Library of Congress's Blog, page 95

African-American History Month: Making Freedom the Law of the Land

To celebrate

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Abraham Lincoln. Photograph by Matthew Brady, 1864.

The Emancipation Proclamation, President Abraham Lincoln understood, was a wartime measure that wouldn’t ensure the freedom of slaves once the Civil War ended and furthermore didn’t apply in slave states that remained in the Union. The only solution, he knew, was a constitutional amendment that permanently abolished slavery throughout the United States.

The Senate took an important step toward that end when it passed, by a 38-6 vote, a proposed amendment outlawing slavery on April 8, 1864.

Passage in the House proved more difficult. That June, the amendment fell 13 votes short of the two-thirds majority required for approval.

After winning re-election in November, Lincoln made passage in the House his top legislative priority. Following an intense lobbying campaign, the House finally passed the amendment, 119-56, on Jan. 31, 1865—cheered on by jubilant African-Americans watching from the gallery.

To celebrate the historic achievement, members of the House and Senate, Vice President Hannibal Hamlin and Lincoln signed several commemorative copies of the joint resolution.

The document shown in this post, held by the Library’s Manuscript Division, is one of them: “A resolution; Submitting to the Legislatures of the several States a proposition to amend the Constitution of the United States.”

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Resolution submitting the 13th Amendment to the states, signed by Abraham Lincoln and Congress.

The document states the text of this 13th Amendment to the Constitution:

“Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime; whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

“Section 2, Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”

This commemorative copy was signed by 38 members of the Senate and 119 in the House—including a future president, James A. Garfield (last column, 13 lines from the bottom). Though he was not required to do so, Lincoln also signed the joint resolution as “approved,” on Feb. 1, 1865, along with Hamlin and House Speaker Schuyler Colfax.

Lincoln didn’t live to see the amendment become law; he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theatre only two months later.

Nevertheless, within a year of its passage by Congress, the amendment was ratified by the required three-fourths of the states—finally making freedom for all the law of the land.

EverydayLOC: Cupid’s Arrow

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“Cupid Captive,” c. 1870

St. Valentine’s Day is upon us, a “holiday” many people love to hate. Even if you shun forced commemoration, there is nothing wrong with a little romance, whether you express it on February 14 or—better still—all year round.

Although little Cupid is technically the god of love in the romantic and erotic sense, I can think of a few times at the Library where I’ve swooned over unexpected discoveries in the collections here. Like this sweet little watercolor from the mid-19th century I found when searching for “roses”:

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Flower Arrangement with Red Rose, c. 1830–50

February is also African American History Month, and you will find lots of resources for research and inquiry. In February we also commemorate Presidents Day, and of course the Library of Congress has presidential resources in spades.

Following are just a few suggestions for falling in love with your Library this month.

Color our collections: Cultural institutions across the country celebrate “Color Our Collections” week every year in February. The Library has built a Pinterest board featuring coloring pages from our historic newspaper collections. Sharpen your colored pencils and settle in by a fire on a cold afternoon.

Listen to poetry: For the serious romantic, dive into this collection of readings from poets including Gwendolyn Brooks, Robert Frost and Mario Vargas Llosa. I particularly like the readings from the Recording Laboratory, like this one of Barbara Guest from June 6, 1960. You can explore the full list here.

Frame a historic photograph from Paris: Not many locations beat the Eiffel Tower as a backdrop for romance. The Library not only has countless historic images of the iconic structure online (here is one from 1889 during its debut at the Paris Exposition), but it also offers high-quality reproduction services.

Explore African American History Month resources: The Library of Congress works with other federal cultural institutions to present heritage month sites featuring items from across our collections. The African American History Month site includes . A selection of .

Visit an online exhibition on African-American history: The Library has curated many exhibitions over the years about the African-American experience, including The African American Odyssey: A Quest for Full Citizenship from 1998, The African-American Mosaic from 1994 and, more recently, The Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Long Struggle for Freedom from 2014–16.

Read one of Ulysses Grant’s letters to Julia Dent: There are a lot of them, as Grant was a frequent writer to his beloved wife. This one was selected by the collection’s curator as a featured item. It was written in February of 1854, while Grant was stationed in Humboldt Bay, California. Here, you get a glimpse not of a president, but of a husband and father, missing his family.

Zoom in on Lincoln’s reading copy of his second inaugural address: Also in honor of President’s Day, click here to see a fascinating piece of history—in full color scanned from the original document for the first time.

Countdown to baseball: Spring training has officially begun, and in a few short weeks it will be opening day. The Library is opening a major exhibition, “Baseball Americana,” on June 29 ahead of the 2018 All-Star Game in Washington. Mark your calendars and follow the Library’s social media accounts beginning opening day—March 29!

Free to Use and Reuse: Making Public Domain and Rights-Clear Content Easier to Find

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Famed jazz singer Billie Holiday with her pet boxer, Mister, in 1946. Photo by William P. Gottlieb. This digital image is just one example of the varied content on our website that is available for your free use.

One of our biggest challenges is letting you know about all of the content available at loc.gov. Another challenge we have is letting you know what you can do with it (in a nice way).

We are working on several fronts to improve the visibility of public domain and rights-clear content. We moved one step in that direction today with the launch of our Free to Use and Reuse page.

[image error]This page features themed sets of content (such as travel posters, presidential portraits, Civil War drawings) 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.

When we redesigned the Library’s home page in late 2016 we began featuring free-to-use sets at the bottom of the page. Each set displayed on the home page is now available from our new Free to Use and Reuse page, and we’ll continue to add to this archive. The set featured on the home page now is a selection of photos with dogs. Scroll down for a few teasers.

Please note that these sets are just a small sample of the Library’s digital collections available for your free use. Our digital collections comprise millions of items, including books, newspapers, manuscripts, prints and photos, maps, musical scores, films, sound recordings and more. Whenever possible, each collection has its own rights statement, which you should consult for guidance on use.

I hope that the new Free to Use archive will be a springboard for discovering Library collections that you can use in your blog posts, Pinterest boards, documentary films, your next podcast, a slide show, or to decorate your laundry room.

Do you have a theme in mind for a future Free to Use set? Please comment on this post and let us know!

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Frank Stanton and the “Prince of Princeton,” c. 1915–20

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Jean and Charlotte Potter with dog, c. 1910–15

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John Philip Sousa with Dogs, 1920s

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Mrs. Malcolm Strauss and her prize-winning French bulldog, c. 1912

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A man takes bandages from a dog’s kit during World War I, c. 1914–15

New Book: Illustrated History of the Library of Congress

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Jacket design by Alfonso Iacurci

A new book from Library of Congress historian John Y. Cole, “America’s Greatest Library: An Illustrated History of the Library of Congress,” tells the story of the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution and how it came to be the world’s largest library.

Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden calls the Library “a place where you can touch history and imagine your future,” and the story of its creation and evolution comes alive in this rich chronology. The book is the first authoritative history of the Library in nearly 20 years.

Published on Jan. 9 by D Giles Limited in association with the Library of Congress, “America’s Greatest Library” highlights the personalities and events that created and sustained the institution over its 217-year history, starting at a time when Washington had no other libraries or cultural institutions.

Packed with fascinating stories, compelling images and little-known nuggets of information, the narrative traces the growth of the collections with the development of the nation’s capital through a combination of concise milestones, brief essays and vivid photographs and illustrations.

The book features important acquisitions and episodes, including:

The November 1963 late-night search in the stacks—by flashlight—by Lincoln specialists working at the behest of first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, seeking guidance on appropriate funeral arrangements for an assassinated president
The Brady-Handy photographic collection, containing more than 3,000 negatives made by Civil War photographer Mathew B. Brady and his nephew Levin C. Handy
The earliest surviving copyrighted motion picture, Thomas Edison’s 1894 “Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze”
The 175,000 photographs from the Farm Security Administration archive, including Dorothea Lange’s iconic “Migrant Mother”
The 1944 world premiere of the ballet “Appalachian Spring,” choreographed by Martha Graham with music by Aaron Copland
The 303 glass-plate negatives documenting the earliest flights of Orville and Wilbur Wright
Rare sacred texts, including the Washington Haggadah, an illuminated Hebrew manuscript, and two 15th-century Bibles, the Giant Bible of Mainz and one of only three perfect vellum copies of the Gutenberg Bible
A variety of musical instruments and scores, including five stringed instruments made by Antonio Stradivari, the 1,600-item Dayton C. Miller flute collection, and the original score of Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess.”
The 1815 purchase of Thomas Jefferson’s personal library after the British burned the Capitol and Jefferson’s concept of a universal library that would form the foundation of the Library’s comprehensive collection

For more than 50 years, beginning in 1966 when Cole joined the Library’s staff as an administrative intern, librarian and historian, he has sought to increase public understanding of the key role of the Library of Congress in American government, scholarship and culture. He was the founding director of the Library’s Center for the Book from 1977 to 2016, when he was named to a new position as the Library’s first official historian.

“America’s Greatest Library,” a 256-page softcover book with 250 illustrations, is available for $19.95 in the Library of Congress Shop, 10 First St. S.E., Washington, D.C., 20540-4985. You can also order online. Hardcover and e-book versions are available through book retailers. The publication of “America’s Greatest Library” was made possible by a generous gift from Julie Chrystyn Opperman.

Ambassador for Young People’s Literature Inaugurated

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Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden bestows the ambassador medal on author Jacqueline Woodson on Jan. 9 as outgoing ambassador Gene Luen Yang looks on. Photo by Shawn Miller.

Young readers, author Jacqueline Woodson says, need books that serve as both a window and a mirror—a window that allows them to see into other worlds, a mirror that might let, say, an African-American girl or Asian boy see some part of their own identity on the page.

The books of such African-American children’s authors as Mildred Taylor and Virginia Hamilton helped the young Woodson understand her place in a bigger world—and her possibilities in life.

“Not only could I be on the page, but I could grow up and be a woman of color who wrote,” Woodson told an audience at the Library of Congress on Jan. 9. “It legitimizes us in this way, that we don’t realize our absence until we see that presence on the page.”

Woodson, a National Book Award winner and four-time Newbery Honor Medalist, hopes to use a new role to help young readers do the same.

Woodson was inaugurated as the sixth national ambassador for young people’s literature in a ceremony in the Library’s Members Room before family, friends, students, two of her predecessors in the position, authors Gene Luen Yang and Jon Scieszka, and a live-stream audience of hundreds.

“It’s an amazing honor to stand before you in the Library of Congress this morning,” Woodson told the audience. “It’s also an honor to be living in this time, to bear witness to our country’s beautiful and complicated history and its immense possibility. I do believe we’re living in a time of great, great possibility.”

The ambassador program was established in 2008 by the Library, the Children’s Book Council and Every Child a Reader to highlight the importance of young people’s literature to lifelong literacy, education and the betterment of young people’s lives. Woodson succeeds Scieszka, Katherine Paterson, the late Walter Dean Myers, Kate DiCamillo and Yang in the position.

The selection, made by the Librarian of Congress, is based on recommendations from an independent committee of educators, librarians, booksellers and children’s literature experts. Ambassadors are chosen for their contributions to young people’s literature, the ability to relate to kids and teens and dedication to fostering children’s literacy in all forms.

In conversation with Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, Woodson discussed her plans for the ambassadorship, her love of writing and the impact of children’s literature on her own life.

Woodson fell in love with writing early on. “I’ve known I wanted to write since I was 7,” she told Hayden. “I remember as a young person loving the physical act of writing, of holding a pencil and seeing that putting letters together made words, words made sentences, sentences made paragraphs and that writing was just that organic. All you needed was that pencil and that paper and imagination.”

That passion, she eventually realized, would be her life’s work. The idea of waking up every day, unhappy at work, was heartbreaking, said Woodson, who is fond of saying, “Brilliance is passion recognized.” So Woodson honed the thing that she felt was her brilliance: the ability to tell the stories she wanted to tell.

Today, she is the author of more than two dozen books for young adults, middle graders and children. She won the 2014 National Book Award for her bestselling memoir, “Brown Girl Dreaming,” which also received the Coretta Scott King Award, a Newbery Honor and the NAACP Image Award. In 2015, she was named the young people’s poet laureate by the Poetry Foundation. Her recent adult book, “Another Brooklyn,” was a National Book Award finalist.

Her other books include “The Other Side,” “Each Kindness,” Caldecott Honor book “Coming on Home Soon,” Newbery Honor winners “Feathers,” “Show Way” and “After Tupac” and “D Foster” and “Miracle’s Boys,” which received the Coretta Scott King Award.

Part of her work as an author and, now, as ambassador is to help young people find the same kind of passion. “Everyone has that thing that they’re really good at, that they really love doing,” Woodson said. “Our work as adults is to not kill that fire. Your work as young people is to not let that fire get murdered. Then, we get to see all that brilliance in the world in a way that transforms it and transforms us.”

As ambassador, Woodson will serve a two-year term, appearing at events around the country and encouraging young people to read. She has adopted “READING = HOPE x CHANGE (What’s Your Equation?)” as her platform, a program intended to encourage young people to think about the moment they live in, the power they possess and how reading can help show them ways they can create the change they want in the world.

“I believe that reading equals hope times change,” she said. “I believe that me plus you equals a conversation. I believe that hope minus fear equals change. I believe that listening plus hearing minus judgment equals friendship. These are just a few of my equations. In the next two years, I’m eager to gather and hear yours.”

A recording of the Jan. 9 program is available on the Library’s YouTube site.

African-American History Month: Happy Birthday, Frederick Douglass!

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frederick Douglass, and this month is . To celebrate, we are highlighting favorite items from the Library’s collections. This post is reprinted from “Building Black History,” the January–February issue of LCM, the Library of Congress Magazine, available in its entirety online.

 

[image error]This 1881 lithograph, “Heroes of the Colored Race,” depicts prominent African-American leaders of the second half of the 19th century. Flanking Douglass in the center are Blanche K. Bruce and Hiram Revels, the only two African-Americans to serve as U.S. senators in the 19th century. The trio is surrounded by other prominent figures, including Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant, and scenes of African-American life. Prints and Photographs Division

[image error]In 1847, Douglass founded the North Star newspaper, proclaiming as its motto “Right is of no sex—truth is of no color—God is the Father of us all, and all we are brethren.” Douglass’ ability as an editor and publisher, a contemporary African-American journalist said, did more for the “freedom and elevation of his race than all his platform appearances.” Serial and Government Publications Division

In 1848, Douglass befriended abolitionist John Brown, who later planned an ambitious scheme to free the slaves. Douglass declined to join Brown’s 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry, but federal marshals nevertheless issued an arrest warrant for Douglass as an accomplice. He eventually was exonerated. In 1860, , as a tribute to Brown, “a hero and martyr in the cause of liberty.” Manuscript Division

During the Civil War, Douglass recruited African-American troops for the Union. Among his recruits were sons Charles and Lewis, who enlisted in the 54th Massachusetts regiment. , Charles writes his father from Camp Meigs, relating a near-fight with an Irishman and rejoicing over “the news that Meade had whipped the rebels” at Gettysburg. Manuscript Division

[image error]In this handwritten draft of his memoirs, Douglass describes his escape from slavery. Douglass had been unable to include precise details about the method he used to escape from slavery in his earlier narratives, published before emancipation. He did so in this last version of his life story, “Life and Times of Frederick Douglass,” which was published in 1881. Manuscript Division

 

Inquiring Minds: Digital Artist Gives New Life to Historical Scenes and People

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Lewis Powell, also known as Lewis Payne, was one of the conspirators with John Wilkes Booth in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Digital artist Marina Amaral colorized this 1865 photo by Alexander Gardner. The original is in the holdings of the Library’s Prints and Photographs Division.

Marina Amaral was studying international relations at the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais, Brazil, when she first tried her hand at digitally colorizing a historical photograph. She had no formal background in art or photography, but since childhood she had enjoyed working with Photoshop in her free time. One day, while not feeling terribly optimistic about future career prospects, she encountered a collection of colorized World War II-era photographs on the web and decided to reproduce the technique.

Transfixed, she continued to practice and improve, eventually adopting digital photo restoration and colorization as her profession. In September, she will publish “The Colour of Time: A New History of the World, 1850–1960,” a book of 200 colorized historical photos accompanied by captions by best-selling historian Dan Jones.

Amaral discovered multiple photos that will appear in the book in the Library of Congress online collections. Here she answers a few questions about her work and her use of photographs from the Library.

How do you determine which photos to colorize?

My choices are based on two important factors, above all others. First, a photo needs to be in the public domain, and it also needs to be of medium or high quality. In a way, this greatly diminishes my options, but these are two essential factors for me. There are some amazing photos that I would love to colorize, but they are protected by copyright restrictions. Beyond that, I’ll evaluate how interesting a photo is based on its subject, composition and small details that catch my attention, like the face of a person smiling at the camera. All this contributes to my final choice.

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Amaral colorized this 1864 photograph from the Prints and Photographs Division by Timothy O’Sullivan. It shows a Union war council meeting in Massaponax Church, Virginia, including Gen. Ulysses Grant, Gen. George Meade, Assistant Secretary of War Charles A. Dana and others.

What is your goal in colorizing historical photos?

I strongly believe that colors have this immense power to makes us better understand that historical people and events were real. When colors are applied to the faces of people, to the buildings and streets of cities in photos taken decades ago, I believe that we can create a greater empathy and a deeper connection with what we are seeing. My goal is to offer this perspective, allowing people to see those particular scenes and people in color, as they were actually seen through the photographer’s eyes.

What kind of research do you do before beginning?

I research everything I can—military uniforms, medals, hair, skin colors. Since I’m not an expert, I count on the help of historians and people who have studied enough to be able to give me a direction to follow. They are definitely essential to my work, and I am very grateful that they are always willing to help me.

What tools and techniques do you use to achieve such life-like results?

There’s no big secret. I use basic Photoshop tools and a great deal of patience. But what helps me achieve realistic results is the fact that I’m never satisfied, and I’m always looking for something new to study and learn that might add to what I currently do. I study traditional painting techniques and principles of chemistry and physics, among other things. I’m always trying to improve.

Which photographs and collections at the Library of Congress have you used?

The Library of Congress is the best source of high-quality photos I know of. Sometimes I spend more time looking at the collections than colorizing the pictures! These collections are an extremely valuable resource for us—artists, photographers, teachers or lovers of history and photography.

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Marina Amaral

Which Library photos stand out for you?

The entire Civil War Collection is absolutely amazing. I always find incredible photos there. My favorite is an 1865 picture by Alexander Gardner of Lewis Powell, also known as Lewis Payne, a conspirator with John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. Another favorite is an 1864 photograph by Timothy O’Sullivan of a Union “war council” meeting in Massaponax Church, Virginia, including Gen. Ulysses Grant, Gen. George Meade, Assistant Secretary of War Charles A. Dana and others.

What has your experience been like working with the Library’s collections?

It has been amazing so far. The website is easy to use, and I always have a very enjoyable experience looking at the collections.

New Online: Senate Watergate Hearings

This is a guest post by Amanda Reichenbach, a 2017 summer intern with the  Junior Fellows Program in the Library’s Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. She is a history major at Yale University. During her internship, she worked with newly digitized material from the 1973 Senate Watergate hearings and the 1974 House impeachment hearings, made available online last fall by the American Archive of Public Broadcasting , a collaboration between the Library of Congress and the Boston public broadcaster WGBH.

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Amanda Reichenbach

The American Archive of Public Broadcasting recently published an online exhibit I curated last summer at the Library of Congress called “‘Gavel-to-Gavel’: The Watergate Scandal and Public Television.” For the project, I worked with over 250 hours of newly digitized material from the Senate Watergate hearings as well as coverage of the 1974 House impeachment hearings. My exhibit provides access to all the coverage, a highlights reel, an episode guide and an essay putting the coverage into historical perspective.

Longtime PBS NewsHour anchor Jim Lehrer called the Watergate hearings a “watershed event” for news and public affairs on public television when he spoke at an event at the Library in November celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. Before Watergate, he explained, many questioned whether the young public television network should have news content at all. The bold decision to broadcast the hearings secured a place for news on public TV and set the tone for its coverage: straightforward, balanced and with minimal bells and whistles. It also paved the way for the PBS NewsHour, bringing together for the first time as co-anchors Lehrer and Robert MacNeil. Two years later, they worked together again on a daily half-hour news program on public television that would eventually develop into the NewsHour. It all began with Watergate.

For my exhibit, my goal was to provide context for the hearings not only for public broadcasting, but also for America as a whole. To do so, I drew on a number of excellent cartoons from the Herblock Collection in the Prints and Photographs Division. Herbert L. Block, or Herblock, was one of the most influential political commentators and editorial cartoonists in American history. I chose three particularly insightful cartoons to include in my exhibit, and I’m sharing them now with permission.

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“I’ll Tell You Everything You Need to Know,” 1972. © The Herb Block Foundation. Published with permission.

“I’ll Tell You Everything You Need to Know” was published on July 2, 1972, after President Richard Nixon vetoed a bill to provide long-term funding for public television; the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, signed by President Lyndon Johnson, did not include a plan for long-term funding that would protect against government interference. Nixon cited concerns that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), steward of the federal government’s public broadcasting investment, was becoming “the center of power and the focal point of control for the entire public broadcasting system,” overshadowing the autonomy of the local stations. While Nixon made an argument that many public broadcasters had themselves made, this cartoon indicates the extent to which contemporary observers suspected that Nixon wanted to silence bad press from public television’s news programs.

“Violence on Television,” was published on April 19, 1973, after the White House-controlled CPB board purged its most popular public affairs shows, including “Bill Moyers Journal,” Elizabeth Drew’s “Thirty Minutes With,” “Washington Week in Review,” “World Press Review,” and even William F. Buckley’s “Firing Line.” In the following months, newspaper journalists began to take notice of the administration’s increasing hostility toward public television. Ron Powers of the Los Angeles Times wrote, “The Nixon Administration’s continuing efforts at lobotomizing this country’s broadcast media—to say nothing of the print media—constitute a horror story without end.”

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“Violence on Television,” 1973. © The Herb Block Foundation. Published with permission.

“Late Returns,” was published on May 18, 1973, the day after the Watergate hearings first aired on public television stations across America. It captures the extent to which Americans were glued to their televisions, watching the scandal unfold in prime time.

Given the administration’s hostility, and the novelty of rebroadcasting government proceedings in full during prime time, airing the hearings was something of a Hail Mary pass for public television. One imagines that Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer signed off that first night not knowing whether anyone had watched. As it turned out, they needn’t have worried. By the sixth broadcast, they had received over 70,000 letters from viewers, the vast majority of them favorable. Mrs. June Wilson of Atlanta wrote:

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“Late Returns,” 1973. © The Herb Block Foundation. Published with permission.

“Since the Watergate gavel-to-gavel rebroadcast began, I have not sewed on a button, taken up a hem, or put the yogurt on to make, since I work during the day I would be hard pressed to keep up with the testimony and the nuances which undeniably show themselves in such a hearing. Thus I arrive red-eyed and sleepy to work now and don’t care.”

Watergate has an important place in American history textbooks in its own right, but it was not until last summer that I discovered how important the hearings were to the history of public broadcasting.

To learn more about the topic, check out my exhibit on the American Archive for Public Broadcasting’s website!

New Acquisition: Art Buchwald Papers

This is a guest post by Barbara Bair, a historian in the Manuscript Division.

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Art Buchwald with Katharine Graham of the Washington Post in 1962. Art Buchwald Papers.

In our era, when late-night satiric commentary on the day’s events from the likes of Trevor Noah, Samantha Bee or John Oliver constitutes a cutting-edge source of news for many Americans, or spoofs by the cast of “Saturday Night Live” influence elections and affect the reputations of presidents and their appointees, it is good to remember that political commentary in the United States has, for a long time, held sway in the form of a laugh.

Recent acquisition of the Art Buchwald Papers by the Library of Congress celebrates Buchwald (1925–2007), a master of the genre, whose columns in the Washington Post, syndicated in hometown newspapers across the nation, were first-stop reading for a generation of Americans.

Buchwald was a satirist, poet, columnist, writer, speech giver and friend to many, great and small. He takes his place in an echelon of funny men—from Mark Twain to Robin Williams—who also knew intimately the dark side of life. Buchwald entertained in part to be loved. And because he loved, he entertained. His biting sarcasm and comic send-ups were directed at presidents and members of Congress. He addressed many of the leading stories of his day, from impeachment crisis, to environmental concerns, gun control, drug addiction, depression, nuclear policies and civil rights.

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The “Blues Brothers”: From left, Mike Wallace, Buchwald and William Styron on Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. All three had experience with clinical depression. Art Buchwald Papers.

Born in the United States to immigrant Jewish parents, Buchwald showed wit and intelligence, as well as angst, even while a little boy passing through the foster care system. He went on to the Marine Corps, spent time in college and then forged a career for himself as a journalist, first for the Herald Tribune in Paris, and then based in Washington, D.C., with the Post. In 1982, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Outstanding Commentary. His papers will soon grace Library of Congress shelves beside other Pulitzer winners and friends from the world of print journalism—including Katharine Graham, Meg Greenfield, Mary McGrory, Herbert Block and Jules Feiffer—as well as masters of broadcast comedy like Groucho Marx and Bob Hope.

Buchwald’s father, who spoke Yiddish, learned English from reading newspapers. During Buchwald’s youth, the star of radio, film and press was the Cherokee-American Will Rogers, famous for quipping, “All I know is just what I read in the papers,” and “It’s easy being a humorist when you’ve got the whole government working for you.” Buchwald took up the comic mantle in this same politically focused journalistic tradition. He used public appearances, the periodical press and several books as his forum. Like Rogers, Jerry Lewis and others, he utilized his comic celebrity to bring notice to charitable causes and champion tolerance for the handicapped and the rights of the dying, the vulnerable and the disabled.

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Friends in high places: A January 20, 1975, letter from First Lady Betty Ford to Buchwald. Art Buchwald Papers.

What would Buchwald make of our world of Twitter? It was Buchwald who observed, “The world itself is a satire. All you’re doing is recording it,” and “Just when you think there’s nothing to write about, Nixon says ‘I am not a crook.’ Jimmy Carter says, ‘I have lusted after women in my heart.’ President Reagan says, ‘I have just taken a urinalysis test, and I am not on dope.’”

Buchwald knew a Who’s Who among the nation’s journalists, writers, publishers, broadcasters and entertainers. Carly Simon wrote a song for him when he was dying. Ethel Kennedy gave him a signed copy of the recording of Andy Williams singing at Robert F. Kennedy’s funeral mass. William Styron and Mike Wallace joked with him about being the “Blues Brothers,” all three having experienced clinical depression. And Carol Burnett for a time planned to be buried with Buchwald and other friends on Martha’s Vineyard. First ladies wrote to thank him for making them laugh, or to invite him over to the White House for cocktails. His friend Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) sent him a hand-edited copy of “Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now,” with the main character’s name changed to Richard M. Nixon: “Richard M. Nixon will you please go now! . . . I don’t care how./ You can go by foot. / You can go by cow.”

The beloved columnist died in 2007. Edward Kennedy observed that “the special art of Art Buchwald was to make even the worst of times better.” Buchwald himself famously reminded us, “Whether it is the best of times or the worst of times, it is the only time we’ve got.” The Library of Congress heralds Buchwald making the best of times, through this acquisition of his papers.

“Drawn to Purpose” Exhibition: What Viewers Are Saying

The following is a guest post by Martha H. Kennedy, curator of popular and applied graphic arts in the Prints and Photographs Division. The post was first published on the division’s blog, “Picture This.” It is about “Drawn to Purpose: American Women Illustrators and Cartoonists,” an exhibition on display at the Library of Congress for much of 2018. For those not planning a visit to Washington, D.C., this year, many of the display items are featured in an online version of the exhibit. A companion book will be published in March 2018.

The recently opened exhibition “Drawn to Purpose” features more than 30 works by North American women illustrators and cartoonists. It spans the late 1800s to the present and includes Golden Age illustration, early comics, magazine cover art and political cartoons. As exhibit curator, I was curious to learn: What kinds of images catch viewers’ eyes? What thoughts or conversations do the artworks spark? With no claim to scientific sampling, I share responses to the show that I’ve gathered from notes in the visitors’ comment book and observations I made on site.

Several written comments express thanks for mounting the exhibition, praising it as “fantastic,” “lovely,” “amazing,” “timely,” “timeless.” Two visitors conveyed specific thanks for “spotlighting the women” and “promoting the art of powerful women!” Another wrote: “Wonderful Illustrations, Delightful, Insightful, Cunning, Entertaining.” A very encouraging response came from a local, award-winning cartoonist, Barbara Dale, who framed her smiling self-caricature, with positive exclamations.

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Self-caricature. Barbara Dale, 2017, published with permission. Photo by Jan Grenci.

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Little Lulu. At the Barbershop. Marge Henderson Buell, 1942.

For those who might expect that the show appeals only to female visitors, consider the following: “Male artist who had no idea this exhibit was even here and am loving it.” He also expressed appreciation for the video loop showing additional artworks that couldn’t be displayed.

I found another observation—“Delightful to see (& hear) so many women’s voices!! Great work!”—gratifying because the exhibition aims to highlight the impressive variety of work by female illustrators and cartoonists in addition to celebrating their contributions to these art forms.

My firsthand observations of viewers’ responses thus far have come from giving tours, doing press walk-throughs and other visits to the exhibit. I noticed some visitors focused on examples by well-known creators, others appeared to look for childhood favorites and others sought political cartoons. Several people laughed out loud on viewing Signe Wilkinson’s cartoon for Ms. Magazine, Ann Telnaes’s holiday party scene, and Marge Henderson Buell’s Little Lulu comic.

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“For the New Year I’ve decided to give up smoking, drinking, and my civil rights.” Ann Telnaes, 2001.

A few younger visitors pleasantly surprised me by looking closely at such historical works as Alice Barber Stephens’s illustration of aspiring female artists, Jessie Gillespie’s spoof on fashion and Anne Mergen’s and Roberta MacDonald’s World War II era cartoons. These artists should be better known.

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Selma Threw Herself at Full Length on the Ground. Alice Barber Stephens, 1895.

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Panta-loons. Jessie Gillespie, 1914.

The exhibition design puts visual emphasis on the art in several ways. In place of labels for each artwork, section panels give historical context, highlight connections among pieces in each group and concisely identify each work. For those seeking more information, individual labels on printed sheets are available in the gallery. When asked, members of tour groups and two donors remarked that the visual organization of the exhibit works very well.

The first rotation of “Drawn to Purpose” runs through May 5, 2018. A second will begin on May 12 and run through October 20.

Please have a look at the exhibit, in person or online, and find a new favorite illustrator and cartoonist!

Learn More

See related online exhibits featuring images from the Golden Age of Illustration, additional cartoons by Ann Telnaes, illustrations by Elizabeth Shippen Green, and works by Jessie Willcox Smith.
View our Cartoon Drawings Collection.