
The Library of Congress » Rare Books and Special Collections
19 FOLLOWERS
One may read articles on rare books, which are hard to come by on the market, in this section of the website. The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, with millions of books, films, videos, audio recordings, photographs, newspapers, maps, and manuscripts in its collections.
The Library of Congress » Rare Books and Special Collections
2w ago
A family Bible in Washington, looted by a British soldier during the War of 1812 and kept in his family for generations, was eventually returned to the nation more than a century later. It is now preserved by the Library, an artifact of two nations of war and then in peace ..read more
The Library of Congress » Rare Books and Special Collections
4M ago
Edgar Allan Poe died 175 years ago today, on Oct. 7, 1849. Here, we revisit the first publication of his poetic masterpiece, "The Raven" and the tragic circumstances (his dying young wife) that led to him writing it ..read more
The Library of Congress » Rare Books and Special Collections
6M ago
Printed in Cambridge between 1660 and 1663, the Eliot Indian Bible today represents a landmark in printing history: It was translated into the Wampanoag language of the region’s Algonquin tribes and was the first Bible printed in North America in any language. In recent decades, the Wampanoag nation has used the Eliot Bible as a tool to help resurrect its ancestral language. The Library preserves a 1685 copy ..read more
The Library of Congress » Rare Books and Special Collections
7M ago
—This is a guest post by Mark Dimunation, the former chief of the Rare Book and Special Collections Division.
The term for the political tactic of manipulating boundaries of electoral districts for unfair political advantage derives its name from a prominent 19th-century political figure — and from a mythological salamander.
The term, originally written as “Gerry-mander,” first was used on March 26, 1812, in the Boston Gazette — a reaction to the redrawing of Massachusetts state senate election districts under Gov. Elbridge Gerry.
Though the redistricting was done at the behest of his Dem ..read more
The Library of Congress » Rare Books and Special Collections
8M ago
—This is a guest post by Lucia Wolf, a reference specialist in the Latin American, Caribbean and European Division.
In the late 1400s, Maestro Martino, a chef from Como, in Lombardy, created the first Italian cookbook, “Libro de arte coquinaria,” or “The Art of Cooking.” The full, translated title reveals more of Martino’s background and qualifications: “Book of the art of cooking composed by the extraordinary Maestro Martino, former cook of the Most Reverend Monsignor Chamberlain and Patriarch of Aquileia.”
Martino’s recipes presented clearly written instructions on how to manipulate basic in ..read more
The Library of Congress » Rare Books and Special Collections
9M ago
—This is a guest post by Mark Dimunation, former chief of the Rare Book and Special Collections Division. It also appears in the May-June issue of the Library of Congress Magazine, which is devoted to the June opening the David M. Rubenstein Treasures Gallery.
Soon after Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865, at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., he was carried across the street to a boarding house. At 7:22 the next morning, the 16th president of the United States took his last breath.
Secretary of War Edwin Stanton is reported to have said, “Now he belongs to the ag ..read more
The Library of Congress » Rare Books and Special Collections
9M ago
This piece is adapted from articles in the May-June issue of the Library of Congress Magazine.
The Library preserves collective memories representing entire societies as well as intimate records of of important moment and rites of passage in individual lives.
This June, the Library will open “Collecting Memories: Treasures from the Library of Congress,” an exhibition that explores the ways cultures preserve memory. The exhibition is the first in the Library’s new David M. Rubenstein Treasures Gallery.
Rubenstein — a co-executive chairman of the Carlyle Group and chair of the James Madison Coun ..read more
The Library of Congress » Rare Books and Special Collections
11M ago
— This is a guest post by Marianna Stell, a reference specialist in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division. It also appears in the March-April issue of the Library of Congress Magazine.
In the medieval world, impossibly small, cleverly constructed objects made of precious materials were appreciated for their craftsmanship and their inherent miraculous quality.
The Edith Book of Hours, a handwritten 14th-century volume of prayers, is such an object, one that today still prompts viewers to ask: How could anyone create something so small?
The book, which measures just 25/8 inches tall and ..read more
The Library of Congress » Rare Books and Special Collections
1y ago
Nathan Dorn is the curator of the rare books collection in the Law Library.
Describe your work at the Library.
I am the curator of the rare books collection at the Law Library of Congress, which is mostly a collection of historical printed law books from Europe, the British Isles and the Americas. That role includes a handful of different tasks. I’m the recommending officer for the collection, which means I spend a lot of my time analyzing the collection and shopping for books to acquire that would grow it in useful directions. I’m the reference librarian for questions that relate to objects i ..read more
The Library of Congress » Rare Books and Special Collections
1y ago
After the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, the delegates wanted to spread word of their momentous action throughout the Colonies as quickly as possible.
The president of Congress, John Hancock, ordered the document to be printed as a broadside, a single-sheet format popular in that era for quickly distributing important information.
That first printing of the Declaration today is known as the Dunlap Broadside, named for the man who produced it for Congress, Philadelphia printer John Dunlap. Original copies are extremely rare: Only about two dozen su ..read more