Library of Congress's Blog, page 92

New Recordings Online for National Poetry Month

[image error]This post by Anne Holmes of the Library’s Poetry and Literature Center was first published on “ From the Catbird Seat ,” the center’s blog.

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Robert Hayden was U.S. poet laureate from 1976 to 1978. Photo by Timothy D. Franklin.

National Poetry Month is here, and we’re over the moon to announce the release of 50 additional recordings from the Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature, now available to stream online.

The archive—a collection dating back to 1943, when Allen Tate was consultant in poetry—contains nearly 2,000 audio recordings of celebrated poets and writers participating in literary events at the Library of Congress, along with sessions recorded in the recording laboratory in the Library’s Jefferson Building. Most of these recordings were originally captured on magnetic tape reels and have only been accessible by visiting the Library in person.

As of this week, you can now stream previously undigitized recordings featuring poets laureate Robert Hayden, Maxine Kumin, Mark Strand, Gwendolyn Brooks, Robert Pinsky, James Merrill, James Dickey, Joseph Brodsky, Richard Wilbur, Robert Hass, Stephen Spender, Charles Simic, Josephine Jacobsen, Anthony Hecht and Howard Nemerov.

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Make sure you also tune in for more from Lucille Clifton, Czeslaw Milosz, Michael S. Harper, Kenneth Koch and John Ashbery; and, for the first time streaming from the collection, you can now listen to Ron Padgett, Gary Snyder, Doris Grumbach, Elisavietta Ritchie, Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Makoto Ooka, Mari Evans and Sherod Santos, just to name a few (okay, several).

We have more excitement in store as Poetry Month progresses, so stay tuned. For now, put on those headphones, blast those speakers and explore what the Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature has to offer.

Inquiring Minds: Uncovering the Many Meanings of Slave Narratives

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Ohio State University undergraduate Carley Reinhard stands beside a poster about her research in the Slave Narratives Collection that she displayed at the 2018 annual meeting of the American Historical Association.

Carley Reinhard first encountered stories of slave capture in early 2017 in Professor Stephanie Shaw’s African-American history course at Ohio State University. Reinhard became fascinated by one narrative that tells of red cloth being used to entice Africans onto ships bound for North America.

During Shaw’s course, Reinhard asked Shaw to serve as her adviser on a senior research project to find out more about the narrative. The pair put together a winning grant proposal that funded Reinhard’s trip to the Library of Congress last summer to research the Slave Narratives Collection in the Manuscript Division. The collection contains more than 2,000 first-person accounts of slavery collected in the 1930s as part of the Works Projects Administration (WPA).

Reinhard subsequently won another grant to continue her research, and she was selected by the American Historical Association to display her findings in a poster session at its 2018 annual meeting, held in Washington, D.C., in January. While in Washington, she visited the Manuscript Division with Stephanie Shaw.

Here Reinhard discusses her research, her experiences at the Library and the career her project has inspired her to pursue.

Tell us a little about the red-cloth narrative.

It consists of various forms of a story former slaves recalled in WPA interviews about how their relatives were captured by slave traders who used red trinkets such as cloth to entice slaves. In some instances, individuals were invited aboard a ship to trade for these goods. In other cases, the cloth was laid out for someone to follow in almost a Hansel-and-Gretel fashion.

Among the narratives in the WPA collection, one of the most cited is the account of “Granny Judith,” relayed by her grandson Richard Jones:

Some strangers wid pale faces come one day and drapped a small piece of red flannel down on de ground. All de black folks grabbed for it. Den a larger piece was drapped a little further on, and on until de river was reached. . . . Finally, when de ship was reached, dey drapped large pieces on de plank and up into the ship ‘dill dey got as many blacks on board as dey wanted.

My initial question was how and why this story developed. My research expanded to include how it continued to change and develop as slavery expanded in the United States.

What is the significance of the narrative to the tellers?

Its significance develops over time. The source material I used conveys the story largely from the perspective of the grandchildren of the original tellers. The original tellers were sharing a piece of their own history, an account of why they were enslaved. The Slave Narratives Collection suggests that their children who passed along the story recognized this meaning, but also viewed the story as a form of resistance, confirming that their family was not always enslaved and that they were not born to be slaves. The aspects of the story that resonated with them differed from the emphasis of those who first shared it. As is common with literature, individuals ascribed new meaning to a story relative to their lives.

What have you discovered from studying the narrative?

I found that individuals incorporated the slave trade into long-established African oral traditions, creating stories about capture and enslavement infused with symbolism that indicted those who participated in the trade. Slaves shared these traditions as their personal history with their children and grandchildren to educate them about the dangers of deception as well as their own capacity to be free.

I was especially intrigued by how the capture narrative evolved over time. As slavery expanded throughout the United States and the fear of kidnapping rose, the stories of being seduced by red trinkets were modified to warn children of the dangers of kidnapping within America. Even after slavery ended, the stories were kept alive in new ways, and the red cloth became a tool for empowerment and protection. Different contexts changed the specifics and generalities of the myth, but West African folk culture survived across time, oceans and continents.

What was your experience like working at the Library?

I had a wonderful experience working at the Library. I primarily worked in the Manuscript Reading Room. As someone new to conducting research, I was thankful for the guidance and support of the reading room staff members. Additionally, even after my time at the Library, I felt supported and cared about by the staff. When I visited with my adviser, Stephanie Shaw, this past January, Jeffrey Flannery, the head of the reading room, took the time to meet with us to discuss the project, view the poster I prepared for the American Historical Association’s annual meeting and give us a tour of the Manuscript Division. This included a chance to see some of the original documents I had researched in microfilm format. Getting a chance to look at the photographs was a wonderful experience. The microfilmed collections are a great resource, but they do not hold a candle to the gorgeous originals.

What do you plan to do with your research results?

My hope is to continue to develop the research I am doing on the narrative and ultimately publish an article with my findings.

What are the next steps for you?

This project has been my most intellectually rewarding experience and has inspired me to pursue graduate studies in African-American cultural history. I am thrilled to be making the move from Ohio to Maryland this coming fall to begin graduate school at the University of Maryland. Following completion of the Ph.D. program, I hope to pursue a career as a professional historian.

Free to Use and Reuse: Cycling Season Has Arrived!

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Julia Obear, a bicycle messenger, wears the hat of the National Women’s Party while cycling in 1922.

On Sunday night, July 16, 1895, Hattie Strage of Chicago was arrested and fined for disorderly conduct. Her offense? Bicycling over the city’s fashionable South Side boulevards “arrayed in a bloomer suit consisting of flesh-colored tights and a short jacket.”

Women’s cycling attire was a subject of intense scrutiny at the dawn of the golden age of bicycling in America, as documented by newspaper stories highlighted on the Library’s Chronicling America site—the notice about Strage’s arrest appeared in the Mexico (Missouri) Weekly Ledger.

This month, as warmer weather signals the start of the cycling season, we’re adding to our Free to Use archive all kinds of themed content about bicycles. We’re including images portraying early women cyclers like Strage, but also historical ads featuring bicycles, cartoons, lithographs, maps and more.

The Free to Use archive features themed sets of content (such as travel posters, presidential portraits, Civil War drawings, dogs and, now, bicycles) that are all free to use and reuse, meaning there are no known copyright restrictions associated with this content. In other words, you can do whatever you want with it.

Scroll down for a few more examples and make sure to check out other sets in the archive. And if you find a creative way to reuse any of the images, let us know by commenting on this post.

Happy Cycling!

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Theatrical poster for Chas. H. Kabrich, the “only bike-chute aeronat,” who performed a “novel and thrilling” bicycle parachute act in mid-air, 1896.

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Actress Madge Lessing holds a musical horn to her lips while cycling, 1898.

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“Voyage a la Lune,” a French cartoon showing a man riding on a bicycle-like flying machine, circa 1865–70.

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A woman cycler is featured on a patent-medicine ad for hair oil, 1869.

Literacy: The Library Is Looking for a Few Good Organizations

[image error]This is a guest post by Guy Lamolinara, communications officer in the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress.

Do you work in the field of literacy or know someone who does? Then you may want to consider applying for a Library of Congress Literacy Award.

Applications will be accepted from organizations that have made outstanding contributions to increasing literacy in the United States or abroad. You may apply on behalf of your own organization or for another organization. Three prizes will be given in 2018:

The David M. Rubenstein Prize ($150,000) is awarded for an outstanding and measurable contribution to increasing literacy levels to an organization based either inside or outside the United States that has demonstrated exceptional and sustained depth in its commitment to the advancement of literacy.

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Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden (left) and David M. Rubenstein present the 2017 American Prize to Sharon Darling of the National Center for Families Learning of Louisville, Kentucky. Photo by Shawn Miller.

The American Prize ($50,000) is awarded for a significant and measurable contribution to increasing literacy levels or the national awareness of the importance of literacy to an organization that is based in the United States.

The International Prize ($50,000) is awarded for a significant and measurable contribution to increasing literacy levels to an organization that is based outside the United States.

Other organizations will be honored for their “best practices” in various areas of literacy promotion.

The application rules and a downloadable application form can be accessed at read.gov/literacyawards.

Applications must be received no later than midnight on April 30, 2018, Eastern Time.

The application process is very simple, and taking the time to enter could reap large rewards.

The Literacy Awards are made possible through the generosity of David M. Rubenstein.

The Center for the Book at the Library of Congress administers the Literacy Awards program. The Librarian of Congress will make the final selection of the award winners with recommendations from literacy experts on an advisory board.

More information about last year’s winners and other literacy leaders is available in “Library of Congress Literacy Awards.”

New Online: Branch Rickey Scouting Reports

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Branch Rickey

Opening day for Major League Baseball took place last week, on March 29—the earliest opening date in MLB history, excepting for special international events. This year’s opening day also marked the first time in 50 years that a full slate of games was scheduled for the first day.

The Library of Congress is marking the beginning of the 2018 season by posting a series of scouting reports compiled by Branch Rickey (1881–1965), a former player, manager and baseball executive, best known as the man responsible for bringing Jackie Robinson into Major League Baseball in 1947, thereby breaking baseball’s long-established color barrier.

The Library’s Manuscript Division is custodian of a collection of Branch Rickey Papers, which offer a fascinating glimpse into the history of 20th-century baseball, viewed through the prism of this influential figure. Last spring, the Library released a handful of Rickey’s scouting reports on its website. Now the Manuscript Division has digitized all of the reports and made the entire set available online for the first time.

Jeffrey Flannery, head of the Reference and Reader Services Section of the Manuscript Division, helped develop content for the new online collection and assisted in processing the scouting reports. Here he answers a few questions about the reports and the Library’s Rickey holdings.

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Jeffrey Flannery (right) shows Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress, scouting reports from the Branch Rickey Papers. Photo by Shawn Miller.

Tell us a little about Branch Rickey.

Beginning his major league career as a player and a manager, later serving as an executive with the St. Louis Cardinals during the 1920s and 1930s, Rickey was instrumental in developing the minor league system as a conduit for players to reach the major leagues. And, while with the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1940s, Rickey and Robinson achieved the monumental feat of successfully integrating Major League Baseball while developing pennant winning teams. These accomplishments form a lasting legacy for a Hall-of-Fame career, but an especially intriguing part of Rickey’s career is a valuable trove of scouting reports he compiled during the 1950s and 1960s.

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Rickey’s 1963 report on John Callison.

What do the scouting reports consist of?

The reports span the dates 1951 to 1964, with most of the items concentrated between 1951 and 1956, when Rickey was an executive with the Pittsburgh Pirates, and 1962 to 1964, when he served as a consultant with the St. Louis Cardinals. Rickey often compiled multiple reports on the same player, identifying skills and tracking progress, or lack thereof. The reports often take on a caustic tone and can seem a bit heartless, but also bring to life many known and many more unknown players from this era.

What insights do the scouting reports convey about Rickey?

The reports not only display Rickey as a perceptive and shrewd judge of baseball ability, but provide insight into Rickey’s character as well. In writing the reports in the way he did, Rickey revealed as much about himself as about any player—how he valued education, morality and code of conduct as much as a player’s talent. As an executive, Rickey also had a keen appreciation for the bottom line, as is made clear in some of the reports.

What items, for you, are especially compelling?

It especially resonates for me to see evaluations of players from the early 1960s, when I followed baseball as a young fan. John Callison, Steve Carlton and Bill White were players I had the good fortune to meet and whose careers I followed as closely as possible. To see them evaluated was a special thrill.

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Rickey’s 1964 report on Steve Carlton

Besides scouting reports, what do the Rickey Papers consist of?

The Rickey Papers consist of 29,400 items organized into 84 containers. The collection is divided into different parts, or series, with sections for family papers, general correspondence, baseball files, subject files, speeches and writings and miscellany files. The correspondence series makes up almost a third of the collection and documents Rickey’s extensive personal and professional interests and his association with the many prominent individuals with whom he was engaged in business or social activities. A finding aid provides a description of the collection with a container list.

How can researchers best access the Rickey Papers that are not online?

The scouting reports—approximately 1,750 arranged in three containers—account for only about 6 percent of the 29,400 items in the collection, so you can see that there is much more to the collection than the scouting reports. The Rickey Papers are available in the Manuscript Reading Room and open to individuals above high-school age who obtain a Library issued reader card and have a specific research topic. More information about accessing the Manuscript Division’s collections can be found on our website.

 

It’s #SpringFling Time! Help Us Celebrate the Season

This is a guest post by Naomi Coquillon of the Interpretive Programs Office.

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In this print by artist Hiroshige Ando (1797–1858), sightseers view cherry blossoms along the Sumida River in Japan.

As spring slowly blossoms in Washington, we’re gearing up for our celebration of all things windy, flowery and new with our Spring Fling Pop-Up Exhibition. Open April 6, 7, 13 and 14, the pop-up invites visitors to experience the living history of the National Cherry Blossom Festival through rare drawings and photographs; learn about the weather, seasons, gardens and botany from books and maps; explore the imaginations of leading writers through literature and poetry; discover springtime cultural traditions from around the world; and feel the beat of the season with music and films that depict these spirited months.

For those who can’t join us in person, follow the hashtag #SpringFling to see updates from the exhibit and join the fun by:

Practicing Hanami (blossom viewing). Widely celebrated in Japanese literature, poetry and art, “sakura” (cherry blossoms) carry layered meanings. For example, because they bloom briefly, the blossoms are often seen as a metaphor for the ephemeral beauty of living. At the same time, the joyful practice of “hanami” is an old and ongoing tradition. If there are no cherry blossoms where you are, explore our online exhibition Sakura: Cherry Blossoms as Living Symbols of Friendship.


Dancing to the Beat of the Season. “Appalachian Spring,” the Library’s Pulitzer Prize-winning music and ballet commission, will be on view in the pop-up exhibit, but you can see a 2016 performance of this classic work performed by the Martha Graham Dance Company in the Library’s Coolidge Auditorium here as well.


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Setting the Haft Seen Table. Nowruz, an age-old tradition observed from western China to the Caucasus, Anatolia and beyond, is based on celebrating the rebirth of nature and honoring the arrival of spring as earth’s cycle of life begins anew. Starting in ancient Zoroastrian Persia, the tradition of celebrating Nowruz continues to this day to be the most important annual festival in many regions of Eurasia. Symbols of spring are decorated with rich color in the floral and animal motifs seen in the material culture of these regions. Today in Iran, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and Central Asia, symbolic foods such as Haft Maiwa (Seven Fruits) and display tables such as the Haft Seen table (seven symbolic items that begin with “S” in Persian) feature wheat sprouts, fragrant hyacinths or tulips, colored eggs and various other items that signify renewal, fertility, wealth and health for the year ahead. Staff from the Library’s Near East Section, part of the African and Middle Eastern Division, will curate a Haft Seen table at the exhibit with these symbolic items:

“Sabzeh” (سبزه): wheat, barley, mung bean or lentil sprouts growing in a dish, symbolizes rebirth.

“Samanu” (سمنو): sweet pudding made from wheat germ, symbolizes affluence

“Senjed” (سنجد): dried Persian olive, symbolizes love

“Seer” (سیر): garlic, symbolizes healing from diseases

“Seeb” (سیب): apple, symbolizes health and beauty

“Somāq” (سماق): sumac, symbolizes the color of sunrise

“Serkeh” (سرکه): vinegar, symbolizes age and patience

“Sekkeh” (سکه): coin, symbolizes wealth and prosperity

Telling a Springtime Story. We’ll invite visitors to the pop-up exhibit to take a close look at an item in our collections—including this work from Japanese woodblock artist Hokusai—and then to imagine, What happens next? Tell us what you think might be the next scene in the story by tweeting @librarycongress or using the #SpringFling hashtag.

Happy Spring!

World War I: The Women’s Land Army

This is a guest post by Ryan Reft, a historian in the Manuscript Division, in honor of Women’s History Month .

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1918 poster showing a woman tending a garden with a drawing of a soldier in the background.

“The man with the hoe is gone. Six hundred thousand of him left the fields of America last year,” observed the Los Angeles Times in April 1918. Hundreds of thousands more would follow as a mobilizing U.S. military called millions to serve. Wasted harvests and diminished agricultural production could be avoided, but it meant that others would have to farm the fields. “The woman with the tractor must take his place,” wrote the Times.

The Library of Congress exhibit Echoes of the Great War: American Experiences of World War I explores of the role of the Women’s Land Army, revealing a fascinating intersection of wartime exigencies, suffragist fervor and labor.

The idea of a U.S. women’s land army had circulated as early as 1915 due to labor shortages. U.S. entry into World War I and a series of lectures at Vassar College in 1917 by British feminist Helen Fraser brought the idea to greater prominence, points out historian Rose Hayden-Smith.

In the winter of the same year, with the nation’s food supply appearing to be at risk, food riots struck several cities.The most notable was in New York City, where “housewives reacted to an overnight jump in the price of vegetables by overturning vendors’ pushcarts and setting them ablaze,” writes historian Elaine Weiss.

Leading middle-class clubwomen in New York City founded the Women’s Land Army (WLA) in December 1917. Eventually, it established farming units in 33 states across the nation; its most successful ventures were in California, New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Illinois. Ultimately, somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000 women worked for the WLA from 1918 through 1919, harvesting the nation’s food supply.

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A woman farming in California.

Known as farmerettes, WLA women came from a variety of backgrounds: Members included included college-educated women, union activists, working-class immigrants, native-born middle-class clubwomen, Jews and Catholics. Evidence suggests that in Southern California, African-American women, too, might have been given the opportunity to participate, although that would have been the exception rather than the rule.

Women were at the forefront of war mobilization through the Red Cross, the YWCA and the Women’s Committee on the Council for National Defense, among other organizations and agencies. But few of these forums offered women real policymaking influence. “[T]he government viewed the Women’s Committee as device for occupying women in harmless activities while men got on with the business of war,” noted one critic and WLA leader.

In contrast, the WLA remained female organized and women led; fundraising consisted of tapping local and national clubwoman networks along with countless movie nights, bake sales and variety shows, all aimed at filling WLA coffers.

Many farmers initially resisted the idea of women working in the fields, but they soon embraced it once labor shortages became starkly apparent and farmerettes demonstrated their agricultural bonafides.

The media everywhere loved the WLA. George Creel, head of the Committee on Public Information, recognized the WLA’s public relations value and promoted it frequently. Even the conservative Los Angeles Times wholeheartedly endorsed it, describing farmerettes as “gallant” and “robust.”

Despite the diverse backgrounds of WLA members, the organization remained framed by a paternalistic Americanism. Articles in its newsletter “touted openly the significance of farming for Americanization—a process of enforcing white middle class values, beliefs, and lifestyles upon America’s immigrants, African Americans, and the poor,” notes historian Cecilia Gowdy-Wygant.

Moreover, WLA leaders like Barnard College president Ida Helen Ogilvie openly appealed to racial prejudices in promoting the labor of white women. “What the WLA emphasizes is that the women we send out are intelligent, not the class of cheap labor supplied heretofore where three Mexicans were required to do the work of one white man,” she told listeners in a statement as racist as it was inaccurate.

The WLA’s achievements, much like the wartime gains made by organized labor, proved ethereal. Undoubtedly, the efforts of farmerettes and millions of other women who dedicated themselves to mobilization influenced Woodrow Wilson’s support of 19th amendment. But the large numbers of women in the wartime workforce soon diminished as soldiers returned home. When the WLA was placed under the auspices of the U.S. Employment Service, which never fully approved of it, the WLA was starved to death.

Perhaps Elaine Weiss best captures the rise and fall of the WLA during a critical moment that, despite its brevity, laid the groundwork for World War II’s Rosie the Riveter: “The California farmerette strode into 1919 atop a vegetable festooned float in the Rose Bowl Parade in January. . . . By September, she was gone.”

World War I Centennial, 2017–18 . With the most comprehensive collection of multiformat World War I holdings in the nation, the Library is a unique resource for primary source materials, education plans, public programs and on-site visitor experiences about the Great War including exhibits, symposia and book talks.

National Recording Registry Reaches 500!

Harry Belafonte, Run-DMC, Yo-Yo Ma Recordings Among Newly Announced Inductees

[image error]Tony Bennett’s hit single “I Left My Heart in San Francisco”; the Latin beat of Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine’s 1987 “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You”; the timeless soundtrack of “The Sound of Music”; Run-DMC’s 1986 crossover hit album “Raising Hell”; and radio coverage of the birth of the U.N. have been honored for their cultural, historic and aesthetic importance to the American soundscape.

Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden today named these recordings and 20 other titles to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress as aural treasures worthy of preservation.

“This annual celebration of recorded sound reminds us of our varied and remarkable American experience,” Hayden said. “The unique trinity of historic, cultural and aesthetic significance reflected in the National Recording Registry each year is an opportunity for reflection on landmark moments, diverse cultures and shared memories—all reflected in our recorded soundscape.”

Under the terms of the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, the Librarian, with advice from the Library’s National Recording Preservation Board, is tasked with annually selecting 25 titles that are “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” and are at least 10 years old.

The recordings selected for the class of 2017 bring the total number of titles on the registry to 500, a small part of the Library’s vast recorded-sound collection of nearly 3 million items. Scroll down for a list of the new inductees, and listen to an audio montage here.

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More information about the National Recording Registry is available on the Library’s website.

2017 National Recording Registry (Chronological Order)

“Dream Melody Intermezzo: Naughty Marietta” (single), Victor Herbert and his Orchestra (1911)
Standing Rock Preservation Recordings, George Herzog and Members of the Yanktoni Tribe (1928)
“Lamento Borincano” (single), Canario y Su Grupo (1930)
“Sitting on Top of the World” (single), Mississippi Sheiks (1930)
The Complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas (album), Artur Schnabel (1932–35)
“If I Didn’t Care” (single), The Ink Spots (1939)
Proceedings of the United Nations Conference on International Organization (4/25–6/26, 1945)
“Folk Songs of the Hills” (album), Merle Travis (1946)
“How I Got Over” (single), Clara Ward and the Ward Singers (1950)
“(We’re Gonna) Rock Around the Clock” (single), Bill Haley and His Comets (1954)
“Calypso” (album), Harry Belafonte (1956)
“I Left My Heart in San Francisco” (single), Tony Bennett (1962)
“King Biscuit Time” (radio), Sonny Boy Williamson II and others (1965)
“My Girl” (single), The Temptations (1964)
“The Sound of Music” (soundtrack), Various (1965)
“Alice’s Restaurant Massacree” (single), Arlo Guthrie (1967)
“New Sounds in Electronic Music” (album), Steve Reich, Richard Maxfield, Pauline Oliveros (1967)
“An Evening with Groucho” (album), Groucho Marx (1972)
“Rumours,” (album), Fleetwood Mac (1977)
“The Gambler” (single), Kenny Rogers (1978)
“Le Freak” (single), Chic (1978)
“Footloose” (single), Kenny Loggins (1984), remake released in 2011
“Raising Hell” (album), Run-DMC (1986)
“Rhythm Is Gonna Get You” (single), Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine (1987)
“Yo-Yo Ma Premieres Concertos for Violoncello and Orchestra” (album), Various (1996)

Rare Book of the Month: A Revolutionary Woman and the Declaration of Independence

This is a guest post by digital library specialist Elizabeth Gettins.

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The Declaration of Independence, printed in Baltimore by Mary Katherine Goddard.

Mary Katherine Goddard (1738–1816) lived during remarkable times in early American history, and she did not sit idly by observing events. Instead, this brave and industrious woman actively took part in helping to found a new republic through use of her printing press. She may not be a household name, but one item she printed is: an early edition of the Declaration of Independence, the first with all the names of the signers on the document. March is Women’s History Month, and what more deserving woman to laud than Goddard?

She was born in Connecticut to Giles Goddard, a postmaster, printer and publisher. He passed his skills on to all his family members, including his wife, Sarah, and their two children, Mary Katherine and William. It is interesting that Goddard taught both his wife and his daughter the trade, as normally women were expected to keep home and raise children. He was a well-educated man, and it is likely that he was forward-thinking.

But women postmasters were not unheard of in the colonial era—there were no laws on the books preventing them from assuming the position. With a relatively low population, the colonies needed people with printing and publishing skills, whether they were practiced by men or women.

In an entrepreneurial spirit, William Goddard went to Philadelphia and then to Baltimore, where he founded printing businesses as well as newspapers. He eventually left Baltimore for other ventures, leaving all of his business in the hands of his sister.

By this time, Mary Katherine already had a decade of experience with printing and publishing. In 1775, she took over the Maryland Journal and proudly printed, “Published by M.K. Goddard” on the masthead of one of the very few publications coming out of Maryland. She ran the newspaper on her own for a full decade, from 1775 to 1785, and also printed a variety of broadsides, pamphlets and almanacs while serving as the postmaster. Energetic, industrious and adept, Goddard gained the broad respect of her fellow countrymen.

These accomplishments are enough on their own to identify Goddard as an admirable woman of substance, but what came off her printing press is truly amazing. She was nothing less than a revolutionary herself, as she dared to openly defy her government by printing the Declaration of Independence. Her name was clearly printed on a document designed to overthrow British rule.

Goddard took a stand, and it must have given her a sense of exhilaration as well as danger. What an amazing life she led, likely meeting up with a number of the nation’s founding fathers as she joined them in their efforts to overthrow tyranny. No one was certain of victory, and all involved took a chance on being charged with treason.

The first edition of the Declaration, referred to as the Dunlap Declaration of Independence  was printed in Philadelphia on the night of July 4, 1776, by the young Irish immigrant John Dunlap. In haste, it was quickly distributed the next day throughout the 13 states. The Rare Book and Special Collections Division holds this valuable edition in its Printed Ephemera Collection.

Upon receiving word from the Second Continental Congress to print and widely distribute the Declaration, Goddard set to work in 1777, printing her copy with the added typeset names of the signatories, including John Hancock. Hers was the first copy to bear all of the signers’ names. The Rare Book and Special Collections Division holds two copies of the Goddard Broadside, which are clearly marked at the bottom, Baltimore, Maryland: Printed by Mary Katherine Goddard.

The Goddard Broadside is part of the fully digitized Documents from the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, 1774–1789. In total, this collection contains 277 documents relating to the work of Congress and the drafting and ratification of the Constitution. A number of the documents contain handwritten annotations by the founders of our country, making them primary resources that are completely unique and offering valuable insights into the minds of the founders of our country.

We welcome and encourage all to use this collection of legacy documents. I am sure that Mary Katherine Goddard would be quite pleased to know that, to this day, her work is still being distributed and made available throughout this land and beyond.

Pic of the Week: Team of Linguists Translate Rare Mayan-Language Manuscript

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Photo by Shawn Miller.

On March 13 and 14, an international team of linguists visited the Library of Congress to transcribe and translate, for the first time, the “Guatemalan Priests Handbook,” a rare and important manuscript in the Library’s Jay I. Kislak Collection.

Dating from the early 16th century, the manuscript is written in several indigenous Mayan languages. The visiting linguists, experts in the earliest Christian theologies written in the Americas, were Saqijix Candelaria Lopez Ixcoy of Guatemala’s Universidad Rafael Landivar, an authority on the manuscript’s ancient k’iche language; Sergio Romero of the University of Texas, Austin; Frauke Sachse of the University of Bonn; and Garry Sparks of George Mason University.

“They are a truly amazing group whose handle on ancient Maya languages is perhaps unparalleled,” said John Hessler, curator of the Kislak Collection. “As someone who has struggled to understand some of these indigenous languages, I am in awe.”

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Frauke Sachse and Saqijix Candelaria Lopez Ixcoy study the manuscript. Photo by Shawn Miller.