MetaFilter posts tagged with libraryofcongress

World War I Posters

cashman — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:48:45 -0800

From the Prints & Photographs Division Library of Congress - browse through more than 1900 World War I posters. You can also search or look by subject heading. [via] Jpegs & Tiffs available for each image in the collection. Join the Air Service. Learn - Earn. Enlist (or we'll show you more creepy pictures). Victory Girls. Food will win the war. Men Wanted - Over 31 years of age. Our boys need sox - knit your bit. 20 at home to 1 in the trenches. In time of war, prepare for peace. The Tidal Wave - 95 ships launched July 4th, 1918. Before sunset to-day, buy a liberty bond.

When we've been there ten thousand years.

nebulawindphone — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 06:32:20 -0800

~~Hymn 41~~ ~~Harmony Grove~~ ~~New Britain~~ ~~Claremont~~ ~~Arlington~~ Amazing Grace. The timeline links to a nice variety of recordings, traditional (1939: Mary Shipp; 1941: Shiloh Baptist Church) and otherwise (1975: The Amazing Rhythm Aces; 1992: The Lemonheads). Found these looking for recordings by Rosetta Tharpe, and figured they deserved their own post. But for those just tuning in, this barely scratches the surface of the audio available on the LoC website — see this incredible old y2karl post for a whole lot more.

World Digital Library

djgh — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 11:34:13 -0800

The World Digital Library is set to open on the 21st of April, but appears to be operating as of now. Coral Cache

Postcards from Israel (or stamps, anyway).

sarabeth — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:19:58 -0800

Postcards from Israel (or stamps, anyway). COLOURlovers (previously) has posted a set of color palettes drawn from designer and blogger Karen Horton's flickr collection of vintage Israeli postage stamps. This isn't the first time COLOURlovers has featured color inspiration drawn from vintage sources--previously, the site posted palettes taken from Depression-era color photographs in the archives of The Library of Congress.

2008 Film Preservation picks on Internet Archive

stbalbach — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 07:46:33 -0800

Each December, the United States National Film Preservation Board chooses up to 25 films they deem worthy of taking special action to preserve in the Library of Congress. It’s a new year, and that means 25 more films are welcomed in the vault of the National Film Registry. Three of the 2008 picks can be viewed on Internet Archive as well as nearly 40 picks from years past.

For Ourselves and Our Posterity

Miko — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 07:54:38 -0800

Inauguration 2009 Sermons and Orations Project The Library of Congress invites you to submit digital audio or video recordings of speeches made between January 16 and january 25, 2009 on the occasion of Barack Obama's inauguration. The speeches will be archived in a collection for future scholarship, much like the Day of Infamyand other collections capturing signifcant American moments.

This deal here is new

dersins — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:55:46 -0800

"New Deal Programs: Selected Library of Congress Resources was created to serve as a starting point for research using Library of Congress collections of New Deal program materials." Includes links to numerous collections of digitized materials, including photos, posters, music, manuscripts and more. Some of these individual sites have been linked here before, but the "New Deal Programs" portal in the first link is the first time the individual collections have been...uh... collected by the LOC.

That toddlin' town

mwhybark — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 23:00:05 -0800

Photographs from the Chicago Daily News, 1902-1933. Stumbled upon whilst looking for historical info on 1933, this Library of Congress-hosted site provides access to "over 55,000 images of urban life captured on glass plate negatives" by the photographers of the Daily News. memory.loc.gov simply never disappoints.

Webcasts from the Library of Congress

LarryC — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 23:24:19 -0800

Webcasts from the Library of Congress. Hundreds of recent public programs from the Library of Congress, from Indian Religious Freedom, to Litigate or Legislate? to End of European Colonial Empires, to Robert E. Lee, to 1507 Waldseemuller World Map. Other topics include Performing Arts, Education, Government, World Affairs, Literature, Religion and Science. Unfortunately all programs are presented in the odious Realplayer format. After the LOC's recent experiment with Flickr, I am disappointed that they didn't just get a YouTube channel to host these videos.

Rediscovered photos from Lincoln's second inauguration

wowbobwow — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 07:39:18 -0800

"New" photos emerge of Lincoln's second inauguration The Library of Congress has discovered new photographs taken in 1865 at Abraham Lincoln's second inauguration. For years they were filed under President Grant's archive, mislabeled into obscurity. Incidentally, this week will be the grand opening of Lincoln's summer "cottage" in northwest DC.

The Library of Congress, on Flickr.

chunking express — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 11:54:36 -0800

The Library of Congress, on Flickr. They've posted some pretty amazing photographs. They're all free of any copyright, so you can use them for evil if you like. More details from the FlickrBlog.

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers

cog_nate — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 14:05:08 -0800

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers is a beta release of the Library of Congress/National Endowment for the Humanities partnership project, the (previously mentioned) National Digital Newspaper Program. In its current state, Chronicling America allows users to search for and read newspaper pages from 36 newspapers published between 1900 and 1910, and search for information on American newspapers published between 1690 and present day.

Where it says snow read teeth-marks of a virgin

jessamyn — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 18:51:53 -0800

Green Buddhas
On the fruit stand.
We eat the smile
And spit out the teeth.

Surrealist poet Charles Simic was named the Poet Laureate of the US this week. He also won the Wallace Stevens Award for "outstanding and proven mastery" of the art of poetry. [more inside]

Designs for an American Landscape

jonson — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 12:58:00 -0800

The decade between 1922 & 1932 was not a good one for Frank Lloyd Wright; his star had faded in the US upon his return from Japan, and even though his most prolific years were still ahead of him, he had trouble finding work, and was evicited, his fabled home siezed by creditors. The Library of Congress hosts a fantastic collection of 5 projects he undertook during this era, none of which ever came to fruition. All that's left are his extensive blueprints, perspective drawings, and scale models carved specifically for the exhibit.

Sorry, no love letters to Heidegger here!

anotherpanacea — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 10:32:19 -0800

Hannah Arendt's Papers are digitally preserved by the Library of Congress. Read her lectures on Political Philosophy. Browse her correspondence. Here she castigates once-friend, Gershom Scholem, for his poor treatment of Eichmann in Jerusalem. Here she explains forgiveness to the hapless poet she called 'Wystan:' W. H. Auden.

Creative Americans: Portraits by Carl Van Vechten 1932-1964

ND¢ — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 12:39:55 -0800

Creative Americans: The Carl Van Vechten Photographs Collection at the Library of Congress consists of 1,395 photographs taken by American photographer Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964) between 1932 and 1964. The bulk of the collection consists of portrait photographs of celebrities, including many figures from the Harlem Renaissance. Portraits include those of Tallulah Bankhead, Salvador Dali, Truman Capote, Dizzy Gillespie, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Eartha Kitt, and Joe Louis. They are all available in medium or high resolution JPEG’s or uncompressed archival TIFF versions.

LibraryThing: Like Flickr for your books.

monju_bosatsu — Wed, 14 Sep 2005 10:08:54 -0800

LibraryThing. Like Flickr for your books.

Manteca to Nirvana

me3dia — Wed, 06 Apr 2005 10:00:57 -0800

The latest additions to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress have just been announced. This year's additions of "culturally, historically or aesthetically important" works include "Swanee'" by Al Jolson, Edward R. Murrow's radio reports from London during WWII, and "Fear of a Black Planet" by Public Enemy. View the full registry here, selection criteria and nomination information here.

Civil War Maps

kirkaracha — Tue, 11 Jan 2005 12:00:24 -0800

Civil War Maps The Library of Congress just published an online collection of approximately 2,240 Civil War maps, with information about the collection and a History of Mapping the Civil War.

Voices from the Days of Slavery.

profwhat — Mon, 19 Jan 2004 14:07:40 -0800

Voices from the Days of Slavery. A collection of audio recordings made between 1932 and 1975 of African Americans known to have once been slaves. Hear Isom Moseley describe how he used to make soap, and express his opinion of the "white folks" who owned and ran the plantation where he was held. Wallace Quarterman describes his experience as a freed man in Georgia, and recounts the violent atmosphere of the Reconstruction South. Aunt Phoebe Boyd describes the demands of agricultural work. Even more narratives are available as transcripts from the companion exhibit, Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1938 (linked to previously on Metafilter here), though some of these were unfortunately edited selectively.

This place is dazzlingly, I was going to say glaringly, beautiful...

languagehat — Tue, 14 Oct 2003 08:00:55 -0800

Travels in America. Another amazing resource from the Library of Congress, this contains "253 published narratives by Americans and foreign visitors recounting their travels in the colonies and the United States and their observations and opinions about American peoples, places, and society from about 1750 to 1920... The narratives in American Notes range from the unjustly neglected to the justly famous, and from classics of the genre to undiscovered gems." Go to "Search by keyword," put the name of a city into "Search Full Text," and enjoy. (The quote in the post title is about Santa Barbara, from First impressions in America by John Ayscough [pronounced "ascue"].) Via MeFi's own plep.

panorama

crunchland — Thu, 17 Jul 2003 08:39:35 -0800

Taking the Long View: Panoramic Photographs, 1851-1991 ~ 4000+ images archived, courtesy of they US Library of Congress.

Beginnings

plep — Sat, 03 May 2003 12:17:58 -0800

Beginnings at the Library of Congress. The origins of the Universe, humanity and society as viewed by different cultural and religious traditions; and their attempts to explain it all.
The Talk.Origins Archive presents a more scientific view of physical and biological beginnings.

Library of Congress celebrates its 202nd birthday

Blake — Thu, 24 Apr 2003 06:16:23 -0800

Library of Congress celebrates its 202nd birthday . Today, the Library of Congress celebrates its 202nd birthday. On April 24, 1800, President John Adams approved the appropriation of $5,000 for the purchase of "such books as may be necessary for the use of congress."
The books, the first purchased for the Library of Congress, were ordered from London and arrived in 1801. The collection of 740 volumes and three maps was stored in the U.S. Capitol, the Library's first home. President Thomas Jefferson approved the first legislation defining the role and functions of the new institution on January 26, 1802.
Check out, Jefferson's Legacy: A Brief History of the Library of Congress and a Concordance of Images for more.

Vernacular Music from the American Memory historical collections at the Library of Congress

y2karl — Mon, 14 Apr 2003 12:43:06 -0800

"Now What a Time": Blues, Gospel, and the Fort Valley Music Festivals, 1938-1943
Approximately one hundred sound recordings, primarily blues and gospel songs, and related documentation from the folk festival at Fort Valley State College (now Fort Valley State University), Fort Valley, Georgia. The documentation was created by John Wesley Work III in 1941 and by Lewis Jones and Willis Laurence James in March, June, and July 1943. Also included are recordings made in Tennessee and Alabama by John Work between September 1938 and 1941. Audio Title Index

The John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip
Folk singers and folksongs documented during a three-month trip through the southern United States. Audio Title Index

California Gold: Northern California Folk Music From the Thirties
Materials from the WPA California Folk Music Project Collection, including sound recordings, still photographs, drawings, and written documents from a variety of European ethnic and English- and Spanish-speaking communities in Northern California. The collection comprises 35 hours of folk music recorded in twelve languages representing numerous ethnic groups and 185 musicians. Audio Title Index (As Always, More Inside)