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New Acquisition: Leo Matiz, History and Fiction through Photography

The following is a guest post by Catalina Gomez, a reference librarian in the Hispanic Division, and Adam Silvia, an assistant curator of photography in the Prints and Photographs Division.

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President Rómulo Betancourt of Venezuela and First Lady Carmen Valverde de Betancourt (left) greet President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy at the airport in Caracas, 1961. Photo by Leo Matiz. Published with permission.

This past year, photography enthusiasts celebrated the 100-year anniversary of the birth of Leo Matiz (1917–98), one of the best photographers in Latin America in the 20th century. We are thus pleased to announce the recent acquisition of 10 of his photographs, available for research in the Prints and Photographs Division.

Leonet Matiz Espinoza was born on April 1, 1917, in Aracataca, Colombia. In his 81 years, he worked as a photographer, caricaturist, newspaper publisher, painter and gallery owner, living not only in Colombia but also in Mexico, Venezuela and the United States. Employed by esteemed publications, including Life and Reader’s Digest, Matiz photographed everything from urban architecture to rural folklife. He also photographed important political and cultural leaders, including Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Luis Buñuel. Led by an innate curiosity, an exquisite eye and diverse interests, he captured the highs and the lows of the 20th century in unique and fascinating ways.

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“Zona bananera,” 1939. Photo by Leo Matiz. Published with permission.

In April 2017, the Library acquired four photographs by Matiz showing his native Colombia. The images picture the Magdalena region, including his hometown of Aracataca, which was also the birthplace of Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel García Márquez. Aracataca inspired Macondo, the town in the García Márquez’s beloved novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude.”

While viewing the photographs by Matiz, we were struck by how they call to mind Macondo, bringing García Márquez’s story to life. Among these were Matiz’s famous “La red/pavo real del mar,” which shows a fisherman casting his net; the “Zona bananera,” picturing a man beside his bananas; and “Palafitos,” which shows a girl crossing a bridge in a nearby town along the Caribbean coast. Each is magical and haunting.

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“Vendedor de periódico” shows a newspaper and magazine stand on a sidewalk in Bogotá, 1962. Photo by Leo Matiz. Published with permission.

We acquired these three photographs along with “Vendedor de peridóco,” which pictures a newsstand in central Bogotá, Colombia’s capital city. Less well known than other images by Matiz, this last one was the most surprising. You can almost feel the city’s heartbeat and imagine the smells, the noise and the weather by looking at the image. Initially, we believed Matiz took the photograph in the late 1950s. But then we spotted a copy of Time magazine peeking out of the newsstand. So sharp is the photograph that we could identify the Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko on the cover of the magazine, which suggests the photo was taken some time in 1962.

In awe, the Library acquired an additional six photographs by Matiz in August. This new acquisition pictures Venezuela, where Matiz arrived in 1949. Recruited by Dr. Plinio Mendoza Neira to work as a journalist alongside Gabriel García Márquez in Caracas, Matiz photographed the insurrection that ousted Venezuelan strongman Marcos Pérez Jiménez on January 23, 1958. Upset by President Dwight Eisenhower’s decision to give Jiménez asylum in the United States, many Venezuelans protested Vice President Richard Nixon’s visit later that year. Camera in hand, Matiz photographed youths holding a banner that read, “Nixon go home.”

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Venezuelans protest the visit of U.S. vice president Richard Nixon in Caracas, 1958. Photo by Leo Matiz. Published with permission.

Matiz also documented Venezuela’s transition to democracy under President Rómulo Betancourt and photographed the dizzying growth of Caracas—partly thanks to rising oil revenue and Venezuela’s participation in the new Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. His photos were commonly published in promotional books.

While serving Betancourt, Matiz photographed President John F. Kennedy’s trip to Venezuela on December 16, 1961. Following the visit in January 1959 of communist Fidel Castro, Kennedy wished to cement Venezuela’s place in the Alliance for Progress, his initiative to promote democracy and market economies in the western hemisphere.

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First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy visiting the Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas, 1961. Photo by Leo Matiz. Published with permission.

Camera at the ready, Matiz shot Betancourt and Kennedy shaking hands at La Carlota airport. He then photographed American first lady Jacqueline Kennedy surrounded by Venezuela’s women dignitaries. Perhaps amused by the stark contrast in how President Kennedy was received compared with Vice President Nixon, Matiz photographed a sign at the airport that declared, “We love you Kennedy!”

In 1949, Leo Matiz was named one of the 10 best photographers in the world. He passed away on October 24, 1998, in Bogotá.

Rare Book of the Month: Valentines of Days Gone By

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

Thomas W. Strong was a New York City publisher of popular lithographs and the self-proclaimed “oldest manufacturer of valentines in America.” It seems only fitting that he manufactured countless valentines as St. Valentinus, for whom the holiday is named, since “valens” means “strong” in Latin. This month, I’m featuring a broadside (a large sheet of paper used primarily for announcements or advertisements) and two additional supporting ephemeral items that are both likely from Strong’s printing press. All three of these items reside in the Rare Book and Special Collection Division’s Printed Ephemera Collection.

[image error][image error]The 1869 broadside shown at left is a quaint and informative representation of what the printer might offer and, in turn, how Valentine’s Day might have been observed and expressed in the mid to late 19th century in the United States. This particular advertisement appears to be intended for wholesalers as the broadside addresses “the trade” and encourages dealers to “send in their orders at once to secure an early supply” with valentines available in bulk lots ranging in price from $10 to $20 with “fresh stock made up for the season.”

A wide array of valentines were offered ranging from comic to sentimental, juvenile or adult and plain or fancy. Decorated valentines were available adorned with lace, gilt or embossing. Fancy boxes were also an option.

One such specimen of a Strong valentine appears in the online Printed Ephemera Collection with the date of 1840.

This valentine, shown above right, features a young couple seated under a tree, while the young male suitor professes his genteel and heartfelt sentiments:

Sweetly by thy side reclining— All of joy and peace are mine, Hand in hand—so gently twining Thou art mine and I am thine.

Where the bending branches shading, From the rays of summer heat—This true heart with love unfading Vows of love—shall oft repeat.

The lucky recipient of this Valentine’s Day card would be assured of her suitor’s steadfast dedication and love.

Although the next item is not identified as a Strong valentine, it bears a remarkable similarity to the item above and shares the same printing date. This particular valentine expresses a more passionate sentiment, somewhat reminiscent of the ardor in the Song of Solomon:

[image error] The honey dew is on thy lip, Fain would I thee entwine, And draughts of love in gladness sip—My heart’s own Valentine.

Ah, no, by all that’s good and fair, Your love shall be my chiefest care, And heav’n and earth shall witness be, That mortal never lov’d like me.

We can only hope that the sentiments expressed were well received by the recipient!

The valentines and advertising broadsides found in our online Printed Ephemera Collection date from the 17th century through the present day. The term “ephemera” includes all printed items meant for short-term use: posters, playbills, song sheets, notices, invitations, proclamations, petitions, manifestos, ballots, tickets, menus, business cards and so on.

The collection items serve as a time capsule, offering a valuable window on times and events gone by. They offer insights relating to the key events of American history, including the Revolutionary War, slavery, the western land rush, the Civil War, women’s suffrage and the Industrial Revolution, as well as the day-to-day existence of those that lived before us.

We are fortunate to have such a large and wonderful ephemera collection thanks to Peter Force, an avid collector of American artifacts and monographs. The Library of Congress acquired his collection in 1867, and it has served as the basis of the Printed Ephemera Collection. The collection boasts more than 28,000 items, 10,172 of which are digitized and available online. Future releases will continue to make more items available.

Although the way life is lived has changed in many ways through the years, a look at love in the 19th century proves that some things remain the same with each generation believing, in the words expressed on the valentine above:

And heav’n and earth shall witness be, That mortal never lov’d like me.

African-American History Month: Curating Black History

In this post, historians from the Library and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture highlight how collection items shed light on the black experience. The post is reprinted from the January–February issue of LCM, the Library of Congress Magazine. The entire issue is available online.

Adrienne Cannon is the Afro-American history and culture specialist for the Library’s Manuscript Division. Paul Gardullo is a curator at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and director of the museum’s new Center for the Study of Global Slavery. Here they discuss the importance of select items they curate.

Please tell us about an artifact you secured, or a manuscript collection you interpret.

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Adrienne Cannon and then-president Benjamin Jealous of the NAACP examine items from the Library’s NAACP records collection. Photo by Abby Brack Lewis.

Cannon: The Library’s African-American collections span the colonial period to the present and are particularly strong for the study of the 20th-century civil rights movement. The NAACP records are the cornerstone of the Library’s civil rights collections—they are the largest single collection ever acquired by the Library.

The Library has served as the official repository for the records since 1964; they now consist of approximately 5 million items. The Library’s civil rights collections also include the original records of the National Urban League, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. These records are enhanced by the personal papers of such prominent activists as Thurgood Marshall, Roy Wilkins, Arthur Spingarn, Robert L. Carter, Mary Church Terrell, A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, James Forman, Joseph Rauh, Edward W. Brooke, Patricia Roberts Harris, Rosa Parks and Jackie Robinson.

Gardullo: Between 2010 and 2015, I led the effort to collect two key structures from the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola: a guard tower built some time in the 1930s or 1940s and a jail cell. Through these objects, we ask visitors to grapple with the power and depth of a particular place and its connection to the legacy of slavery in America.

The largest and perhaps most notorious American plantation prison, Angola was born in slavery—it sits on the site of a former slave plantation. It became a state penitentiary in the late 19th century and remains a working plantation to this day. More than 6,000 people, the great majority African-Americans serving life sentences, are incarcerated there.

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Paul Gardullo with a guard tower from the Louisiana penitentiary, now in the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Photo by Shawn Miller.

What are the challenges of acquiring such materials?

Cannon: Growing interest in African-American history and culture is making acquiring collections like the NAACP records more competitive. The Library acquired the NAACP records with the help of Morris L. Ernst, a friend of Arthur Spingarn, the NAACP’s longtime counsel and president. Since the establishment of the U.S. Copyright Office in the Library in 1870, a large percentage of materials have been collected as copyright deposits, while others—like the NAACP Records—have been acquired as gifts or through purchase and transfer.

Gardullo: The museum began without a collection, so we had to bring in artifacts from across the country and around the world. What started out as a weakness, we transformed into our greatest strength, as it allowed us to reach out and forge deep connections with individuals, families and communities. We are truly a people’s museum; when you walk through the museum, you can sense people’s feeling of ownership—of the materials on display, but also of the history.

To have that sense of ownership is an amazing thing when you are talking about the portrayal of African-American history and culture on the National Mall, a history that has been suppressed or disregarded far too long and far too often by our national institutions. We see our job as filling the silences in American history.

Why is it important to preserve these materials?

Cannon: Collections like the NAACP records document the long, ongoing struggle for civil rights. They inform our understanding of the present and can inspire us to create a better future.

Gardullo: In a country with the world’s highest incarceration rate, where African-Americans are imprisoned at six times the rate of white Americans, the persistence of Angola as a place that both changes and yet stays the same is a powerful testament to the continuum between slavery and incarceration. Its presence in the museum does not provide answers, but provokes questions about slavery and its legacies; about crime and punishment; about compassion, empathy and redemption; and about the power of race in America.

How have visitors or researchers responded to the materials?

Cannon: Annually, the NAACP Records are the most heavily used collection in the Library. They chronicle the NAACP’s fight to break down the barrier of the color line, which encompassed every aspect of American society and extended beyond America’s shores, particularly to Africa and the Caribbean.

They cover politics, the justice system, business, employment, education, family, housing, health care, transportation, the armed forces, sports, recreation, religion and the arts. They also contain information about major figures, events and organizations. The comprehensive scope of the collection accounts for its popularity. Materials in the Library’s recent exhibition commemorating the Civil Rights Act of 1964 were drawn primarily from the NAACP Records. Nearly 780,000 visitors toured the physical exhibition, and the online version continues to attract thousands more.

Gardullo: By documenting and humanizing the incarcerated, we ultimately hope to depict Angola as a complex and important world for us to pay attention to. Some visitors may be surprised to learn about it, but most become absorbed by the depth and truthfulness of the fuller story. People want to feel connected to others and to history, and they appreciate a space where they can reflect, explore, learn and talk about incarceration, race and humanity.

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.