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Posted by: Neely Tucker
Mila Hill, a a junior fellow in the Office of Communications this summer, made a startling discovery when she was looking at the Blackwell Family Tree in the new Treasures Gallery -- she was part of the family.
Posted in: African American History, Exhibitions, Genealogy, Junior Fellows Program, Library Work and Employees
Posted by: Neely Tucker
To tell the history of Los Angeles, artist Barbara Carrasco wove vignette scenes through the flowing tresses of “la Reina de los Ángeles,” based on a portrait of her sister. The 80-foot mural stretches from prehistory (the La Brea Tar Pits) to the imagined future (Los Angeles International Airport’s Space Age Theme Building) with subjects ranging from the inspiring to grievous. Carrasco's original graphite design, depicting L.A. history flowing through long tresses of hair, now has a home in the Library.
Posted in: African American History, Hispanic American History, Hispanic and Latino, LCM
Posted by: Wendi Maloney
Alan Haley, a preservation specialist in the Conservation Division, has worked on everything from an ancient Chinese scroll to the transcript of the Amistad trial in the Library's collections, but has also traveled the globe assisting other libraries with important items or artifacts that are threatened.
Posted in: African American History, Arab/Arab American, Asian Division, Hispanic and Latino, LCM, Library Work and Employees, My Job, Preservation and Conservation, Technology
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Spike Lee's 2000 film "Bamboozled," a hard-edged satire of blackface in cinema and television, was part of the 2023 class of National Film Registry and his fifth film to join the list. In an interview with the Library, he explains how the film is an answer to D.W. Griffith's notorious "The Birth of a Nation" in 1915, which set into play more than a century of racist tropes in films.
Posted in: African American History, Film, National Film Preservation Board, National Film Registry, Performing Arts
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Two Black seamstresses have left their mark on White House fashion history, as Elizabeth Keckley and Ann Lowe designed dresses for two of the nation’s most famous first ladies, Mary Todd Lincoln and Jacqueline Kennedy, respectively. Both designers developed their craft despite the brutal influences of slavery and Jim Crow segregation. This piece tells their stories.
Posted in: Abraham Lincoln, African American History, Civil War, LCM, Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction, U.S. Presidents, Women's History, Writers
Posted by: Neely Tucker
When the Library opens its new Treasures Gallery next year, displaying some of the most striking papers and artifacts that span some 4,000 years, one of them will certainly stand out: The Blackwell's Kinfolk Family Tree. It's a dizzying, almost overwhelming piece of folk art that depicts the genealogical history of an African American family from Virginia. It's 8 feet tall and 6 feet wide, contains more than 1,500 names spread out on curving trunks, branches and leaves and details family connections from 1789 to the 1970s. Its most famous member? Arthur Ashe Jr., the tennis great.
Posted in: African American History, Genealogy, LCM
Posted by: Neely Tucker
Some of the most important works by Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Frederick Douglass, Willa Cather, Zora Neale Hurston and Cesar Chavez will be the focus of a new television series being produced by C-SPAN and the Library. The 10-part series — “Books That Shaped America” — starts on Sept. 18 and will examine 10 books …
Posted in: African American History, Alexander Hamilton, Civil Rights, Civil War, Exhibitions, Hispanic and Latino, Library Work and Employees, Thomas Jefferson
Posted by: Neely Tucker
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was 60 years ago today -- August 28, 1963. We look back at that historic day, both at how it developed and its aftermath, in an era when terrorism, violence and assassinations targeted civil rights volunteers, workers and organizers.
Posted in: Abraham Lincoln, African American History, Civil Rights, U.S. Presidents, Washington DC
Posted by: Mark Hartsell
"A Library for You" is the Library's multi-year initiative to connect readers and patrons to our collections in new ways. These new galleries, exhibits and showcases will present some of the Library's most stunning items, whether they are recent or thousands of years old. These include Lincoln's handwritten first draft of the Gettysburg Address, fragments of the ancient Greek epic the "Iliad," cuneiform tablets that are among the oldest examples of writing, pre-Columbian artifacts, Rosa Parks' papers and watercolors by Diego Rivera. They'll begin to open in 2024.
Posted in: Abraham Lincoln, African American History, Civil War, Collections, Exhibitions, Hispanic and Latino, Jay I. Kislak Collection, LCM, Library Work and Employees, New Visitors Experience, Thomas Jefferson Building