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Photo: Kings Mountain National Military Park/Open Parks Network 400Approximate number of libraries operated by the National Park Service (NPS). 3.5 millionNumber of materials housed in the NPS History Collection at the Harpers Ferry (W.Va.) Center for Media Services. The collection includes art, documents, photos, sound recordings, uniforms, and other objects. 25Number of parks represented in the […]
20th-century vintage sewing and knitting patterns in the library at Arizona State University’s Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles. Photo: Arizona State University’s Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising London, Milan, New York, and Paris will host their Fashion Weeks throughout September and October. 754Number of 20th-century vintage sewing and knitting patterns […]
Photo: Aaron Clamage First things first: Legends don’t need middle names. “It’s Smokey Bear, not Smokey the Bear,” says Sara Lee (pictured), lead librarian for special collections at the National Agricultural Library (NAL), who oversees the US Forest Service Smokey Bear Collection. That’s just one of many intriguing tidbits to be learned while visiting the […]
Photo: Arizona State University Library, Special Collections American Library Association’s LibLearnX Conference in Phoenix will take place Jan. 24–27. 28,000Number of Indigenous artists represented in the Billie Jane Baguley Library and Archives (BJBLA), located within the Heard Museum in Phoenix. Like the museum, BJBLA’s holdings include traditional and contemporary American Indian artists’ art, written works, […]
The Dr. Seuss and Cat in the Hat statue outside Geisel Library, the main library of University of California San Diego Photo: Felix Lipov The American Library Association’s 2024 Annual Conference and Exhibition will be held June 27–July 2 in San Diego. 4Number of crown-shaped chandeliers designed by author L. Frank Baum for the Hotel del […]
Photo: Brett Alan Photography Kelley Woolley remembers visiting San Diego Zoo and its Safari Park as a kid. The big cats, giraffes, and koalas were often her first stops. She recalls watching elephants do tricks and riding the now-closed monorail, which offered great views of the tiger habitat. “I’ve been a huge animal person my […]
Photo: University of Michigan Library in Ann Arbor May is National Inventors Month 135,850Number of items in the Edison Sheet Music Collection, housed at University of Michigan Library in Ann Arbor. Thomas Edison, who invented the phonograph in 1877, spearheaded this collection as a way for his phonograph company to select vocal and instrumental scores […]
A catalog from the Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play in Rochester, New York. 230,000Number of volumes available at the Brian Sutton-Smith Library and Archives of Play, located at Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York. The museum is also home to the National Toy Hall of Fame. The library houses books, […]
World War I–era peace pins housed at the Hoover Institution Library and Archives at Stanford (Calif.) University. The pins belonged to pacifist and feminist activist Alice Park. Photos: Hoover Institution Library and Archives On a winter Chicago afternoon, near the end of her life, renowned social worker and activist Jane Addams started to burn her […]
Jenny Robb at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum at Ohio State University in Columbus. Photo: Stephen Takacs Jenny Robb says we are living in the golden age of cartoons and comics. “When I was growing up, we didn’t have graphic novels for a children’s audience,” says Robb, head curator of the Billy Ireland […]
This movie poster is one of 3,000 items in the Witchcraft Collection at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Photo: Cornell University Library’s Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections 19thCentury in which Halloween was popularized in the US, thanks in part to the arrival of Irish and Scottish immigrants. Halloween has its roots in the […]
When her son brought home speech cards from elementary school to help him better learn and articulate words, Jen Taggart could barely see what the cards depicted. The cards had been duplicated and the images were blurry, says Taggart, head of youth services at Bloomfield Township (Mich.) Public Library (BTPL). That experience more than 13 years […]
Suzanne Noruschat, Southern California studies specialist for USC Libraries Special Collections. Photo: Anne-Marie Maxwell Long before the popularity of true-crime podcasts, there was True Detective, a pulp magazine published from 1924 to 1995 that, at its peak, chronicled real-life crimes for millions of readers. Edward S. Sullivan, an editor for The Los Angeles Examiner and […]
Stats to honor Valentine’s Day (February 14) and Random Acts of Kindness Week (February 13–19). 1,100Number of public submissions received for Love Letters in Light, a poetry project conceived by artist Leila Hamidi in partnership with Los Angeles County Library (LACL) and Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. In May 2021, LED signs were […]
A Charlie Cart mobile kitchen. Illustration: The Charlie Cart Project 350Number of classes offered annually through Free Library of Philadelphia’s (FLP) Culinary Literacy Center. According to FLP, this kitchen classroom is the first of its kind created at a public library in the US. $9,000Amount that Chattanooga (Tenn.) Public Library spent on a Charlie Cart—a […]
Ellen Keith, director of the Chicago History Museum Library, displays items related to the Great Chicago Fire. Photo: Rebecca Lomax/American Libraries Nearly 150 years after it leveled 18,000 buildings and killed 300 people, the Great Chicago Fire (October 8–10, 1871) lives on—in the city’s tourist attractions, sports team names, and soon in a Chicago History […]
A drawing of Iroquois games and dances by Jesse Cornplanter resides in Amherst (Mass.) College’s collection of Indigenous materials. Photo: Amherst College Archives and Special Collections It’s not news that libraries and museums have a long and problematic history of mishandling Indigenous materials. From exhibiting culturally sensitive items to retaining materials that were unlawfully seized, […]
Amy Schindler, director of archives and special collections at University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) Libraries, holds a magic book from the Omaha (Neb.) Magical Society collection. Photo: University of Nebraska at Omaha One day, the magic collection vanished—and then reappeared. That is, the Omaha (Neb.) Magical Society moved its 1,200 magic-related books and materials […]
A flier from New York Public Library’s Dorot Jewish Division. Photo: Dorot Jewish Division/New York Public Library 2006 Year that US President George W. Bush proclaimed May Jewish American Heritage Month (JAHM). The month celebrates the contributions Jewish Americans have made since they first arrived in New Amsterdam in 1654. 5th and MarketIntersection in Philadelphia […]
