Library of Congress Magazine May/June 2025
Features
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8‘Wizard of Oz’
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12Native American Art
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20Preserving Tradition
Departments
- May / June 2025
Vol. 14 No. 3 - Mission of the Library of Congress
- The Library’s mission is to engage, inspire and inform Congress and the American people with a universal and enduring source of knowledge and creativity.
- Library of Congress Magazine is issued bimonthly by the Office of Communications of the Library of Congress and distributed free of charge to publicly supported libraries and research institutions, donors, academic libraries, learned societies and allied organizations in 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/. All other correspondence should be addressed to the Office of Communications, Library of Congress, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington DC 20540-1610.
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news@loc.gov
loc.gov/lcm
ISSN 2169-0855 (print)
ISSN 2169-0863 (online) - Carla Hayden
Librarian of Congress - William Ryan
Executive Editor - Mark Hartsell
Editor - Ashley Jones
Designer - Shawn Miller
Photo Editor -
Contributors
Laura Lynn Broadhurst
Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres
Deb Fiscella
Kaley Harman
Mark Horowitz
Sahar Kazmi
Sarah Kostelecky
Wendi A. Maloney
Maria Peña
Wendy Red Star
Neely Tucker
Connect On

- (1952) Roy Rogers and Dale Evans “Happy Trails”
- (1969) Chicago “Chicago Transit Authority”
- (1970) Miles Davis “Bitches Brew”
- (1973) Elton John “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”
- (1988) Tracy Chapman “Tracy Chapman”
- (1994) Mary J. Blige “My Life”
- (1995) Brian Eno Microsoft Windows Reboot Chime
- (1997) Celine Dion “My Heart Will Go On”
- (2002) Chanticleer “Our American Journey”
- (2006) Amy Winehouse “Back to Black”
- (2011) Daniel Rosenfeld “Minecraft: Volume Alpha”
- (2015) Original Broadway Cast Recording “Hamilton”


Extraordinary Stradivari
And, now, it has found a permanent home at the Library through a historic acquisition.
Ferdinando de’ Medici, the grand prince of Tuscany and patron of music in Florence, commissioned the viola from Stradivari in 1690. By the late 1700s, it had arrived in England. There the instrument remained, passing through the hands of various collectors until 1924, when it was sold to American amateur musician and Macy’s department store heir Herbert N. Straus.
In 1957, violist, philanthropist and educator Cameron Baird of Buffalo, New York, purchased the instrument from the Straus estate. After Baird’s death, his wife, Jane, placed the viola on loan with the Library in 1977 in a collaborative custodial arrangement.
Spirituality and Style
Equal parts devotional item and chic accessory, small, ornate prayer books — like the 3-inch-tall Book of Psalms held in the Library’s Lessing J. Rosenwald collection — were a common way to showcase both great wealth and piety in this era of European society. An aristocratic lady might have carried the book with her to church or, like a piece of prized jewelry, brought it out for special occasions.
This customized 1641 Book of Psalms is a marvel not only for its diminutive size, but also for its remarkable condition and lavish decoration. At more than 380 years old, its golden threads remain unfrayed, and its intricate swirls of tiny seed pearls — hundreds of them — appear almost perfectly intact.

The AIDS Quilt
As the largest communal art project in the world, the AIDS Memorial Quilt honors the lives of Americans who have died of AIDS since 1981, the year the disease was first identified.
Housed in San Francisco, the physical quilt consists of 55 tons of fabric and holds hundreds of stories of love, loss and resilience. In 2019, records accompanying the quilt were entrusted to the Library’s American Folklife Center for safekeeping.


‘Canterbury Tales’ Mural
The scene is, literally, high art — a life-size tribute to a 600-year-old literary milestone, “The Canterbury Tales,” painted by Ezra Winter atop the walls of an Adams Building reading room.
Winter was one of America’s foremost muralists. A farm boy from Michigan, he attended the American Academy in Rome, designed camouflaging for American ships during World War I and later created works for, among others, the U.S. Supreme Court and Radio City Music Hall. He married Edna Grace Patricia Murphey Alberts, a successful businesswoman of many names and many talents who manufactured beauty products and made herself a fortune.

Those songs and others from the film were written by two of the most accomplished songwriters working in Hollywood and on Broadway: lyricist Yip Harburg and composer Harold Arlen. Harburg had penned the lyrics for classics such as “April in Paris” and “Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime?” Arlen would compose over 500 songs, many of them standards: “Come Rain or Come Shine,” “Stormy Weather,” “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive,” “The Man That Got Away.”
With “Oz,” Arlen and Harburg reached the pinnacle of their public recognition — and especially with “Over the Rainbow,” which won the Oscar for best original song and today is regarded as one of the 20th century’s greatest songs.
Comanche Eyewitness to History
He drew a simple map, ringed with images of warriors and weapons, that chronicles a little-known, 18th-century battle between the Comanches and Apaches in the Spanish frontier province of New Mexico.
The fight, today known as the Battle of Sierra Blanca, was years in the making.
Apache warriors frequently raided Spanish settlements in New Mexico, a constant concern for provincial Gov. Juan Bautista de Anza. Unable to track and defeat the elusive Apache themselves, the Spanish enlisted the help of their Comanche allies — a mortal enemy of the Apaches.
Native
American
Art
He was born and raised on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota, the seventh of 10 children. His name there was Rising Buffalo, and he was an enrolled member of the Three Affiliated Tribes — Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara. He endured brutal treatment at one boarding school for Native Americans or another, coming out of the experience with not much other than an artistic vision and vague plans for a better life. He wanted to show Native Americans as they were, with an eye that was as humorous as it was empathetic.
“I was just a lonely kid driving in my VW bus, driving to reservations to take my pictures,” he says now. “I didn’t have any idea anyone would want them.”

Gateway to Exploration
Indigenous Peoples of the Americas: A Guide to Resources at the Library of Congress serves as a gateway to further exploration of the Library’s historical collections — maps, sound recordings, personal papers, organizational records, legal resources and more — through links to format-specific research guides.

Sarah Kostelecky improves access to Native American collections.
As a program specialist, I focus on enhancing access to Native American collections for people researching Native American topics through the development and revision of subject headings.
In my work, I gather information from library colleagues, including Native American librarians and archivists, as well as from tribal community members. This is part of the research needed to revise existing U.S. Indigenous headings to modern and accurate usage.
My day might include attending a meeting with people working in tribal public libraries in New Mexico, searching library catalogs for subject headings on specific Indigenous books, or connecting with my co-workers with questions about subject heading proposals from catalogers across the U.S. on Indigenous topics.
Preserving
cultural
practices

A videographer stood by, recording their performance for a project documenting their culture and heritage.
The Huron Band is one of 30 awardees across the U.S. to receive a Community Collections Grant between 2022 and 2024. Funded by the Mellon Foundation and administered by the American Folklife Center (AFC) at the Library, the yearlong grants are helping communities preserve unique cultural practices for future generations.
Recipients include multiple Native American and Indigenous groups.






News Briefs
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Barnett Named Ambassador For Young People’s Literature
The Library and Every Child a Reader announced the appointment of Mac Barnett as the 2025-26 national ambassador for young people’s literature.Barnett is the author of more than 60 books for children, including “Twenty Questions,” “Sam & Dave Dig a Hole,” “A Polar Bear in the Snow” and “Extra Yarn,” as well as the popular “Mac B., Kid Spy” series of novels, “The First Cat in Space” graphic novels and “The Shapes Trilogy” picture books.
During his two-year term as ambassador, Barnett will celebrate the children’s picture book through his platform, “Behold, The Picture Book! Let’s Celebrate Stories We Can Feel, Hear, and See.”
“Picture books are a beautiful, sophisticated and vibrant art form, the source of some of the most profound reading experiences in children’s (and adults’) lives. I am, of course, excited to talk to young readers,” Barnett said.
MORE: loc.gov/item/prn-25-006 -
Copyright Office Releases Part 2 of its Report on AI
The U.S. Copyright Office, part of the Library of Congress, released Part 2 of its report on the legal and policy issues related to copyright and artificial intelligence. This part of the report addresses the copyrightability of outputs created using generative AI.The Copyright Office affirms that existing principles of copyright law are flexible enough to apply to this new technology, as they have applied to technological innovations in the past. It concludes that the outputs of generative AI can be protected by copyright only where a human author has determined sufficient expressive elements.
Part 1 was published last July and recommended federal legislation to respond to the unauthorized distribution of digital replicas that realistically but falsely depict an individual. The final, forthcoming Part 3 will address the legal implications of training AI models on copyrighted works.
MORE: loc.gov/item/prn-25-010
Shop

‘Living Nations, Living Words’
Product #21108608
Price: $15

‘Wizard of Oz’ bobbleheads
Price: $45 each

‘The Two Georges’
Price: $49.95 (hardcover),
$24.95 (paperback)


Voices of Home
Funded by the collective annual contributions of Friends of the Library of Congress, NLS staff members set up equipment for volunteers to narrate books in English and Cree. Alice Baker O’Reilly, chief of the Collections Division of NLS, highlighted the value of community members narrating stories in their library’s collection: “Someone who sounds like home is reading you a book about home — you can’t fake that.”

Join Friends of the Library of Congress.

Wendy Red Star
The information I found is a valuable resource for a solo exhibition I will have at the National Portrait Gallery in D.C. in 2026. This exhibition will focus on Chief Plenty Coups’ life, his travels to D.C., his reverence for the land and his congressional testimonies advocating for the Crow people.
It also will highlight his inspiration for creating his own mini-Mount Vernon on the Crow Indian Reservation, land he gifted to be turned into a state park that now holds his estate, burial site, visitor center, house and sacred spring. This vision was deeply influenced by his first trip to Washington, D.C., in 1880 as part of a delegation of Crow chiefs. I can even imagine that on one of his many trips, he might have visited the Library of Congress.

© Wendy Red Star. Used by permission



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