Library of Congress

It still blooms beautifully, despite needing some support. The Library’s trees were transplanted to Capitol Hill in 1922 as the result of necessary thinning of the Tidal Basin grove.

Celebrating SPRING with a reminder that the projected start of peak bloom for Washington’s cherry blossoms is between March 29 and April 1! 🌸 Did you know the two Library of Congress cherry trees are among just a handful of documented originals from the 1912 gift from Japan? Including this one. 🧵⬇️

On this day in 1918, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson signed the Standard Time Act, establishing Daylight Saving Time. It aimed to conserve fuel during World War I. This poster advertising a postcard campaign in support of the bill is in the World War I posters collection at the Library of Congress.

President Grover Cleveland was born on this day in 1837. As one of two presidents to serve two full terms during the publication run of the first successful political humor magazine in the U.S., "Puck," the Library's collections contain many interesting political cartoons featuring his likeness.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! The Irish holiday is so widely celebrated in the U.S. in part due to the estimated 4.5 million Irish who immigrated here between 1820 to 1930. ☘️ Notably, when the Ellis Island Immigration Station opened in 1892, Irish teenager Annie Moore was the first to pass through.

The Library is looking for its next Innovator in Residence! Through April 10, the Library invites technologists, artists and other creative visionaries to propose imaginative proof of concepts designed to help the public connect with digital Library materials. newsroom.loc.gov/news/library-o…

Fourth U.S. President James Madison, namesake for one of the Library’s Capitol Hill buildings, was born on this day in 1751. In this photo (left), Walker Hancock works on a maquette of the marble statue of Madison that now sits in the James Madison Memorial Hall inside the Madison Building (right).

NOTICE: Due to inclement weather, Library of Congress buildings are closed to the public as of 1 p.m. today, Monday, March 16.

The Library of Congress has the largest flute collection on earth. Dayton C. Miller, born on this day 160 years ago, is the person to thank for that. Miller amassed nearly 1,700 wind instruments during his lifetime, donating them to the Library of Congress in the 1940s. ⬇️ loc.gov/collections/da…

The first Girl Scouts troop was founded #OTD in 1912 in Georgia. 🍪 By the 1920s, the group was already known for its cookies, as evidenced by these images from the Library’s Prints and Photographs Division and historic newspaper archive, of First Lady Grace Coolidge sampling them at the White House.

"A Raisin in the Sun" premiered in the Barrymore Theatre on Broadway #OTD in 1959. This original poster is in the Library's collection. It was the first Broadway play written by a Black woman, Lorraine Hansberry, who was only 28 at the time. #WomensHistoryMonth

For Harriet Tubman Day, we'd like to share this story from 2017, when a remarkable photo album containing a previously unknown photograph of Harriet Tubman was jointly acquired by the Library and the Smithsonian, and conserved for future generations. ⬇️ blogs.loc.gov/loc/2018/03/ha… #HarrietTubmanDay

MAGAZINE MONDAY | You watched the shows. You loved the songs. Composer Charles Fox set an era of iconic TV programs to music: “The Love Boat,” “Happy Days,” “Wonder Woman,” “Laverne and Shirley” and many more. A trove of his papers are at the Library. lcm.loc.gov/issue/january-…

The Library's Manuscript Division has several collections related to these journalists, including the papers of Ruby A. Black, May Craig, Bess Furman, Hope Ridings Miller, and Ann Cottrell Free, all members of “Mrs. Roosevelt’s Press Conference Association.”

As the Great Depression threatened the tenuous foothold of women on newspaper staffs, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt instituted a weekly, women-only press conference at the White House to force news organizations to employ at least one woman reporter. The first was held on this day in 1933. 🧵

NEWS: The Library has acquired one of the earliest known drawings of Yosemite Valley, from 1855, by artist Thomas Almond Ayres. Ayres’ sketches were the source for the first published image of Yosemite at a time when drawings shaped how people saw the American West. newsroom.loc.gov/news/library-a…

This year isn't the first milestone celebration for the USA. In 1876, the country's 100th anniversary exhibition was held primarily in Philadelphia’s sprawling Fairmount Park. The first steam-powered monorail in the nation provided visitor transportation! Read more: blogs.loc.gov/inside_adams/2…

The National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS), the program that eventually came from the bill passed by Congress 95 years ago, is still part of the Library today, and has a total annual circulation of more than 22 million items! loc.gov/nls/?loclr=twl…

#OTD in 1931, Congress voted to create a national library service for the blind. This came decades after 7th Librarian of Congress John Russell Young established the very concept of a national library for the blind, overseeing the creation a reading room for the blind at the Library in 1897. 🧵