The 19th annual Library of Congress National Book Festival will be held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center from 8:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2019. The event is free and open to the public. If you can't make, don't worry, as recordings of author presentations will be available at a later date. More than 140 authors, illustrators, and poets will make presentations dedicated to kids, fiction, history, biography, poetry, science, and more. Fascinating thematic programs … [Read more...]
World Spotlight: New Zealand
July 11, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Places in the News: New Zealand April 2009 September 2010 February 2011 September 2011 July 2013 New Zealand country profile BBC New Zealand timeline BBC New Zealand primary source set World Digital Library New Zealand maps New Zealand image set Books & reports about New Zealand Historical newspaper coverage of New Zealand U.S. veteran oral history collections (service in New Zealand) Oral history transcripts mentioning New Zealand from the Foreign … [Read more...]
Collection Spotlight: Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature
April 4, 2018 by Leave a Comment
The Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature at the Library of Congress contains recordings of poets and prose writers participating in literary events at the Library’s Capitol Hill campus as well as sessions at the Library’s Recording Laboratory. As of April, 2019, there are nearly 300 artists represented the digital collection. There is a biography for each artist and each of those links to one or more recordings featuring readings and commentary on their work. Happy poetry … [Read more...]
Primary Source Spotlight: Gabriela Mistral
April 3, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Gabriela Mistral was born as Lucila Godoy Alcayaga in Vicuña, Chile in 1889. She is the author of over twelve books of poetry and was the first Hispanic writer awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Mistral also worked as an educator and a diplomat. Learn more about this passionate poet by investigating the resources below. Gabriela Mistral reading her poetry at the Library of Congress 1950 Oración de la Maestra by Gabriela Mistral La Revista de Taos. (Taos, Nuevo México), 21 Oct. … [Read more...]
Primary Source Learning: African American History & Culture
February 21, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Primary Source sets with teacher guides Baseball: Across a Divided Society Harlem Renaissance Jim Crow in America The NAACP: A Century in the Fight for Freedom Featured Source guided primary source analysis activities Afro-American Monument An airship with a “Jim Crow” trailer The Brownies’ Book Condition of the descendants of former African slaves The constitutional amendment Jesse Owens President Obama’s 2016 State of the Union Address Tree of … [Read more...]
Integrating Technology: Linking Primary Sources to Literature
November 17, 2015 by 1 Comment
This is a guest post by Ruth Ferris, an elementary school librarian from Billings, Montana, and a grantee in the TPS Regional Grant Program. It is always a pleasure when I can connect my love of books with my love of history, seasoned with technology. One favorite tool is ThingLink, which allows you to take a picture and embed links to other types of media within the picture. I live in Montana and most of my students are more familiar with country music than jazz music. So how do I … [Read more...]
Today in History: Ernest Hemingway
July 21, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Today in History–July 21–the Library of Congress features writer Ernest Hemingway, born on this day in 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois. Like his father, Hemingway was a hunting and outdoors enthusiast. Seeking adventure, he served as an ambulance driver in Italy in World War I, reported on the Spanish Civil War, and worked as a foreign correspondent in Europe during World War II. Hemingway received a Pulitzer Prize in 1953 for his novel The Old Man and the Sea and the Nobel Prize for Literature in … [Read more...]
Literature Links: To Kill a Mockingbird
June 15, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the selections in the Books That Shaped America online exhibition. The curator's note reads: This 1960 Pulitzer Prize winner was an immediate critical and financial success for its author, with more than 30 million copies in print to date. Harper Lee created one of the most enduring and heroic characters in all of American literature in Atticus Finch, the small-town lawyer who defended a wrongly accused black man. The book’s importance was recognized … [Read more...]
Teaching Now: Predicting & Inferring with Primary Sources & Literature
May 26, 2015 by Leave a Comment
This is a guest post from elementary teacher and adjunct university instructor Kimberly Heckart, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. “I developed the Predict and Infer strategy to help students develop historical comprehension skills while comparing, contrasting, and evaluating information from primary sources related to a particular time period. This strategy motivates students to predict the relevance and meanings of sources and then discover information that will help them make sense of the sources while … [Read more...]
Finding Resources: World Digital Library
April 2, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Overview The World Digital Library (WDL) provides access to multilingual primary sources from around the world. It's mission is to promote cross-cultural awareness and understanding by highlighting the stories and achievements of all countries and cultures. WDL "is a project of the U.S. Library of Congress, carried out with the support of the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (UNESCO), and in cooperation with libraries, archives, museums, educational institutions, … [Read more...]
George Washington penned a letter about religious freedom to prominent Jewish leader Moses Seixas. Check out our