American Lyric).” And I wasn’t the only one — Dr. Jill Biden saw it too. It led her to ask Amanda to serve as the youngest-ever Inaugural Poet.

I would like to congratulate Amanda on another amazing performance and say how delighted I am that her appearance on the Coolidge Auditorium stage in 2017 led her to the U.S. Capitol yesterday.

Joy Harjo, the U.S. Poet Laureate, soon to start her third term. Photo: Shawn Miller.

Let me also take this opportunity to say more about Joy Harjo, the Library’s current U.S. Poet Laureate. Joy occupies a position established in 1937 that has featured some of our nation’s greatest poets, including Gwendolyn Brooks, Rita Dove, Robert Pinsky and Tracy K. Smith. Joy is the first Native American to hold the position.

Her signature project is “Living Nations, Living Words,” and I invite you to explore its interactive map and collection of recordings featuring 47 contemporary Native poets from across the country. I’m sure you’ll be as inspired as I am by the voices it celebrates.

We are lucky to live in a moment in which the country contains so many poets laureate, a testament to the power of the Library’s laureate position and the many poets who have held it. This week, Amanda showed us the power of poetry and reminded us of what such positions as the National Youth Poet Laureate can offer the country. Kudos to her. I’m happy she stands alongside her poetry elders in promoting the art to all Americans.

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Inauguration Stories: Lincoln’s 1865 “With Malice Toward None” Speech

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Since it’s inauguration week, we’re looking at a few of the most important ones in national history.

We tend to see presidential inaugurations as staid events with a familiar refrain and symbolism. It wasn’t always that way — no one had any idea George Washington was going to give a speech after his 1789 inauguration as the nation’s first president — but the passing centuries have given the event a common ceremony and narrative arc.

Most inauguration speeches, like most all speeches, are not long remembered. But some are burned into the national memory, like Washington’s phrase, “the sacred fire of liberty,” from his unexpected speech.

The last lines of Lincoln’s first inauguration speech, with “the better angels of our nature” in the last line.

Both of Abraham Lincoln’s inaugurations were memorable, in part because of his eloquence but in larger part because of the Civil War that was unfolding at his first inauguration and ending during his second. Both speeches featured phrases that are still quoted. In the first, there was “the mystic chords of memory,” and, no doubt the most famous, “the better of angels of our nature,” scrawled in at the very bottom of the last page.

As Michelle Krowl, the Library’s Civil War and Reconstruction expert, details in the video above, Lincoln took his second inaugural oath on March 4, 1865. The war was all but done. Robert E. Lee, the Confederate general, would surrender just a few weeks later on April 9. Lincoln would be assassinated six days later, on April 15.

This second speech, given after a morning of wet, miserable weather, took place on the East Portico of the Capitol. It was the first inauguration after the Capitol dome was completed, and it was the first at which African Americans — some wearing their Union army uniforms — were allowed to attend.

Lincoln’s vice president, Andrew Johnson, a former senator from Tennessee, took his oath of office in the Senate chamber around noon. The gathering then moved outside for Lincoln’s oath and address. The weather, so awful for most of the day, had calmed. Just before he began speaking, the sun came out, casting the day in a new light.

Abraham Lincoln delivering his second inaugural address. Prints and Photographs Division.

The typeset speech — Lincoln cut and pasted paragraphs onto the page — ran just 700 words and fit on a two-columned page. He stood behind a small metal table, put on his glasses and read. It could not have taken more than a few minutes.

Lincoln began with a recounting of the situation of his previous inauguration. He noted that “insurgent agents” had been in the city then, intent on tearing the nation apart. He soon got to the point of what the war had ultimately been about — slavery. Though he said that the government had not originally sought to abolish slavery before the war, just to limit its territorial expansion, it was now committed to destroying it:

“Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether.”

Then, in his concluding lines, he turns to the future with hope. It was a vision of reconciliation, of renewed peace and of a nation united once more. The monumental phrase is “With malice toward none; with charity for all.” It was the perfect summation for a president trying to bring a fractured republic, then in the last throes of the war, back together.

The final lines of Lincoln’s second inaugural address, with handwritten notes. Manuscript Division.

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Inauguration Day: George Washington’s 1789 Oath of Office

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Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress, uses George Washington’s 1789 copy of “Acts Passed at the First Congress of the United States of America,” which includes the U.S. Constitution, to tell a short story on how the presidential oath of office has been unchanged since the founding of the nation. It’s the same oath that Joe Biden will swear to today, 232 years later.

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Amanda Gorman Selected as President-Elect Joe Biden’s Inaugural Poet

National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman reads her work, “An American Lyric,” at the inaugural reading of Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith, September 13, 2017. Photo by Shawn Miller.

The following post by Peter Armenti, literature specialist for the Digital Reference Section, first appeared on our blog, “From the Catbird Seat: Poetry and Literature at the Library of Congress.”

The Presidential Inaugural Committee for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris has announced that former National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman will perform her poetry at the 59th Presidential Inaugural Swearing-In Ceremony, set to take place on Wednesday, January 20, on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol. Amanda, who was appointed the first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate in April 2017, will become only the 6th poet to perform at a presidential inauguration, and the first inaugural poet since Richard Blanco, who read his poem “One Today” at Barack Obama’s 2013 inaugural. She is also the youngest ever inaugural poet. Here is a complete list of previous inaugural poets and the poems they performed:

Robert Frost, who recited “The Gift Outright” (text) at John F. Kennedy’s 1961 inaugural. Frost recited the poem from memory after he was unable to read the text of the poem he’d written for the inauguration, “Dedication” (), because of the sun’s glare upon the snow-covered ground.Maya Angelou, who read “On the Pulse of Morning” (text; video) at Bill Clinton’s 1993 inaugural.Miller Williams, who read “Of History and Hope” (text; video) at Bill Clinton’s 1997 inaugural.Elizabeth Alexander, who read “Praise Song for the Day” (text; video) at Barack Obama’s 2009 inaugural.Richard Blanco, who read “One Today” (text; video) at Barack Obama’s 2013 inaugural.

Amanda’s reading will be bookended by a rendition of the National Anthem by Lady Gaga and a musical performance by Jennifer Lopez. It will no doubt reflect and amplify the overarching theme of the presidential inauguration, “America United,” which, according to the Inaugural Committee, “reflects the beginning of a new national journey that restores the soul of America, brings the country together and creates a path to a brighter future.”

Amanda, we’re thrilled to point out, has a direct connection to the “From the Catbird Seat” blog. In her capacity as National Youth Poet Laureate she contributed a monthly guest post from October 2017 to April 2018 for the blog. Her connection to the Library of Congress does not end there—like the previous five inaugural poets, she has performed her work at the Library of Congress. Most notably, she served as the “inaugural poet” for the 22nd U.S. poet laureate, Tracy K. Smith, at Tracy’s 2017 inaugural ceremony. Tracy, who like Amanda is a Harvard alumna, had asked Amanda to read a poem to open the program. Amanda agreed, and wrote and performed a new and powerful poem for the occasion—”In This Place (An American Lyric).” You can view a video of Tracy’s inaugural below, skipping to 01:19 to watch Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden introduce Amanda. Amanda’s performance of the poem begins at 04:57:

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While as of this writing the poetry that Amanda will read at President-Elect Biden’s inaugural is not known, I wouldn’t be surprised to see her perform “In This Place (An American Lyric),” which offers a much-needed message of hope and unity as this moment in American history. (UPDATE: A January 15 Associated Press article notes that Amanda was recommended as inaugural poet by Jill Biden and will perform an original poem for the occasion, titled “The Hill We Climb.” Read more here.)

Amanda was kind enough to publish “In This Place (An American Lyric)” in her October 11, 2017, blog post recounting her experience as Tracy’s inaugural poet, and I reproduce it below:

In This Place (An American Lyric)

There’s a poem in this place—
in the footfalls in the halls
in the quiet beat of the seats.
It is here, at the curtain of day,
where America writes a lyric
you must whisper to say.

There’s a poem in this place—
in the heavy grace,
the lined face of this noble building,
collections burned and reborn twice.

There’s a poem in Boston’s Copley Square
where protest chants
tear through the air
like sheets of rain,
where love of the many
swallows hatred of the few.

There’s a poem in Charlottesville
where tiki torches string a ring of flame
tight round the wrist of night
where men so white they gleam blue—
seem like statues
where men heap that long wax burning
ever higher
where Heather Heyer
blooms forever in a meadow of resistance.

There’s a poem in the great sleeping giant
of Lake Michigan, defiantly raising
its big blue head to Milwaukee and Chicago—
a poem begun long ago, blazed into frozen soil,
strutting upward and aglow.

There’s a poem in Florida, in East Texas
where streets swell into a nexus
of rivers, cows afloat like mottled buoys in the brown,
where courage is now so common
that 23-year-old Jesus Contreras rescues people from floodwaters.

There’s a poem in Los Angeles
yawning wide as the Pacific tide
where a single mother swelters
in a windowless classroom, teaching
black and brown students in Watts
to spell out their thoughts
so her daughter might write
this poem for you.

There’s a lyric in California
where thousands of students march for blocks,
undocumented and unafraid;
where my friend Rosa finds the power to blossom
in deadlock, her spirit the bedrock of her community.
She knows hope is like a stubborn
ship gripping a dock,
a truth: that you can’t stop a dreamer
or knock down a dream.

How could this not be her city
su nación
our country
our America,
our American lyric to write—
a poem by the people, the poor,
the Protestant, the Muslim, the Jew,
the native, the immigrant,
the black, the brown, the blind, the brave,
the undocumented and undeterred,
the woman, the man, the nonbinary,
the white, the trans,
the ally to all of the above
and more?

Tyrants fear the poet.
Now that we know it
we can’t blow it.
We owe it
to show it
not slow it
although it
hurts to sew it
when the world
skirts below it.

Hope—
we must bestow it
like a wick in the poet
so it can grow, lit,
bringing with it
stories to rewrite—
the story of a Texas city depleted but not defeated
a history written that need not be repeated
a nation composed but not yet completed.

There’s a poem in this place—
a poem in America
a poet in every American
who rewrites this nation, who tells
a story worthy of being told on this minnow of an earth
to breathe hope into a palimpsest of time—
a poet in every American
who sees that our poem penned
doesn’t mean our poem’s end.

There’s a place where this poem dwells—
it is here, it is now, in the yellow song of dawn’s bell
where we write an American lyric
we are just beginning to tell.

(This poem was first published by Split This Rock.)

All of us at From the Catbird Seat are thrilled to see Amanda, and (once more) poetry, take center stage at the inaugural events.

News! Library Wins 2021 Galvez Prize

Bernardo de Galvez. Undated, artist unknown. Prints and Photographs Division.

This is a guest post by María Peña, a public relations strategist in the Office of Communications.

The Library is the 2021 recipient of the Bernardo de Gálvez award, awarded annually by the Fundación Consejo España-Estados Unidos to American citizens or institutions who help promote and nurture relations between Spain and the United States, a stirring bit of international recognition for the work of the Hispanic Division.

This week, the organizers recognized the Library’s “valuable contribution to preserving the world’s bibliographic and documentary heritage,” in particular the comprehensive collection of items related to the Iberian peninsula, Latin America and the Caribbean.

“The Hispanic Division is honored to work with many colleagues in the Library of Congress and researchers across the country in acquiring, preserving and making available many different kinds of materials from and about Spain,” said Suzanne Schadl, chief of the Hispanic Division. “This recognition … is an acknowledgment of many peoples tremendous work.”

Let’s take a moment to remember who Bernardo de Gálvez was and his role as an unsung patriot and key ally in the foundation of the United States.

His military prowess was an outgrowth of the Hispanic presence in North America dating back to 1565, when Spaniards established the first permanent European settlement in what is now the continental United States, at St. Augustine, Florida. They settled in vast areas of the country and established towns, missions, trading posts, and infrastructure projects in over half of today’s states. During the Revolutionary War, while the Spanish government gave aid to the struggling colonial forces, his military exploits helped defeat the British in present-day Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida and Alabama.

Born to a wealthy family in Macharaviaya, a small mountain village in the southeastern province of Málaga, Gálvez grew up hearing stories about seemingly endless wars in Europe, in which Spain often sided with France against England.

Like many of his social set, he attended an elite military school in Ávila, where he was groomed for a career of battles and conquests on behalf of the Spanish royals. He came to the Americas as a teen, fighting on behalf of Spain, and was governor of Spanish Louisiana by the time he was 30.

“Prise de Pensacola,” Nicolas Ponce, 1784. Painting shows the munitions explosion at the British fortress. Spanish troops, possibly under the command of Gálvez, are on the attack. Prints and Photographs Division.

In the war, his strategy was a win-win effort: He provided much-needed weapons, uniforms, medicine and other supplies to the Continental Army, while he advanced the interests of Spain against a common enemy. He helped found Galveston, Texas, which was then named for him.

In 2014, Congress passed a bill awarding Gálvez honorary citizenship, 228 years after his death, joining eight other foreign leaders, including Winston Churchill and Mother Theresa. The joint resolution, signed by President Barack Obama, called him a “hero of the Revolutionary War,” highlighting his two-month siege of Pensacola, Florida in 1781, when he cut off British access from the south; the taking of the Port of New Orleans; and other feats that helped George Washington on the battlefield. When he drove the British from Pensacola, they never returned.

The Library’s vast Hispanic collections – one of the world’s most comprehensive – include more than two dozen manuscripts on Gálvez and his military accomplishments. Among the rare items is a 1781 letter in George Washington’s correspondence, from Gálvez to François Joseph Paul, Comte de Grasse, about the “capitulation of Pensacola” and the British prisoners’ “word of honour not to take arms.”

Gálvez’s pivotal role in the American Revolution is a testament of Hispanics’ long presence and contributions to the rich cultural tapestry of the United States, where they now number over 60 million and are the country’s largest minority.

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