What do genetically-engineered dinosaurs, sailors on shore leave, Victorian flower girls and a homicidal novelist have in common? They’re all being added to the Library of Congress this year. The National Film Registry, now in its 30th year, has announced its 2018 selections for motion pictures to be preserved on Capitol Hill for their cultural,…
I saw censor’s marks for the first time at the Library of Congress, home to a priceless collection of Hebrew books. I opened a 1486 edition of the machzor, a High Holidays prayer book labeled Minhag Roma, or Roman rite — printed in Italy, bound in marbled boards and featuring leather corners — and gasped…
When a climate apocalypse one day destroys human civilization, at least alien archaeologists will be able to become acquainted with Groucho Marx. “An Evening With Groucho” (1972), a recording of the legendary comedian’s final one-man show, is one of the 25 recordings newly added to the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry. In a testament…
A volume of the first Talmud to be printed in Italy in 500 years has been donated to the Library of Congress. “Italy is the place where the Talmud was printed for the first time. … It is a very symbolic event that we wanted to share with the wider public,” Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni…
Among the more than 200 items which are slated to appear in the Library of Congress exhibit “The Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Long Struggle for Freedom” in Washington, D.C. — which will be on view until September 12, 2015 — are documents written by civil rights leaders, newspaper clippings, legal briefs and artwork….
Crossposted From Under the Fig Tree Nearly 30 years ago, when musician and musicologist Henry Sapoznik first stumbled across a cache of aluminum transcription disks of Yiddish radio shows from interwar America, little did he suspect that they would find a home at the Library of Congress. Abandoned in an attic, deposited in a dumpster,…
The Library of Congress [has launched][1] an online “National Jukebox” of some 10,000 historical recordings. The New York Times profiles guitarist Gary Lucas on the occasion of his new CD, “The Ordeal of Civility.” Argentine artist Marta Minujine has built a 25-meter Tower of Babel out of 30,000 books. A student remembers Yeshiva University economics…
Each Thursday, The Arty Semite features excerpts and reviews of the best contemporary Jewish poetry. This week, Rodger Kamenetz introduces “Glass” by Robert Pinsky. This piece originally appeared on October 5, 2001, as part of the Forward’s Psalm 151 series. It is being published here online for the first time. Robert Pinsky, poet and translator,…
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