Library of Congress's Blog, page 76

Inquiring Minds: Paulette Hasier’s World of Maps

This is another guest post by Giselle Aviles, the 2019 Archaeological Research Associate in the Geography and Map Division.

The Geography and Map Division was created in 1897 and Paulette Hasier is the ninth person and first woman named chief of the division. Dr. Hasier is originally from Chicago. She has a joint Master’s Degree program in Library Science and a Master’s in History from the University of North Texas, and a doctorate in Transatlantic History from the University of Texas in Arlington. She’s worked in libraries for 24 years.

How did you get into the field?

My passion for maps goes back to my Ph.D. studies. When I met with my advisor, we talked about what we would like to do in terms of research, how we felt we could match what I do as a librarian with what I would do as an historian. We decided on a carto-bibliography of the central portion of the United States, specifically on (what was then called) Illinois Country.

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Dr. Paulette Hasier, Chief of the Geography and Map Division at the Library of Congress in front of Waldseemuller’s 1507 World Map.

What intrigues you about maps?

The fact that there is a world of information contained on every map! For many years, maps were not seen as historical documents. I think the strength of a map as a primary source is always that it is a combination of factual and cultural information. I did research on comparative cartography of 16th and 17th century French maps, so as a student I worked with purely analog maps. Now, with Geographic Information Systems (GIS), you can use geospatial data, combined with these historical sources, to analyze boundaries, to spatially construct new histories. Therefore, I see the maps in our collection as the true world of big data.

Tell us about some of the career challenges that you’ve faced.

You give up a lot if you want to go far in academia, if you decide to pursue a Ph.D., and if you want to become an expert in your field. So one of the things I always think about is the challenge of tempering a family life and relationships with studying toward what you believe is a worthy career. It may sound silly, but you give up going to birthday parties, Fourth of July picnics, and of course there were times when I was getting only four or five hours of sleep per night. Like many people, while I was studying, I was working a full-time job, going to night school, coming home, doing readings, and going back to work the next day. I probably looked like a zombie! So I think you have to love what you do, you have to have a passion for what you do. For me, I am incredibly passionate about being a librarian.

That’s what the Library is all about! Can you tell us an anecdote about your work?

I had been working at the Library for about two weeks when I received an email from our communications office, saying that there were reporters coming to do a story for an online magazine. Part of the story required them to film in our vaults…so, on that day, the crew had me  showing and moving globes around, talking about the collection, about having the biggest cartographic collection in the world. The next day, they needed to do some additional filming, but I was not available. My stand in was Mike Buscher, who was the head of the reading room at the time. The crew filmed him opening some of the hundreds of map drawers we have in the division and taking maps and folders out.  In the final cut, they show me talking about the globes and maps — but it’s Mike’s hands taking the objects out of the drawers!

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Part of the Story Map, Maps That Changed Our World. Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress.

What accomplishments have you and your team achieved?

Our Story Maps, I feel, have been an incredible accomplishment. We received so much support from our IT department, helping with the software and back end programming and engineering issues; from our subject-matter experts throughout the library who provided content; and my staff, doing briefings, writing policy, teaching the platform, and creating something that I believe will have some longevity. I feel this has been kind of a high point of my career here. We wanted to do something that was going to go beyond geography and maps in their traditional formats and be something that would become a part of the culture of the library. We are trying to get people to understand how they can take that expertise and put it out there for anyone, not just the folks who happen to be at the library.

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Story Maps page, Library of Congress.

How do you feel about being the first woman named Chief of the Geography and Map Division?

That’s interesting, because I didn’t see it that way when I first arrived. It was people from the outside who really brought it to my attention. I had to think about it for a second because I thought, that’s a heavy burden to take on. Doing my actual job, however, I see as gender-neutral. The fact that I’m actually being put up as an inspiration, as a change maker…takes me back to knowing your passion. It’s important to do things that will make you happy in your career. Don’t let anyone or any institution tell you that you can’t do it. It is not about being the first woman — it’s about being a woman and being impassioned about what you do and rising to the occasion of being the first.

Pic of the Week: Marty Stuart Edition

 

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Marty Stuart with Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden atop the Madison Building. April 4, 2019. Photo by Shawn Miller.

You never know who will turn up at your favorite national library, and the other day it was none other than country music legend Marty Stuart, who dropped by to visit with Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. The Mississippi native started performing professionally as a pre-teen, and grew into a singer, songwriter and multi-threat instrumentalist who played with Lester Flatt, Johnny Cash and dozens of others. He’s also a serious preservationist of country music history, with plans to open the Congress of Country Music,  a museum and arts center in his hometown of Philadelphia, Miss.

Tracy K. Smith: One Night Only

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Smith tours the Santa Fe Indian School as part of her project to bring poetry to underserved communities, Jan. 12, 2018. Photo by Shawn Miller.

Tracy K. Smith, the U.S. Poet Laureate, hasn’t kept to an ivory-tower, life-of-contemplation existence during her two years in the post. It seems she’s hardly sat still.

She’s published her fourth book of poetry, “Wade in the Water.” She’s edited an anthology, “Fifty Poems for Our Time.” She’s toured rural areas of the nation in seven states (from Maine to Louisiana to Alaska), and written about those travels in “American Conversations.” Her daily podcast, “The Slowdown,” will shortly hit episode No. 100. She’s also kept her day job at Princeton University, where she is the Roger S. Berlind ’52 Professor of the Humanities, as well as the director of the creative writing program.

It’s sad to say goodbye, but her final event at the Library will be Monday, April 15,  in the Coolidge Auditorium. She’ll be in conversation with poets from around the nation: Jeanetta Calhoun Mish (Oklahoma), Kealoha (Hawai`i), Adrian Matejka (Indiana), Tina Chang (Brooklyn, NY) and Vogue Robinson (Clark County, NV).  Jennifer Benka, president and executive director of the Academy of American Poets, will host. And yes, book sales and signing will follow. Tickets are free, but required. If you can’t make it, the conversation will be livestreamed from the Library’s Facebook page and our YouTube site (with captions).

Smith was born in Massachusetts in 1972, raised in California, and educated at Harvard, Columbia and Stanford. Her third book of poetry, “Life on Mars,” won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize, and her memoir, “Ordinary Light,” was a 2015 finalist for the National Book Award. This online guide will take you to a reference of her works.

Mystery Photos: Genius Edition of “Who am I?”

This is guest post is by Cary O’Dell, assistant to the National Film Preservation Board and the National Recording Preservation Board.

Hey kids, it’s time for another round of Mystery Photos!

In years past, you’ve helped us identify people in more than 1,000 publicity stills from the music, film, television or other entertainment industries. These were part of a collection of more than 30,000 images that came into the Library from a private collector in New Jersey. Most, thankfully, were already named.

You’ve done stellar work with the unknowns. We greatly appreciate it. But now we’re down to the Stubborn 100, a few of which are below, and we’re stumped.  Can you name these stars of yesteryear?

A few words of caution:

We’ve tried web-based reverse-image searches.
We have no information beyond what is listed below. There are no dates, locations or titles. They may not be from the United States.
Standards of proof: We’d most like to see the same photo, with the person’s name, in a newspaper, magazine or somesuch. Failing that, another image from the same photo shoot, but with the person named.

We are happy to investigate any legitimate guesses, though. We’ll report on any success stories.

Meanwhile, here you go. Good luck!

[image error] #1 This dapper gent might be an actor or a writer/author or none of the above.
[image error] #3 We’d like to ID any member of this trio or this group. Is this a dance troupe? An acting company? A band?
[image error] #5 We wonder if this might be the actor/model Bill Cable, who appeared in the first few moments of “Basic Instinct”?


[image error] #6 Lots of guesses but so far no solutions for this unknown man.
[image error] #9 Might be a character actor or someone from behind the scenes…
[image error] #15 This photo is NOT Karen Valentine, Judy Stangis nor Suzy Mandel.


[image error] #16 We know this is NOT Phylicia Rashad or Anna Maria Horsford.
[image error] #18 The letters “TC” are printed at the bottom of this image which usually means it is the initials of the person in the photo or the initials of the film (or other production) this image is from.
[image error] #43 This gentleman is thought to be an actor–he certainly looks like he might have played some judges in his time—but, again, we have no idea as to his identity.

Inquiring Minds: Aaron Diehl. Jazz Scholar, Keyboard Professor

Aaron Diehl is the most recent virtuoso to play the Coolidge Auditorium as one of the Library’s 2018-2019 Jazz Scholars, taking the stage March 23. He also spent some time researching the archives.

The 32-year-old has put together a stellar career, leaping into the spotlight by making the finals of the Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington competition when he was 17. His rolling, New Orleans-inflected chops, mixed with classical scholarship, caught the attention of Wynton Marsalis. Diehl, born in Columbus, Ohio, was the grandson of a pianist and started studying classical piano when he was seven. After Marsalis took note of him, he studied at The Julliard School, learning under heavyweights such as Kenny Barron and Eric Reed. In 2011, he won the American Pianists Association Cole Porter Jazz Fellowship — $50,000 and a recording contract.

He’s recorded four albums, the most recent of which is  “Space Time Continuum” (2015), and his career continues to blossom.

We caught up with him as his research at the Library was wrapping up, a few days after his concert.

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Photo credit: John Abbott

The term “jazz scholar” almost sounds like a professorial term, which I suppose is fine if we’re talking about Professor Longhair. How did you decide to use your time at the Library, what to look up, and what to dive into?

I had visited the Library of Congress for the first time at the end of 2016, when I was preparing for a touring program called “Jelly and George,” featuring the music of George Gershwin and Jelly Roll Morton. Larry Appelbaum was gracious in giving an introduction to the collection of both composers, but with my schedule in D.C. being limited to a few hours, I could barely scratch the surface. Fast-forward to my formal visit as a “jazz scholar” and it was even more overwhelming because I had two days of tours by various curators. Some of the highlights:

A 16th century book on Euclid (housed in the rare book collection)
A sketch and final manuscript of Ludwig Van Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 30 in E Major (Opus 109)
George Gershwin’s manuscript of Concerto in F and Rhapsody in Blue
A viola made by Antonio Stradivari

This was a general overview of the entire library, which gave me the chance to understand more about the scope of the collections so I can return for specific research.

Mozart and Beethoven: In looking at their scores, as a working musician now, what strikes you as most different (if anything) about how they worked and composed then?

I’ve seen facsimiles of Mozart’s scores. Very clear and neat. Same with Gershwin—you could basically hand those manuscripts to a musician and they could read it right off the page. Beethoven is another story. The sketch of Op. 109 was barely legible, and in final version I could maybe read the first 4 bars. Genius comes in all forms. He was the greatest of them, no doubt.

What were the surprises? What touched you the most?

The Guttenberg Bible. That changed the game for the dissemination of written text, sacred and otherwise.

Early jazz is mythologized so much. It’s easy to do, because the music is so fresh, so original. What parts of that music, those traditions, do you pull on in your own playing?

What first drew me to the music of early stride pianists like James P. Johnson, Luckey Roberts, et al, is the feeling of their left hands against a syncopated right hand. I somehow try to incorporate an underlying sense of momentum and groove in my own playing, even if it isn’t directly tied in to the stylistic language of early American piano.

Quick, without thinking: Five favorite New Orleans’ songs. 

“Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?”
“New Orleans”
“Big Chief”
“Whistle Stop”
“The Pearls”

You actually got to play the Gershwin piano in the Gershwin Room. Wow.

“Wow” is right! And it’s in good condition!

You’ve played with a lot of great musicians, including Benny Golson. How does playing with a legend like that affect your performance when you’re on stage with him, if at all?

I really feel a connection to the ancestors playing with someone like Mr. Golson. I have only played with him a handful of times, but hearing that signature tone coupled with his illustrative stories about writing tunes like “Stablemates” and “Along Came Betty” is a priceless experience. That’s becoming more rare as great masters are leaving. On stage, I just try to take in the moment and learn as much as I can on the bandstand.

Lastly: It’s a Sunday afternoon. You’re by yourself, the piano is just over there. What would you be most likely to sit down and play?

Whatever comes to mind. Sometimes that’s just free improvisation. Exploration is the first step in creating structure for my practice routine.

“Queer Eye” for the Library!

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The cast of “Queer Eye” greets the crowd at the Coolidge Auditorium for a conversation about LGBTQ+ youth issues.  April 3, 2019. Photo by Shawn Miller.

First, there was the show-delaying traffic jam. Then, there was the GenOUT acapella choir, with gorgeous vocals. And finally, there was the boisterous entrance to a packed Coolidge Auditorium. The cast of the Netflix hit reality series, “Queer Eye,” had arrived — and instantly had an adoring crowd in the palm of their hand.

The show’s cast delighted the audience with plenty of their trademark quips and tips (“moisturize daily;” “walk away from the hair color aisle”), but also settled in for a discussion of LGBTQ+ rights and empowerment in a society that isn’t always accepting. When a 12-year-old audience member submitted a query asking how kids could be more confident in school, the cast took it to heart.

“The most sure thing that you will ever have is your relationship with yourself,” said Jonathan Van Ness, the show’s grooming expert. “As you proceed in your education and your life, the more you can love and accept yourself, the more other people’s opinions and the goings-on of the world won’t rock your opinion of yourself so much. And then, honey, you’re confident.”

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Jonathan Van Ness takes center stage for a laugh. Hosting is Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart (center). Photo by Shawn Miller.

The hour-long conversation, hosted by Jonathan Capehart, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post columnist and MSNBC commentator, was billed as “Fab Five Serve Self-Love to LGBTQ+ Youth.” Four of the show’s five stars were on hand: Van Ness, Antoni Porowski, Tan France and Bobby Berk. It was an evening of giddy laughs, thoughts on confronting prejudice, advice on lifestyle choices and no small amount of the banter that’s made the show a pop culture favorite since Netflix launched it in 2018.

It’s a reboot of the Bravo series, “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” that ran from 2003 to 2007. This version is an upbeat, tears-and-cheers series of makeovers and self-development, with episodes like “You Can’t Fix Ugly,” “Camp Rules” and “To Gay or Not Too Gay.”  Each cast member has a different area of expertise for a full lifestyle makeover. Berk, for example, oversees home design, while France sees to fashion. It follows the reality-show template of the cast helping someone who’s in a tough spot with an energizing reimagining of themselves. The first two seasons were shot in Atlanta; this year, the cast moved to Kansas City.

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Antoni Porowski, Tan France and Van Ness (l-r). Photo by Shawn Miller.

It was striking, how similar the cast was on stage to the spirit of the show. There was the cross-talk, the energy, the emphasis on self-acceptance. France talked about how giving positive affirmations to himself — each morning as he’s brushing his teeth, looking in the mirror — at first felt goofy. Then, he said, it became a productive habit.

“It can really make you feel better,” he said. “I say this a lot, but I don’t want to be the reason I’m unhappy. So I allow myself to compliment myself at the start of the day.”

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The audience was packed with the show’s fans. Photo by Shawn Miller.

And Porowski provided perhaps the most touching moment. While a teen, he said, he had fallen into a dark bout of depression and wasn’t sure what to do next.

“I needed help and my parents weren’t available for that help, so I went to a teacher,” he said. “I did a lot of things wrong, but one thing that I did right is that I didn’t keep it to myself too long…when you have that conversation in your own head it starts to become a problem. And by actually reaching out to somebody and getting some professional help in the end was the best thing I could have ever done for myself. And it’s something that I continue to do to this day.”

By the time the conversation came to a close, the audience was once again on their feet. At least for one evening, feeling good proved to be contagious.

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The cast with Roswell Encina, the Library’s chief communications officer, at the reception. Photo by Shawn Miller.

Pic of the Week: “Queer Eye” Cast Lights Up the Library

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“Queer Eye” cast members Antoni Porowski, Tan France and Jonathan Van Ness (l-r) share a laugh while discussing LGBTQ+ youth issues wtih moderator Jonathan Capehart, April 3, 2019. Photo by Shawn Miller.

The cast of “Queer Eye,” the Netflix reality series, came to the Library to talk with Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart about LGBTQ+ issues that affect teens, and the packed house in Coolidge Auditorium loved it. The hour-long conversation, with cast members Bobby Breck, Antoni Porowski, Tan France and Jonathan Van Ness, kept the spirited crowd laughing and cheering.

Winifred Phillips: The Music of the Game

Winifred Phillips is a maestro in the world of video game music. She’s composed soundtracks for major hits such as Assassin’s Creed Liberation and The Da Vinci Code. She’s won industry awards. She’s written a book on the subject. She’ll be speaking this Saturday at the Library’s Augmented Realities Mini-Fest on the intricacies on composing for games, as opposed to traditional film and television scores.

We caught up with her by email earlier this week for a fun Q&A.

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Photo credit: Winnie Waldron.

In “A Composer’s Guide to Game Music,” you write that the idea for composing game music came to you while playing Tomb Raider. Do tell.

Since I’ve been a gamer for a long time, I suppose I should have thought about becoming a game composer sooner! But my career had taken me into public broadcasting. I’m classically trained as a musician and vocalist, and my first job as a composer was creating the music for a National Public Radio series called Radio Tales. The series host/producer Winnie Waldron hired me to compose the music for more than a hundred programs that adapted classic works of literature for the radio.  It was a fun gig! But all the while, I never stopped playing video games. And then one day, I was playing Tomb Raider, and the music suddenly grabbed my attention. I remember the light bulb going off in my head. I convinced Winnie to make the big leap into the game industry with me, and it’s been a grand adventure ever since.

Your Top 5 favorite games as a kid, the ones you absolutely wore out:

I was a huge fan of the Final Fantasy series. Played those games endlessly!  I remember spending tons of time with Crash Bandicoot.  Loved Prince of Persia. Sunk huge chunks of playtime into the Civilization games. And of course, the Tomb Raider games hold a special place in my heart, for a lot of reasons.

Which musical instruments do you play?

I play a bunch of different instruments with varying degrees of proficiency, but I’m trained in keyboards and voice. The keyboard is the most useful for me, since it’s the instrument on which I compose.

How did you get your first composing gig?

I actually landed my first two video game composing gigs at the same time – God of War from Sony Interactive Entertainment, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory from 2K Games. Both jobs came out of meetings I took during the Electronic Entertainment Expo – an enormous video game convention and a great place to meet industry folks.

Once more, from your book: “What does a television or film composer need to know about creating a satisfying linear loop, or a dynamic mix based on vertical layering, or a set of music chunks for horizontal re-sequencing….” Okay, so what DOES make for a satisfying linear loop? It doesn’t sound like this is going to involve something as simple as major and minor chords.

You’re absolutely right! It’s a very intricate discipline, and it walks the line between intense creativity and complex technical/logistical procedures. A lot of those concepts will be discussed during my lecture this week at the Library, and I’m really looking forward to it!

A lot of music composition is about math, about chord and key arrangements, a linearity that goes from beginning to middle to end. Does that change here?

Traditional music composition always includes a beginning, middle and end… and sometimes that kind of music composition is necessary in games, too.  When a game is telling a narrative, the music needs to be able to tell that story emotionally, and linear music construction lends itself to that task.  However, when we’re creating music that accompanies gameplay, we tend to break down the music into lots of component parts that are manipulated by the game’s programming. For a gamer, the music just seems to be magically reacting to everything that the player is doing, while still sounding like a continuous composition with a satisfying emotional arc.  But for the game composer, the music is deconstructed into lots of fragments that are designed to fit together in lots of different ways.

  Can you tell us what your studio looks like and where it is? Are you watching the games while you compose, like we see music conductors doing while recording film scores?

Over the years my composition and recording space has grown and changed, mirroring my various interests and obsessions, until its current state as an eclectic and quirky conglomeration of both vintage and modern equipment.  I love everything in there – it all suits my workflow and inspires me to be creative.  My business is located in the New York City metro area.  The studio is pretty comfortable and inviting.  I have a space for live recording, and a separate room where I do my composition as well as all my mixing and other post-production work.  And yes, I make sure that I’m watching video game footage while I’m working, so it’s usually on my largest video monitor mounted high over my workspace. I’ve worked with orchestras before, but those recording sessions take place on bigger soundstages, and then I bring the session recordings back to my studio for mixing and sweetening.  Speaking of orchestras, my music from the Assassin’s Creed Liberation game is going to be performed by an 80-piece orchestra and choir as a part of the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Symphony World Tour, which kicks off this June 11th at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles.  Touring symphonies like this one are a great sign of how popular game music has become!

Do you typically score the entire game, or just parts of it?

I’ve composed all the music for entire games, such as Assassin’s Creed Liberation, The Da Vinci Code, Shrek the Third, and so on.  I’ve also composed music as part of a team, on projects such as the six LittleBigPlanet games.  Whether I’m hired as the sole composer or as part of a team, the business is pretty similar.  I’m contracted to create a certain amount of music.  The game’s development team briefs me on the technical specs.  We discuss ideas for musical style. Then I get to work.

The Library Goes Gamer: Augmented Realities Mini-Fest

Gamers! The Library is all yours for the next three days.

Retro arcade games, a documentary, music and a new game composed in real time. That’s some of what’s up in our Augmented Realities Mini-Fest, put together by our very own David Plylar and the Library’s Music Division.

It starts Thursday night with a screening of “Reformat the Planet” in the Pickford Theater and winds up Saturday with rock-star composer Winifred Phillips (Assassin’s Creed Liberation, The Da Vinci Code, etc.) speaking in the Whittall Pavilion. The big deal on Friday is an audience-influenced, game-designing session by Rami Ismail, featuring a new, adaptive score composed by Austin Wintory. The #LOCArcade is Saturday.

Check back here tomorrow for a conversation with Phillips! Meanwhile, other people you’ll get to see:

Philippe Quint, violinist
Peter Dugan, pianist
Triforce Quartet
Bryan Mosley and Gene Dreyband, Pixelated Audio
Mark Gray and John R. Riley, Copyright Office, Library of Congress
David Gibson, Motion Picture, Broadcast and Recorded Sound Division, Library of Congress
Amanda May, Preservation Reformatting Division, Library of Congress

The full schedule is below.

Augmented Realities: A Video Game Music Mini-Fest

EVENTS

Thursday, April 4, 2019–7:00 pm [Film]

Reformat the Planet (NR, 82 mins)

Directed by Paul Owens

Pickford Theater (Tickets Not Required but Register for Reminder)

Reformat the Planet is a documentary about the first annual Blip Festival that explores the ChipTunes movement, in which composers create new electronic music using repurposed video hardware.

Friday, April 5, 2019–12:00 pm [Panel]

“Copyrighting a Cartridge: An Inside Look at Copyright and Video Games”

Mark Gray & John R. Riley, Attorney-Advisors, Copyright Office

Whittall Pavilion (Tickets Not Required but Register for Reminder)

Join us for a fun and informative look at interesting copyright issues related to video games. There will be some fascinating items on display as well!

Friday, April 5, 2019–8:00 pm [Special Event/Concert]

“Hi, Score! Introducing a Game to its Music”

Featuring Austin Wintory, Philippe Quint, Peter Dugan, Pixelated Audio and the Triforce Quartet

Coolidge Auditorium (Tickets Required)

Pre-concert lecture, 6:30pm:

“A Brief History of Video Game Music”

Bryan Mosley and Gene Dreyband, Pixelated AudioWhittall Pavilion (Tickets Not Required)

The Coolidge Auditorium will transform into a game creation lab as a new Library commission by composer Austin Wintory gets re-spawned as part of a video game score—all while you watch! First hear the new commission performed by violinist Philippe Quint and pianist Peter Dugan, and then hear it re-contextualized using interactive media. A new game is being designed by Rami Ismail just for this event, and we’ll get to see, hear and discuss how it all comes together. Bryan Mosley and Gene Dreyband of Pixelated Audio fame will join the conversation and provide some context for this dynamic process. Additionally, the Triforce Quartet will perform some classic tunes re-imagined for string quartet!

Saturday, April 6, 2019—10am-4pm [Interactive Display]

#LOCArcade, Mahogany Row and LJ-119

Tickets not Required

Saturday, April 6, 2019–11:00 am [#Declassified]

#Declassified: “Processing and Preserving Video Games”

David Gibson, Motion Picture, Broadcast and Recorded Sound Division

Amanda May, Preservation Reformatting Division

Whittall Pavilion (Tickets Not Required but Register for Reminder)

Amanda May and David Gibson from the Library of Congress will discuss the steps that the Library takes to collect, catalog and preserve video game content, focusing on the employment of Resource Description and Access (RDA) to describe video games in the catalog and the use of specialized hardware and software to forensically recover data from fragile digital media.

Check out this vintage blog from David Gibson to get a sense of the conservation issues in 2012: //blogs.loc.gov/thesignal/2012/09/yes-the-library-of-congress-has-video-games-an-interview-with-david-gibson/?loclr=blogmus

Saturday, April 6, 2019–2:00 pm [Lecture]

“The Interface Between Music Composition and Video Game Design”

Winifred Phillips, composer and author

Whittall Pavilion (Tickets Not Required but Register for Reminder)

Winifred Phillips speaks about her work as a composer in the video game industry, exploring the process of composing for video games, from concept to release.

From Ethnography to Feathers, Investigating Collections at the Library

This is another guest post by Giselle Aviles, the 2019 Archaeological Research Associate in the Geography and Map Division. It was first published on the Library’s Worlds Revealed by John Hessler. We’re republishing a slightly edited version here. As John noted in his original post: “She is delving into the treasures of the Jay I. Kislak Collection of the History and Archaeology of the Early Americas, undertaking an ethnographic analysis of Andean textiles and mesoamerican ceramics, tracing and unfolding their stories. She is a former Research Fellow of the Quai Branly Museum-Martine Aublet Foundation in Paris, and has conducted fieldwork in Puerto Rico, Haiti, Algeria, France, and Spain. She has come to the Library through the Hispanic National Internship Program sponsored by the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU).”


How can I tell stories about ancient artifacts when their parts are scattered in different places in a library? I take the example of ethnographers: When they are doing fieldwork to decipher a given society, they study the general culture along with specific items, such as photographs, personal letters, official documents and historical archives. They’re always looking for an “Aha!” moment that offers a bit of unique insight.

Giselle Aviles examining a miniature feather tunic from the Ica Valley of Peru, 12-13th century CE in the Preservation Research and Testing Division of the Library. William and Inger Ginsberg Collection, Library of Congress.

When I received the message that I was going to collaborate with John Hessler, the curator of the Jay I. Kislak Collection of the Archaeology and History of the Early Americas — which includes Pre-Colombian Peruvian textiles and Mayan ceramics — I couldn’t believe it. No longer would I be appreciating early American artifacts through the exhibit cases of a museum. I would be close to them, studying them, feeling them.

Photograph in UV light of the Ica Feather Tunic. Analysis by Tana Villafana, Senior Scientist in the Preservation Research Division, and Giselle Aviles, Archaeological Research Associate

It’s been thrilling. The Kislak collection encompasses, for example, a diversity of chuspas, a Quechua word for a hand-woven pouch used to carry coca leaves. When looking for the first time at the Peruvian textiles, donated by William and Inger Ginsberg, I found myself imagining the stories behind them. What conversations could have taken place? What social relationships would have developed? Did many families weave? Why did they chose those specific colors and patterns? Did a preferred location to weave exist, such as at home or a workshop? What would the weaver’s space be like while the textile was being thought through and produced?

My methodology over the next few months will be to grasp the symbols, colors, and feelings of objects in the Kislak Collection and relate them to other items in the library, such as rare books, manuscripts and maps. Working with archaeological artifacts in an ethnographic way is exciting, and there is not a single day when I don’t learn something new. I have the objects in front of me. I sit in the cold vault where the artifacts are temperature protected and, alone, I talk with them. How can an ancient life be thought about through a specific artifact? These are questions that I hope to ponder during my research time at the Library and discuss in my Gallery Talks in the Exploring the Early Americas Exhibit.

Maya Ceramic Vase with Animal Way Dancers. One of the many ceramic pieces being investigated by Giselle Aviles. Jay I. Kislak Collection, Library of Congress.