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Archive: February 2023 (6 Posts)

Louis Armstrong, in a white shirt, blows into his trumpet during a concert. His eyes are closed.

“Just Jazz,” The Trailblazing Radio Show, Now at the Library

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

From 1961 to 1976, Ed Beach hosted “Just Jazz” on WRVR-FM in New York City. Beach played jazz — soloists, bands, traditional, modern — ranging from the early 1920s to the 1970s.  He featured artists who achieved great fame — Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington, Max Roach — along with musicians new to his audience. The show is now preserved online by the American Archive of Public Broadcasting, a joint project of the Library of Congress and the Boston public broadcaster GBH.

Image of an ornate clock showing 2:05 with sculpted male figures sitting on each side of the clock face

New Blog Look, Same Great Stories

Posted by: Neely Tucker

The Library's blogs have been redesigned, with everything from new headlines to new layouts to new ways that photographs are featured. It's been in the works for more than a year, and is meant to keep up with the blogs' popularity. Readership was up 18 percent last year, to some 5.5 million readers.

Jacqueline Katz, Library’s Einstein Scholar

Posted by: Wendi Maloney

Jacqueline Katz is the Library’s 2022–23 Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator. The fellowship program appoints accomplished K–12 teachers of science, technology, engineering and mathematics — the STEM fields — to collaborate with federal agencies and congressional offices in advancing STEM education. She has taught biology and chemistry at Princeton High School in Princeton, New Jersey, for the …

Burt Bacharach, in a suit and tie, holds a microphone while speaking on stage. A red screen in the background announces his acceptance as Gershwin Prize honoree.

Burt Bacharach, Gershwin Prize Winner: A Fond Farewell

Posted by: Neely Tucker

The Library’s Mark Hartsell, in the Communications Office, and Mark Horowitz, in the Music Division, contributed to this post. Burt Bacharach, the elegant songwriter and composer whose lifetime of work the Library honored with the 2012 Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, died yesterday in Los Angeles. He was 94. Bacharach’s iconic career stretched for more than …

NLS Shares Ukrainian Books to Aid War Refugees

Posted by: Neely Tucker

This is a guest post by Claire Rojstaczer, a writer-editor in the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled. It recently appeared in slightly different form in the Library’s Gazette. Since Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, a flood of Ukrainian refugees has washed over Europe. The National Library Service for the Blind …

Black History Month, Day 1: A Petition for Justice Nearly 20 Yards Long

Posted by: Neely Tucker

This is a guest post by Michelle Krowl, a historian in the Manuscript Division. It appears in the Jan.-Feb. issue of the Library of Congress Magazine. In the wake of emancipation during the Civil War, African Americans submitted petitions to government entities in greater numbers than ever before to advocate for equal treatment before the law. …