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In the Stacks

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A celebration of the life and work of Gabriel García Márquez

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photo by Maria Mendez In 2014 the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas acquired the archive of the Nobel Prize winning Latin American literary superstar Gabriel García Márquez. In 2015 the archive was opened to researchers and quickly became one of the Ransom Center's most accessed collections. Passport, 1955-1991 In 2017 an online archive of over 25,000 items from the collection was released into the world and now, for the first time, an exhibit of almost 300 items from the momentous archive, including some that have never been seen in public, are on display in the exhibition Gabriel...

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In the Stacks: Fire at the Library

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Street lined with fire engines during Los Angeles Central Library fire It was the largest library fire in the history of the United States. 400,000 books were destroyed and over 700,000 were damaged by water or smoke. It took firefighters over seven hours to put out the fire with little flare ups continuing for several days.  The epic blaze was the basis of Susan Orlean’s 2018 bestselling and New York Times Notable Book of the year, The Library Book.  Here are some images of the fire gleaned from the digital collections of the UCLA library.  They are all from the...

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In the Stacks: Medicine and Madison Avenue

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The Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History  at Duke University  holds an extensive collection of more than 3 million items that document the history of sales, advertising and marketing throughout the past two centuries. From that massive archive comes the digital collection Medicine and Madison Avenue. A gathering of close to 600 advertising items and publications illustrating the rise of consumer culture and the birth of a professionalized advertising industry in the United States. Enjoy this sampling of familiar products, and who knew one could "Minimize the After-Effects of Tobacco" with Phillips Milk of Magnesia.        ...

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Presidents and their libraries

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"To bring together the records of the past and to house them in buildings where they will be preserved for the use of men and women in the future, a Nation must believe in three things. It must believe in the past. It must believe in the future. It must, above all, believe in the capacity of its own people so to learn from the past that they can gain in judgement in creating their own future." - Franklin Roosevelt At the dedication of his library on June 30, 1941 Earlier this month it was announced the President Barack Obama's Presidential...

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Poetry is Wanted Here!

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We can't let National Poetry Month go by without a taste of some of the poetry goodness that lives within the confines of the Digital Public Library of America. From the postcard above featuring an excerpt from a poem by Alex Caldero proclaiming 'Poetry is wanted here!' to a sampling of dust jackets, to a lunch poem from second graders, poetry is alive and well at DPLA.  The First book of poetry [Title-page]. 1811 The pleasures of poetry. (Vol. 2) 1947 Poetry as a means of grace. The poetry of the Bible, a new anthology Poetry Week at Miss Duckett Monroe School Washington,...

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