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A Letter Home
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...
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A Presidential Fundraiser
“BY THE PRESIDENT…(EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION)” Philadelphia: Leypoldt, 1864. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress. “That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord...
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Black and White and (Still) Read All Over
Old newspapers have acquired an iffy reputation over the years. We bemoan the trees that had to die to bring them into existence for their one day of glory; we dub them “mullet-wrappers” or note, as...
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Dear Diary
LeRoy Gresham (1847-1865) was a teenaged invalid who kept a diary for nearly every day of the Civil War, recording the news, his Confederate sympathies and perceptive details about life on the...
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Mapping Slavery
Edwin Hergesheimer. “Map Showing the Distribution of the Slave Population of the Southern States of the United States Compiled from the Census of 1860.” Washington: Henry S. Graham 1861. Geography and...
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Waste Not, Want Not
While the Civil War imposed hardships on both sides, the South found it particularly difficult to adapt to new realities of daily life. The blockade of Southern seaports and the prohibition of trade...
View ArticleLibrary in the News: October Edition
With the November opening of the new exhibition “The Civil War in America” only a month away, media outlets picked up on the announcement of a new blog featuring historical voices from the war. The...
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Let’s Give Thanks
Thanksgiving is just a day away, and I’ve been noticing on Facebook, friends posting what they are thankful for this holiday season. Those statuses certainly have given me pause to count my own...
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Inquiring Minds: An Interview With Author William Martin
What if Abraham Lincoln recorded his innermost thoughts as he moved toward the realization that he must end slavery? What if he lost that diary, but a recently discovered letter suggests that the diary...
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Civil War Cartography, Then and Now
During the Civil War, cartographers invented new techniques to map the country and the conflict more accurately than ever before in the nation’s history. Since then, cartographic technology has evolved...
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Forever Free
Three-hundred-and-twenty-five words made up the first draft of the Emancipation Proclamation. So simple a start for what would become a pivotal document in our nation’s history – one that would also...
View ArticleLibrary in the News: November and December Edition
With the whirlwind of the holiday season come to a close, let’s take a look back at some of the headlines the Library made in November and December. One of our big announcements was the opening of the...
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Inquiring Minds: An Interview with Kluge Fellow Lindsay Tuggle
The following is a guest post by Jason Steinhauer, program specialist in the Library’s John W. Kluge Center. Lindsay Tuggle Lindsay Tuggle, Ph.D., teaches English Literary Studies at the University of...
View ArticleLast Word: Author Robert Caro on LBJ
(The following is an article from the January-February 2013 issue of the Library’s magazine, LCM, featuring an excerpt from an interview with historian and author Robert Caro about Lyndon Baines...
View ArticleLibrary In The News: January Edition
The Library of Congress exhibition “The Civil War in America” and Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey continued to make the news last month. Edward Rothstein toured the exhibition for The New York Times....
View ArticleInRetrospect: February Blogging Edition
Here’s a sampling of some of the highlights in the Library’s blogosphere from February. Inside Adams: Science Technology & Business Turf Wars on the Football Field Jennifer Harbster debates the...
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Four Score and Seven Years Ago …
Abraham Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address. Prints and Photographs Division. The Gettysburg Address, which Abraham Lincoln delivered on Nov. 19, 1863, at the dedication of a national cemetery at...
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Civil War Chic
When looking at some clothing trends of today, with their bright colors and patterns, daring necklines, couture price tags and sometimes general wackiness, it’s hard to imagine how far fashion has...
View ArticleInRetrospect: May Blogging Edition
The Library of Congress blogosphere was blooming with great posts. Here are a selection. In the Muse: Performing Arts Blog To Richard Wagner on His 200th Birthday: A Textilian Tale Retold Letters...
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Trending: Juneteenth
More than 40 states celebrate the day that Texans learned of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. The news came late—two-and-a-half years late—and in the form of an official pronouncement. Known as...
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