Veterans History Project Launches New Online Exhibit on the GI Bill
The Library of Congress Veterans History Project (VHP) today launched, “The GI Bill: 75 Years of Opportunity,” an online “Experiencing War” website feature that explores the impact of the GI Bill on 15 veterans interviewed for the VHP collection.The Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, signed into law on June 22, 1944, and colloquially known as the GI Bill, was a landmark piece of legislation...
Date:2019-02-06
January 2019
January 15, 2019
(19-004)
Unique Slave Autobiography Written in Arabic in the U.S. Goes Online at the Library of Congress
The Library of Congress has acquired and made available online the Omar Ibn Said Collection, which includes the only known extant narrative written in Arabic by an enslaved person in the United States. In 1831, Omar Ibn Said, a wealthy and highly educated man who was captured in West Africa and brought to the United States as a slave, wrote a 15-page autobiography describing...
Date:2019-01-15
November 2018
November 13, 2018
(18-135)
Veterans History Project Launches New Online Exhibit on Vietnam War Photography
The Library of Congress Veterans History Project (VHP) today launched “Personal Snapshots: Picturing the Vietnam War,” an online “Experiencing War” website feature highlighting 12 collections that document veterans’ wartime experiences. In addition to oral histories and written correspondence, the collections include candid, amateur photographs.Taken either for posterity or as keepsakes for loved ones on the home front, the images range from serene to silly...
Date:2018-11-13
October 2018
October 24, 2018
(18-134)
Crowdsourcing Tool Enables Discovery of Unique Treasures at the Library of Congress
The Library of Congress today launched crowd.loc.gov, a crowdsourcing program that will connect the Library with virtual volunteers to transcribe text in digitized images from the Library’s historic collections.This project enables anyone with access to a computer to experience first-hand accounts in history while contributing to the Library’s ability to make these treasures more searchable and readable.Volunteers can work on selections from the papers...
Date:2018-10-24
October 17, 2018
(18-132)
Papers of President Theodore Roosevelt Now Online
The largest collection of the papers of President Theodore Roosevelt, documenting his extraordinary career in the White House and as vice president, governor of New York, and as a naturalist, writer and reformer, has been digitized and is now available online from the Library of Congress.The digitization of the massive collection comes just before the 160th anniversary of Roosevelt’s birthday. The nation’s 26th president...
Date:2018-10-17
September 2018
September 26, 2018
(18-125)
National Screening Room of Free Motion Pictures Now Online
The Library of Congress announced today that it has digitized hundreds of hours of motion pictures that will be freely available on the newly launched National Screening Room website. Most of the content in the National Screening Room is in the public domain. Movies that the Library believes to be in the public domain are fully downloadable. Permissions were granted for the inclusion of...
Date:2018-09-26
September 13, 2018
(18-114)
Veterans History Project Highlights Cold War Collections
The Veterans History Project (VHP) in the Library of Congress today launched a website feature, titled “Cold War Dispatches: Service Stories from 1947-1991,” as part of its “Experiencing War” online series. The feature highlights the stories of veterans who served in non-combatant roles within the military between 1947 and 1991, commonly referred to as the Cold War era.The feature focuses on 12 digitized collections...
Date:2018-09-13
September 7, 2018
(18-112)
Library of Congress Launches New Set of Educational Apps for Back to School
The Library of Congress, in collaboration with educational organizations, today announced the launch of two new web- and mobile-based applications related to Congress and civics for use in K-12 classrooms.These new applications transport students through primary sources to some of the most dramatic turning points in U.S. history and immerse them in the related debates.Students can investigate complex questions through both applications, as well...
Date:2018-09-07
July 2018
July 26, 2018
(18-095)
Famed Landscape Architect Frederick Law Olmsted's Papers Now Online
Writings and personal records of the founder of American landscape architecture, Frederick Law Olmsted, known for his work on New York’s Central Park, the U.S. Capitol grounds in Washington, the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina and many other landscapes, have been digitized and are now available online from the Library of Congress. The archive was digitized to serve as a resource in advance of...
Date:2018-07-26
July 12, 2018
(18-091)
Library of Congress Announces Application-Development Winners to Receive Over $1 Million in Grants
The Library of Congress today announced the selection of three organizations that will receive a total of $1,058,513 during the next two years to support the development of engaging web- and mobile-based applications on subjects related to Congress and civics for use in K-12 classrooms.From a mobile game with civics-themed musicals, to an app that takes users back in time to the pre-19th Amendment...
Date:2018-07-12
July 6, 2018
(18-088)
Library of Congress Offers Unprecedented Access to North Korean Serial Collection
Home to one of the most prominent North Korean collections in the Western Hemisphere, the Asian Division at the Library of Congress has rolled out the North Korean Serials Database, an online indexing tool that offers researchers enhanced access to periodicals and articles published as far back as the 1940s.The database contains 34,000 indexed records for articles in 18 journals from North Korea that...
Date:2018-07-06
June 2018
June 18, 2018
(18-076)
Geographers on Film Series Tells the Story of the 20th Century in America
The Library of Congress’ Geography and Map division, in collaboration with the American Association of Geographers, has digitized an archive of more than 300 filmed interviews, called “Geographers on Film,” which highlights leading voices that transformed the discipline of cartography and geography in the 20th century in America.The complete series has been digitally preserved by the Library of Congress’ Audio-Visual Conservation Laboratory and the...
Date:2018-06-18
May 2018
May 15, 2018
(18-071)
Papers of President Woodrow Wilson Now Online
The papers of President Woodrow Wilson, from his time in the White House and as a scholar and governor of New Jersey, have been digitized and are now available online from the Library of Congress 100 years after his presidency. Documents from Wilson also are featured in the Library’s exhibition “Echoes of the Great War: American Experiences of World War I.”Librarian of Congress Carla...
Date:2018-05-15
May 10, 2018
(18-056)
Veterans History Project Commemorates 70th Anniversary of U.S. Military Desegregation
The Library of Congress’ Veterans History Project (VHP) today launched an online “Experiencing War” website feature, titled “Equality of Treatment and Opportunity: Executive Order 9981,” marking the 70th anniversary of the landmark order that abolished racial discrimination in the U.S. armed forces.The feature highlights 15 digitized collections in the VHP archive, each of which includes the first-person narrative of an African-American veteran who served...
Date:2018-05-10
April 2018
April 27, 2018
(18-055)
Library of Congress Facilitates Access to Collections Through Innovative Technology
The Library of Congress has launched three new online interactive sites that highlight creative ways to facilitate the accessibility of thousands of collections, using the Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-based tool to create story maps.Presenting the information in a curated format, story maps allow users to combine text, images and multimedia content in an online application that tells stories through data and the capabilities of...
Date:2018-04-27
April 25, 2018
(18-052)
Library of Congress and Bibliothèque Nationale de France Announce Collaboration on International Digital Content
Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden and Laurence Engel, president of the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF), today announced a collaboration between the Library of Congress and the BnF to provide digital content for a new online space for collections relating to shared French-American history. The initiative will also be supported by other U.S. organizations, including the National Archives. During the special visit to the...
Date:2018-04-25
April 17, 2018
(18-044)
Papers of Benjamin Franklin Now Online
The papers of American scientist, statesman and diplomat Benjamin Franklin have been digitized and are now available online for the first time from the Library of Congress. The Library announced the digitization today in remembrance of the anniversary of Franklin’s death on April 17, 1790.The Franklin papers consist of approximately 8,000 items mostly dating from the 1770s and 1780s. These include the petition that...
Date:2018-04-17
April 16, 2018
(18-042)
Library of Congress Digitizes Unique Japanese Censorship Collection
The Library of Congress’ Asian Division has digitized its Japanese Censorship Collection, a unique online archive comprising more than 1,000 marked-up copies of government-censored monographs and galley proofs from the 1920s and 1930s in Japan. The collection, originally from the Home Ministry’s library, reveals traces of the otherwise-hidden censorship process of the Japanese government through marginal notes, stamps, penciled lines and commentary inscribed by...
Date:2018-04-16
April 10, 2018
(18-038)
Library Launches Leonard Bernstein Centennial Celebration with Thousands of Bernstein Items Online
In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Leonard Bernstein’s birth, the Library of Congress has made available online—for the first time—musical manuscripts and scrapbooks from the legendary composer’s personal and professional archives housed in the nation’s library. These digital offerings and others nearly tripled the existing content at loc.gov/collections/leonard-bernstein/about-this-collection/. The public can now access for free more than 3,700 items, including photos, writings, correspondence,...
Date:2018-04-10
April 3, 2018
(18-036)
Baseball Scouting Reports of Branch Rickey Now Online
Baseball scouting reports of one of the most famous baseball executives and scouts in history, Branch Rickey, who was also responsible for helping Jackie Robinson successfully break Major League Baseball’s color line, have been digitized and are now available online for the first time from the Library of Congress. The archive was digitized in time for Major League Baseball’s new season and for the...
Date:2018-04-03
March 2018
March 27, 2018
(18-035)
Archival Materials of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton Now Online
Archival materials from one of the most successful political partnerships in history, the collaboration of suffragists Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton in the movement for women’s rights, have been digitized and are now available online for the first time from the Library of Congress.The collections include about 1,500 items dating primarily from 1840 to 1906 as Anthony and Stanton led the campaign...
Date:2018-03-27
March 13, 2018
(18-026)
Historical Supreme Court Cases Now Online
More than 225 years of Supreme Court decisions acquired by the Library of Congress are now publicly available online – free to access in a page image format for the first time. The Library has made available more than 35,000 cases that were published in the printed bound editions of United States Reports (U.S. Reports).United States Reports is a series of bound case reporters...
Date:2018-03-13
March 6, 2018
(18-023)
Library Conserves, Digitizes Rare Photographs Including Harriet Tubman Portrait
The Library of Congress has conserved and digitized an album containing 48 rare photographs dating to the 1860s – including a previously unrecorded portrait of Harriet Tubman and images of other abolitionists – and the album will be exhibited for the first time at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture later this year. Each image was cleaned, digitally scanned and...
Date:2018-03-06
February 2018
February 21, 2018
(18-019)
Papers of President James Buchanan and Harriet Lane Johnston Now Online
The papers of President James Buchanan, who presided in the four years leading up to the Civil War, have been digitized and are now available online for the first time from the Library of Congress, along with the papers of his niece, Harriet Lane Johnston, who served as first lady in the White House. Buchanan was the nation’s only president who never married.The Buchanan...
Date:2018-02-21
February 5, 2018
(18-007)
New VHP Web Feature Marks 75th Anniversary of Guadalcanal Battle
The Library of Congress’ Veterans History Project (VHP) today launched its new “Experiencing War” website feature, titled “Guadalcanal: 75 Years Later,” recognizing the anniversary of the end of the major World War II campaign known as the Battle of Guadalcanal.The feature highlights 12 digitized collections found in the VHP archive, each of which includes the first-person narrative of a veteran who fought in this...
Date:2018-02-05
December 2017
December 20, 2017
(17-185)
Historical Versions of the United States Code Now Online
More than 60 years of U.S. laws are now published online and accessible for free for the first time after being acquired by the Library of Congress. The Library has made available the main editions and supplements of the United States Code from 1925 through the 1988 edition.The U.S. Code is a compilation of federal laws arranged by subject by the Office of the...
Date:2017-12-20
December 12, 2017
(17-179)
Select National Film Registry Titles Now Available Free Online
The Library of Congress is offering film lovers a special gift during the holiday season. Sixty-four motion pictures, named to the Library’s National Film Registry, are now available online on the Library's website. The collection, "Selections from the National Film Registry," is also available to the public on YouTube.These films are among hundreds of titles that have been tapped for preservation because of their...
Date:2017-12-12
November 2017
November 8, 2017
(17-168)
Papers of Abraham Lincoln Now Online in Full Color
Abraham Lincoln’s papers from his time as a lawyer, congressman and the 16th president are now online in full color in a new presentation after a multi-year digitization effort at the Library of Congress.The Library holds a collection of more than 40,000 Lincoln documents dating from 1774 through Lincoln’s presidency and beyond, including materials from his campaigns, Lincoln’s first and second inaugural addresses and...
Date:2017-11-08
November 7, 2017
(17-149)
Veterans History Project Launches Web Feature Recognizing Medal of Honor Recipients
The Library of Congress’ Veterans History Project (VHP) today launched its latest “Experiencing War” website feature, titled “Stories Above and Beyond: The Medal of Honor,” which offers access to nearly 150 digitized collections of Medal of Honor recipients. The veterans’ service spans World War II to the recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Each collection uniquely illustrates the evident courage and intrepidity of these...
Date:2017-11-07
November 3, 2017
(17-167)
Library and WGBH Acquire Historic TV Coverage of Senate Watergate Hearings
The Library of Congress and Boston public broadcaster WGBH announced today that gavel-to-gavel television coverage of the Senate Watergate hearings in 1973, donated to the Library by WETA Washington, D.C., has been digitally preserved and made available online. Produced by the National Public Affairs Center for Television (NPACT), the hearings were taped during the day and rebroadcast every evening on public television for 51...
Date:2017-11-03
October 2017
October 10, 2017
(17-148)
Papers of Ulysses S. Grant Now Online
The Library of Congress has put the papers of Ulysses S. Grant online for the first time in their original format at https://www.loc.gov/collections/ulysses-s-grant-papers/about-this-collection/.The Library holds a treasure trove of documents from the Civil War commander and 18th president of the United States, including personal correspondence, “headquarters records” created during the Civil War and the original handwritten manuscript of Grant’s memoir— regarded as one of...
Date:2017-10-10
September 2017
September 26, 2017
(17-137)
Handbook of Latin American Studies Launches Updated Web Interface
In celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, the Library of Congress’ Hispanic Division recently unveiled a redesigned website for the Handbook of Latin American Studies (HLAS) that enhances user experience with handheld devices, visually appealing graphics and responsive features. HLAS, accessible at hlasopac.loc.gov, is an annotated bibliography of selected books, journal articles, conference proceedings and papers, book chapters, maps and atlases, and electronic resources dealing...
Date:2017-09-26
September 22, 2017
(17-136)
Veterans History Project Launches Final Installment of WWI Web Series
The Veterans History Project (VHP) today launched “A World Overturned,” the final chapter in a three-part, online website series titled “Experiencing War,” dedicated to U.S. veterans of the First World War. “A World Overturned” highlights eight digitized veterans’ stories about how World War I forever changed their lives, shared through original photographs, letters, diaries, memoirs and other materials. This series has been presented as...
Date:2017-09-22
September 19, 2017
(17-129)
Library Launches labs.loc.gov
The Library of Congress today launched labs.loc.gov, a new online space that will host a changing selection of experiments, projects, events and resources designed to encourage creative use of the Library’s digital collections. To help demonstrate the exciting discoveries that are possible, the new site will also feature a gallery of projects from data challenge winners and innovators-in-residence and blog posts and video presentations...
Date:2017-09-19
August 2017
August 28, 2017
(17-119)
Alexander Hamilton Papers Now Online
The Library of Congress has put the papers of Alexander Hamilton online for the first time in their original format.The Library holds the world’s largest collection of Hamilton papers—approximately 12,000 items concentrated from 1777 until Hamilton’s death in 1804, including letters, legal papers and drafts of speeches and writings, among other items. Now, for the first time, these original documents—many in Hamilton’s own hand—will...
Date:2017-08-28
August 2, 2017
(17-108)
Library Launches Free WWI Webinar Series
The Library of Congress is commemorating the 100thanniversary of the United States’ entry into The Great War with a new free, online webinar series highlighting some of the Library’s most remarkable World War I resources, including documents, photographs, maps, and personal stories collected through the Veterans History Project.The five-part series of 40-minute talks will present discussions on a variety of topics each month beginning...
Date:2017-08-02
July 2017
July 6, 2017
(17-100)
Library Begins Release of Occupational Folklife Interviews
The Library of Congress today announced it has put online the first installment of a major oral history project documenting the diverse culture of contemporary workers around the United States. The Occupational Folklife Project (OFP), a multi-year initiative of the American Folklife Center (AFC) at the Library of Congress, launches today online with a collection of interviews from the Port of Houston.The “Working the...
Date:2017-07-06
June 2017
June 30, 2017
(17-093)
Veterans History Project Launches Part Two of Web Series on World War I Veterans
The Veterans History Project (VHP) today launched, “Over There” the second in a three-part, online “Experiencing War” website series dedicated to United States veterans of the First World War. “Over There” highlights 10 digitized World War I collections found in the Veterans History Project archive. To access Part II and other veterans’ collections featured in “Over There,” visit www.loc.gov/vets/stories/wwi-part2.html. Part III will be available...
Date:2017-06-30
June 28, 2017
(17-095)
Ahead of July 4, a Unique Birthday Card to America Goes Online
In 1926, America celebrated the 150th anniversary of its Declaration of Independence. To mark the occasion, citizens of Poland – more than 5.5 million of them – signed a unique birthday card, The Polish Declarations of Admiration and Friendship. Now, all 111 volumes containing more than 30,000 pages – many beautifully illustrated or accompanied by photographs – are digitized and accessible on the Library...
Date:2017-06-28
June 13, 2017
(17-087)
Webcomics and Web Cultures Archives Now on loc.gov
The Library of Congress today announced two new born-digital collections are now available on loc.gov – the Webcomics Web Archive and the Web Cultures Web Archive.The Webcomics Web Archive (loc.gov/collections/webcomics-web-archive/about-this-collection/) focuses on comics created specifically for the web and supplements the Library’s extensive holdings in comic books, graphic novels and original comic art.“Webcomics are an increasingly popular format utilized by contemporary creators in the...
Date:2017-06-13
May 2017
May 30, 2017
(17-079)
Veterans History Project Launches World War I Website Companion Exhibit
The Veterans History Project (VHP) has launched a web exhibit that complements the Library of Congress’s major exhibition “Echoes of the Great War: American Experiences of World War I.” The three-part web companion, “Experiencing War,” will help tell the larger story of the war from the perspective of those who served in it. Part I is now available at loc.gov/vets/. Part II and Part III...
Date:2017-05-30
May 25, 2017
(17-074)
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps Now Online
The Library of Congress has placed online nearly 25,000 Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, which depict the structure and use of buildings in U.S. cities and towns. Maps will be added monthly until 2020, for a total of approximately 500,000.The online collection now features maps published prior to 1900. The states available include Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota,...
Date:2017-05-25
May 16, 2017
(17-068)
Library Offers Largest Release of Digital Catalog Records in History
The Library of Congress announced today that it is making 25 million records in its online catalog available for free bulk download at loc.gov/cds/products/marcDist.php. This is the largest release of digital records in the Library’s history.The records also will be easily accessible at data.gov, the open-government website hosted by the General Services Administration (GSA). Until now, these bibliographic records have only been available individually...
Date:2017-05-16
March 2017
March 6, 2017
(17-026)
New Web Feature Highlights Veterans Living with PTSD
The Veterans History Project (VHP) today launched “PTSD: A Lasting Impact of War,” the latest installment in its online “Experiencing War” website series.The site examines 12 digitized collections found in the VHP archive, all of which include veterans describing their military service, its impact on their mental health and the challenges they have faced in finding the care they need while living with post-traumatic...
Date:2017-03-06
February 2017
February 1, 2017
(17-005)
Sigmund Freud Collection Now Online
The Sigmund Freud Collection at the Library of Congress has been digitized and is now online at loc.gov/collections/sigmund-freud-papers/about-this-collection/.The online collection, with more than 20,000 items, contains the personal papers of Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), the neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis whose ideas of the unconscious and theories on sex, repression, transference and religion profoundly influenced 20th-century Western thought. His theories still generate controversy.The digitization of...
Library Presents Multimedia Web Presentation of Political, Cultural Icons
The Library of Congress unveiled today a new web presentation of speeches from the National Press Club that features speeches by 25 of the world’s most important newsmakers, including presidents, international leaders and other political and cultural icons of the period.
Diaries of John J. Pershing and George S. Patton Now Online
The Library of Congress has recently placed online the diaries, notebooks and address books of John J. Pershing, commander-in-chief of the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I, and the diaries of George S. Patton, a tank commander in World War I and a U.S. Army general in World War II.