Library of Congress Magazine May/June 2025

Native American Art
May/June 2025
On the cover: “Lucille Echohawk, CIPX DAM.” Will Wilson made this platinum palladium print portrait of Lucille Echohawk, a citizen of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma, in 2013. © Will Wilson. Used by permission
Vice President Charles Curtis (center) greets a Native American delegation in 1928. Curtis was the first Native to serve in the House and the Senate and as vice president of the U.S. Prints and Photographs Division

Features

  • LCM logo
  • 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.
  • 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

loc.gov/connect

Library of Congress National Recording Registry 2025 logo
25 new recordings are joining the registry due to their cultural, historic or aesthetic importance.
  • (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”
Collage of vinyl records and iconic album covers cascading diagonally, featuring artists such as Amy Winehouse, Mary J. Blige, and Celine Dion, along with artwork from the musical Hamilton, vintage musical groups, and other culturally significant recordings.
Trending
A violin resting on dark red velvet against a light brown leather background.
The Tuscan-Medici viola, commissioned by Grand Prince Ferdinando de’ Medici of Tuscany from Antonio Stradivari in 1690. Shawn Miller

Extraordinary Stradivari

1690 viola acquired by Library as historic gift.
The 1690 Tuscan-Medici viola by Antonio Stradivari — 16 inches of gorgeous sound and graceful curves of rich spruce and flame maple. The viola, one of only 10 by Stradivari known to exist, is noted for its remarkable state of preservation and beauty.

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.

off the shelf
This remarkable Book of Psalms, published in London in 1641, measures only 3 by 2 inches. Shawn Miller

Spirituality and Style

A 1640s prayer book or luxury fashion staple?
If you were a well-born English lady from a prosperous 17th-century family, you might be just as likely to accessorize your satin gown with earrings or a fan as you would an elaborately embroidered prayer book.

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.

online offerings
A memorial quilt with the name "Scooby Bowman" and red roses laid across it.
Roses rest upon a panel of the AIDS Quilt during a commemoration in the Library’s Great Hall in 2019. Shawn Miller

The AIDS Quilt

Digitized records for the world’s largest communal art project are now online.
The Library recently released a groundbreaking new online collection, the AIDS Memorial Quilt Records, that makes one of the most poignant symbols of the AIDS epidemic in the U.S. available to a global audience.

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.

favorite place
A mural depicting a procession of medieval figures on horseback in a pastoral landscape.
Interior view of a library-like space with high ceilings, bright lights, murals, and rows of card catalog drawers.

‘Canterbury Tales’ Mural

They’re all there, trotting across a room at the Library of Congress on horseback: the miller, the knight, the nun, the wife of Bath and a long line of traveling companions, 32 in all.

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.

Graphic design with bold white text reading “‘The Wizard of Oz’” overlaying a red circle. On the left, the Tin Man character from the 1939 film is posed in mid-step with a cheerful expression.
Library acquires an important collection of music and lyric sketches from the iconic film.

By Laura Lynn Broadhurst, Mark Eden Horowitz and Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres
The yellow brick road from Land of Oz, a re-creation of the film’s fictitious setting located in Beech Mountain, North Carolina. Carol M. Highsmith Archive/Prints and Photographs Division
Since its release in 1939, “The Wizard of Oz” has touched generations of Americans: The movie is family viewing tradition for millions, and its iconic songs — from “Over the Rainbow” to “We’re Off to See the Wizard” — have been part of the nation’s playlist for decades.

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.

page from the past

Comanche Eyewitness to History

Map drawn by Native artist chronicles little-known battle.
Background: Carington Bowles depicted the Spanish territory of New Mexico in this 1774 map. Geography and Map Division
Soon after the battle, a Comanche warrior put pen to paper to tell the story, in pictures.

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.

“Time Keepers” by John Hitchcock and Emily Arthur, 2021. Screenprint, acrylic paint, color pencil and dye. © John Hitchcock and Emily Arthur. Used by permission

Native
American
Art

Ongoing project preserves photos and artworks by descendants of America’s first peoples.

By Neely Tucker
When Zig Jackson was a broke college kid in the 1970s, he found himself wandering the country with his beloved camera, taking pictures that nobody wanted of people who had been shoved to the edges of the American landscape.

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.”

for you
Historical map of Tahlequah, Indian Territory, from 1894, showing streets, blocks, and key buildings like the Cherokee Nation Capitol.

Gateway to Exploration

Guide helps researchers navigate collections related to Native peoples.
The Library of Congress holdings that relate to Indigenous American histories and cultures are vast. Recently, the Library launched a new overview guide that ties together a range of resources connected to Indigenous American communities.

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.

My Job
Sarah Kostelecky headshot
COURTESY OF SARAH KOSTELECKY

Sarah Kostelecky improves access to Native American collections.

Describe your work at the Library.
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.

Devonne Harris and Kevin Harris II dance in the Great Hall. Johnathon Moulds

Preserving
cultural
practices

Grants help Native communities document traditional language and arts.

By Wendi A. Maloney
Group photo of seven men standing in a marble hallway under a “Researcher Access” sign at the Library of Congress. They wear a mix of casual and cultural attire, representing a diverse group of visitors or presenters.
Devonne Harris (from left) and Diop Harris of the Nottawaseppi Huron Band join the Library’s John Fenn with fellow band members Kevin Harris II, Daejion Morseau, Lovelle Marshall and Johnathon Moulds. JW Newson
Last summer, two men from Fulton Township, Michigan, walked quietly onto the mosaic floor of the Library of Congress’ Great Hall. There, dressed in regalia of the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of the Potawatomi, brothers Devonne Harris and Kevin Harris II began to dance.

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.

Around the Library
Exhibition hall with historical displays titled "The Two Georges" and visitors observing.
Visitors tour the Library’s new “Two Georges: Parallel Lives in an Age of Revolution” exhibition on March 27.
Two men in business attire inside a grand historic building with ornate arches and a large clock.
Actor John Rhys-Davies tours the Library on April 3.
A couple in historical costumes dances in an ornate ballroom with other costumed dancers.
Costumed revelers dance in the Great Hall on March 27 during a Regency ball celebrating the opening of the “Two Georges” exhibition.
Cherry tree with blossoms supported by wooden posts under a blue sky.
A century-old cherry tree, supported by crutches, springs into bloom on the Jefferson Building grounds.
People examining documents at an exhibition table during an event.
Library curators display new collections acquisitions on April 1.
Person in a blue kimono speaking into a microphone on a stage with Japanese calligraphy on a scroll.
Yūyūsai Sen Sōsa, the 15th grand master of Omotesenke, demonstrates the hidden essence, beauty and spirit of the Japanese way of tea.
ALL PHOTOS BY SHAWN MILLER

News Briefs

  • 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.

  • 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.

Shop

Book cover of Living Nations, Living Words: An Anthology of First Peoples Poetry, collected and introduced by Joy Harjo, with bold white title text over a muted map background and black border.

‘Living Nations, Living Words’

Product #21108608
Price: $15

Former U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo gathers the work of contemporary Native poets into this volume, a celebration of their vital contributions to American poetry.
Bobblehead figure of the Wicked Witch of the West with green skin, black robe, and pointed hat, standing on a base with a flying monkey crouched behind her and a section of the yellow brick road in front.

‘Wizard of Oz’ bobbleheads

Price: $45 each
 

Celebrate the classic “Wizard of Oz” with these 8-inch bobbleheads of your favorite characters. Choose from Dorothy, the Wicked Witch, Tin Man, Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion.
Book cover of The Two Georges: Parallel Lives in an Age of Revolution featuring a side-by-side comparison of King George III in a red military uniform and George Washington in a beige and blue colonial uniform.

‘The Two Georges’

Price: $49.95 (hardcover),
$24.95 (paperback)

This beautifully illustrated volume — the companion to the Library exhibit — compares the lives of George Washington and King George III. Available in paperback (product #21111120) and hardcover (#21111121).
support
Entrance to the Stone Child College Library with open glass doors and hallway view.
Person in gray hoodie holds a book titled "We Sang You Home" in front of a microphone.
Zaneta Walking Child Ahenakew records an audiobook of “We Sang You Home” at the Stone Child College Library. Courtesy of Joy Bridwell

Voices of Home

NLS records audiobooks at tribal library in Montana.
The whole is always greater than the sum of its parts. In June 2024, Stone Child College, a tribal land-grant community college in Box Elder, Montana, invited its community to record audiobooks for the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS).

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.”

Help shape the next 225 years of the nation’s library.
Join Friends of the Library of Congress.
last word
Wendy Red Star headshot
JOHN D. AND CATHERINE T. MACARTHUR FOUNDATION

Wendy Red Star

In early April of last year, I made a special trip to Washington, D.C., from Portland, Oregon, to research the archives pertaining to my community, the Apsáalooke. I was specifically looking for information on the last chief of the Crow Nation, Chief Plenty Coups. I was not only delighted to find information on him in print, books, newspapers and glass plate negatives, but I also discovered a wealth of material on my tribe.

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.

Colorful artwork featuring a large, geometric star quilt pattern in peach, olive green, and white overlaid on a background of hand-drawn constellations labeled "Dust." Three identical sepia-toned portraits of a Native American man in a uniform with a sheriff’s badge are placed at the bottom, suggesting themes of identity, heritage, and cosmic connection.
“Dust” by Wendy Red Star, 2021. Lithograph.
© Wendy Red Star. Used by permission
Circular badge logo with a gold torch atop a domed rooftop in the center, surrounded by the words “AFTERNOONS WITH THE LIBRARY” in uppercase orange letters and two orange stars.
Bold orange text that reads “CONNECT” in uppercase, with smaller text below reading “TO THE COLLECTIONS,” forming a stacked logo design.
Join the Library’s daytime programming series for lifelong learners.
Immerse yourself in discovery with eclectic, thought-provoking programs—online and in-person—that connect you with the Library’s vast collections, experts and services. From insightful lectures and discussions to concerts, author conversations, and deep dives into the collections and research centers, afternoons are more interesting with the Library.
Learn More
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White text on a transparent background reads: "Create your LIBRARY legacy with a gift in your will," with "LIBRARY" emphasized in bold capital letters.
White text on a transparent background reads: "Create your LIBRARY legacy with a gift in your will," with "LIBRARY" emphasized in bold capital letters.

Current Exhibitions

Collage of three photos from the Library of Congress exhibitions. The top photo shows display panels featuring portraits of King George III and George Washington with exhibit titles “British Beginnings” and The Two Georges: Parallel Lives in an Age of Revolution. The bottom left image depicts visitors viewing artifacts in glass cases under a vaulted, ornate ceiling. The bottom right image shows a man walking past tall bookcases in a richly decorated exhibition hall.
THE TWO GEORGES
Open now

COLLECTING MEMORIES: TREASURES FROM THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Ongoing

THOMAS JEFFERSON’S LIBRARY
Ongoing

More Information

loc.gov/exhibits

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