“That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive …
(The following is an article from the September-October 2012 issue of the Library’s new magazine, LCM, highlighting 100 years of Copyright law.) By Wendi A. Maloney A hundred years ago, a new category of work became subject to copyright protection: motion pictures. The Townsend Amendment to the U.S. copyright law took effect Aug. 24, 1912, …
For some Union soldiers, their exposure to southern slavery profoundly altered their views on the institution, even before President Lincoln issued his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation in September 1862. One such soldier, John P. Jones, wrote to his wife of his increasing sympathy for abolitionism after seeing the inhumanity with which slaves could be treated. He …
Fatalities during the Civil War were not limited to the battlefield, as both first families discovered. Both the Lincolns and the Davises lost young sons within a couple of years from each other. The Davises lost 5-year-old Joseph in 1864 when he fell to his death from their porch in Richmond, Va. According to one …
“Better, sir, far better, that the blood of every man, woman, and child within the limits of the state should flow, than that she should defy the federal government,” swore Union Gen. Nathaniel Lyon to Missouri governor and Confederate sympathizer Claiborne Fox Jackson during negotiations to prevent the state from joining the Confederacy. His next …
The 2012 Library of Congress National Book Festival closed up shop Sunday evening – leaving more than 200,000 delighted book-lovers thrilled to have heard from and met their favorite authors, stoked up with new titles to read, and exhilarated by two days of gorgeous fall weather there on the National Mall. One couple even got …
Author Bob Woodward will join the lineup for the Library of Congress National Book Festival, speaking at 2:45 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 23 in the History & Biography Pavilion about his new book “The Price of Politics.” More about the two-day, free-and-open-to-the-public National Book Festival at www.loc.gov/bookfest. .
The Library of Congress, with collections that are universal and comprise all media, has a long history of acknowledging the importance of books. Its “Books That Shaped America” exhibition is currently on view through Sept. 29 in the Southwest Gallery of the Thomas Jefferson Building. The exhibition is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. …
(This is the first in a series of posts featuring presidential campaign items from the Library’s collections.) In Washington, there’s always a time and place to talk politics, even more so in an election year. Today we get televised speeches and conventions, commercials, celebrity endorsements and citizens proudly showcasing their candidate choice through stickers, buttons, …
If someone set a bowl of cheese curls in front of you and declared it “breakfast,” would you be able to discern it from cereal? Even if you’re the type who likes cold pizza at 7 a.m., odds are you would not be too quick to pour on the milk and dive in with a …