Library of Congress Magazine May/June 2016 America’S Public Libraries Evolving and Thriving
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS MAGAZINE MAY/JUNE 2016 AMERICA’S PUBLIC LIBRARIES EVOLVING AND THRIVING INSIDE Imagery of U.S. Public Libraries Shared Riches of Private Libraries PLUS The Mother of Mother’s Day Alice’s Adventures in the Library Happy Birthday, James Madison LOC.GOV MAY/JUNE 2016 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS MAGAZINE In This Issue Library of Congress Magazine FEATURES Vol. 5 No. 3: May/June 2016 Mission of the Library of Congress The Library’s central mission is to provide The Riches of Private Libraries Congress, and then the federal government, and 8 Acquisitions of personal collections provide the Library of Congress the American people with a rich, diverse, and a wealth of items that are accessible to the public. enduring source of knowledge that can be relied upon to inform, inspire, and engage them, and support their intellectual and creative endeavors. Diversity of the American Library 10 Photographer Robert Dawson views the United States through Library of Congress Magazine is issued the lens of its varied public libraries. bimonthly by the Office of Communications of the Library of Congress and distributed free of charge to publicly supported libraries and America’s Public Libraries: Evolving and Thriving research institutions, donors, academic libraries, 15 More popular than ever, public libraries in this country are changing learned societies and allied organizations in 4 to meet the needs of the communities they serve. “Alice” at 150 the United States. Research institutions and educational organizations in other countries may arrange to receive Library of Congress Magazine on an exchange basis by applying in writing to the Library’s Director for Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington DC 20540-4100. LCM is also available on the web at loc.gov/lcm/. DEPARTMENTS All other correspondence should be addressed to the Office of Communications, Library of Congress, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., 02 22 7 Washington DC 20540-1610. Trending My Job at the Library 03 23 Jacob Riis [email protected] The Library in History Favorite Places loc.gov/lcm 04 24 ISSN 2169-0855 (print) Page from the Past Around the Library ISSN 2169-0863 (online) 06 How Do I? 25 News Briefs David S. Mao 07 Curator’s Picks 26 Shop the Library Acting Librarian of Congress 19 27 Expert’s Corner Support the Library Gayle Osterberg Executive Editor 20 Going to Extremes 28 Last Word 21 Audrey Fischer Online Offerings Editor John H. Sayers 24 Managing Editor ON THE COVER: This sculpture titled “Psyche” by Ralph Helmick and Stu Schecter, featuring The Martha Graham Dance Company Ashley Jones books and butterflies in the shape of a head, hangs in Salt Lake City’s Main Library. Robert Designer Dawson,Public Library Survey Collection, Prints and Photographs Division Shawn Miller “Falling Books,” a four-story sculpture by Frank Eliscu, hangs on the Photo Editor front of the Library’s James Madison Memorial Building. Shawn Miller Contributing Writers Erin Allen CONNECT ON Barbara Bair Yvonne Dooley Twitter: @librarycongress Pinterest: pinterest.com/LibraryCongress/ Elizabeth Gettins Youtube: youtube.com/libraryofcongress Instagram: @librarycongress August Imholtz Facebook: facebook.com/libraryofcongress Library of Congress blogs: blogs.loc.gov Clare Imholtz Flickr: flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/ LCM online: loc.gov/lcm Brad Meltzer Wayne Wiegand MAY/JUNE 2016 | LOC.GOV/LCM 1 #trending AT THE LIBRARY the library IN HISTORY THE MOTHER OF MOTHER’S DAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ONE WEST VIRGINIA DAUGHTER SUCCEEDED IN MEMORIALIZING MOTHERS EVERYWHERE. JAMES MADISON THE “FATHER OF THE CONSTITUTION” ALSO Greeting cards, flowers, candy, dining out—Mother’s Day HELPED CONCEIVE THE NATION’S LIBRARY. is big business. Sales figures for the popular retail holiday topped $20 billion in the U.S. last year. The nation’s fourth No one was more dismayed by the commercialization of president also Mother’s Day than Anna Jarvis (1864-1948), the woman helped establish— who spearheaded the effort to memorialize mothers and later re- more than a century ago. establish—the nation’s library. The ninth of 11 children, Jarvis was born in Webster, West James Madison Virginia, on May 1, 1864. Her mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, first proposed was a social activist who founded Mothers’ Day Work Clubs to the idea of a combat poor health and sanitation conditions in the area. Only congressional four of her children survived to adulthood. The others succumbed library in 1783. to such diseases as measles, typhoid fever and diphtheria, which were That year, a common in Appalachian communities. She also led her community’s effort committee chaired to tend to wounded soldiers—the Blue and the Gray—during the Civil War. by Madison submitted a list After the war, Mrs. Jarvis continued to unite the deeply divided community of approximately by spearheading “Mothers Friendship Day” for the families of Confederate 1,300 books to and Union soldiers. During one of her Sunday school lessons, she told the Confederation the children that she hoped and prayed someone would devote a day to Congress that were For their unique connection to the institution, The James Madison honor mothers. “proper for the Memorial Building | use of Congress.” Jefferson, Adams and Madison are each Shawn Miller The sentiment wasn’t lost on her daughter. Following her mother’s death Madison urged memorialized with a Library of Congress on May 9, 1905, Anna began a campaign to honor her mother and mothers that “it was building on Capitol Hill bearing their name. James Madison’s everywhere. Three years later, Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in indispensable that statue is in the Library’s Opened on April 24, 1980, the Library’s James Madison Memorial Hall. Grafton, West Virginia, was the site of the first official Mother’s Day Congress should Madison Building serves as the nation’s official Carol M. Highsmith celebration. The church has since been designated the “International have at all times memorial to the fourth president. A statue of Archive, Prints and Mother’s Day Shrine.” at command” Photographs Division Madison by sculptor Walker Hancock is the focal authorities on Jarvis continued to campaign for a national holiday. Her efforts culminated point of Madison Hall, which is also adorned by public law whose expertise “would render . their in legislation passed by Congress and signed by President Woodrow Wilson the statesman’s quotations. Anna M. Jarvis, half-length portrait | Prints on May 9, 1914, that declared flags be flown “on the second Sunday in proceedings conformable to propriety; and it was and Photographs Division May as a public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our observed that the want of this information was In close proximity to Madison Hall, the country.” The first national celebration was held on May 10, 1914. manifest in several important acts of Congress.” Library’s Manuscript Division houses the James The “Mother With Children” statue by William His proposal was defeated because of “the Madison Papers, which document his activities Douglas Hopen is outside the International A victim of her movement’s success, Jarvis spent much of the rest of her inconveniency of advancing even a few hundred Mother’s Day Shrine, at the Andrews Methodist as a member of the Continental Congress, pounds at this crisis.” Episcopal Church in Grafton, West Virginia. Carol life railing against the increasing commercialization of the holiday all over his role in the Constitutional Convention of M. Highsmith Archive, Prints and Photographs the world. Her protests, which began first with florists, escalated to arrests 1787, his tenure as secretary of state during the The Library of Congress was established Division for public disturbances. She even took first lady Eleanor Roosevelt to task presidency of Thomas Jefferson and his two through an act of Congress signed by President for using the holiday to promote the health and welfare of women and terms as president. Madison’s papers and related John Adams on April 24, 1800. Fifteen years The birthplace of Anna Jarvis is in the children—a cause that her mother championed. Increasingly erratic, Jarvis documents are available on the Library’s website. unincorporated town of Webster in Taylor County, died in a sanitarium in 1948. later, President Madison approved an act West Virginia. Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Prints of Congress appropriating $23,950 for the and Photographs Division —Audrey Fischer purchase of a large collection of books belonging MORE INFORMATION Background image: Andrews Methodist Episcopal MORE INFORMATION to Thomas Jefferson to replace the nascent Guide to the Library’s Digital Resources on James Madison Church, the International Mother’s Day Shrine, congressional library that was burned by the is in Grafton, West Virginia. Carol M. Highsmith Research Mother’s Day in Historic Newspapers British during the War of 1812. loc.gov/rr/program/bib/presidents/madison/ Archive, Prints and Photographs Division loc.gov/rr/news/topics/mothers.html 2 LCM | LIBRARY OF CONGRESS MAGAZINE MAY/JUNE 2016 | LOC.GOV/LCM 3 page FROM THE PAST ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS “Alice” grew out of a fanciful tale Shawn Miller that Carroll told the three daughters “Alice’s of Henry Liddell, Dean of Christ Church, LEWIS CARROLL SCRAPBOOK Adventures in Oxford, during a boat trip in the summer of Wonderland”— a book that has never 1862. Several years later, he presented one of Perhaps the rarest Carroll treasure owned by been out of print since its original the daughters—Alice—with his handwritten and the Library is a scrapbook he kept from 1855 publication 150 years ago—did not get off self-illustrated manuscript copy of the story titled to 1872. Carroll spent his whole adult to a good start. “Alice’s Adventures Under Ground,” which she life at Christ Church, Oxford—first as an had urged him to put in writing for her.