FROM: U.S. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
A Celebration of Mexico: A Champion of Reform
December 4, 2013 by Erin Allen
The Library of Congress has the largest collection of Hispanic materials in the world, including rare items of Mexican origin. Next Thursday and Friday, the institution is hosting a special “Celebration of Mexico” to take a look at some of these items and to also honor Hispanic and Mexican heritage. As part of the celebration, several of the institution’s curators have highlighted a few of the Library’s most treasured artifacts in a series of brief webcasts.
Bartolomé de Las Casas is known throughout history for his stand on the rights of native Americans. The Library holds several of his writings in his collections, including this book to inform the Spanish Crown that officials and landowners in the New World were behaving cruelly toward their indigenous subjects and to plead for redress. His book had an enormous impact, prompting Emperor Charles V to recognize the humanity of indigenous peoples and to issue the New Laws of the Indies in 1542, ending the absolute power of individual Spaniards.
Library of Congress Hispanic Division specialist Barbara Tenenbaum shares insights into the history of the early Americas and Dominican priest and social reformer Bartolomé de las Casas.
Showing posts with label LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. Show all posts
Saturday, December 7, 2013
Sunday, November 24, 2013
MEMORIES OF THE KENNEDY ASSASSINATION FROM THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
FROM: THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
The Sound of Drums
November 22, 2013 by Jennifer Gavin
On Friday, November 22, 1963, the students in Mrs. Maxwell’s third-grade class at Sabin Elementary School in southwest Denver got a singular history lesson: the news came in that President John F. Kennedy had been murdered.
Janet Maxwell, a popular young instructor who taught 25 kids reading, math, science and history by turns, was trying to get an educational program on a radio at the front of the classroom – a weekly radio play called “I Am an American” in which actors dramatized the lives of famous figures in U.S. history. But she couldn’t seem to lock in the station. So she went next door to Mrs. Grossman’s room to see if they were having difficulty there, as well.
When she came back, perhaps 10 minutes later, her students – I was one of them — were startled to find her weeping.
“Boys and girls, I don’t know how to tell you this,” she said. “President Kennedy has been shot. I hope he will be all right.”
We were stunned. A couple of kids began crying, too. We were old enough to understand that the leader of our country was fighting for his life, and might even be dead. The president! The president of the United States.
This was not an era of instant communication. There might have been one TV in the whole school. But we did have the radio in the classroom, and Mrs. Maxwell began dialing around to find news coverage of the shooting.
It was only a matter of minutes before the announcement came: President Kennedy was dead.
Mrs. Maxwell tried to project an air of calm, but her grief could not be hidden, and it upset all of us.
Lunchtime came, and we took our sack lunches and went out on the gravel field beside the school. Some kids were hysterical. Other kids were silent, a little frightened by the effect this news had on adults. I wondered what my Mom and Dad were thinking. I knew they liked President Kennedy and had voted for him.
We tried to have a normal afternoon in school, but no one could keep their mind on the work. One boy cracked an inappropriate joke; Mrs. Maxwell upbraided him. At 3:20 we got to go home.
That night I went to my friend Jonnie Sue’s house for a sleepover. My mother urged me to have fun and not to dwell too much on the sad event.
But all Jonnie Sue and I did Saturday morning, when we would ordinarily have been watching cartoons, was to stay glued to the wall-to-wall television coverage of the assassination, the swearing-in of LBJ, the speculation about the arrested man, Lee Harvey Oswald. I walked home at noon and a few hours were spent away from the TV.
Sunday morning I got up and went to the basement, where we had a big black-and-white tube set. As I sat there in my pajamas, police officers were seen moving Lee Harvey Oswald along a corridor crowded with people. A man—later identified as Jack Ruby — stepped forward, and suddenly Oswald’s face contorted in pain. He had been shot, right there on live TV, and I had witnessed it as it happened.
I ran upstairs, delivering my first “flash” in a lifetime that later included 18 years as a newspaperwoman: “Dad! Dad! Somebody shot Lee Harvey Oswald!”
The true tragedy came through to me as I watched the state funeral Monday on TV. JFK’s children stood by their mother as their father’s casket rolled past. I was only a little older than those kids. The roll of the drums was unforgettable:
Brum – brum – brum – brrrr
Brum – brum – brum – brrrr
Brum – brum – brum – brrrr
Brum
Brum – ba – brum.
It may be hard for people born more recently to grasp the impact John F. Kennedy had on lives in that era. In later years I met several people who had been inspired by his challenge to “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country” and in response had actually joined the Peace Corps or done some kind of public service. Kennedy’s killing did great damage to their collective spirit.
Within five years, both Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King were dead at the hands of assassins. It was a profoundly disquieting time.
But this is America. New leaders step forward, and we build the bench so new leaders can step forward. Democracy can be untidy, and not always satisfying, but it still beats the alternatives.
Who will fill out that bench – by serving on the city council, or the school board, or in the legislature?
What can you do for your country?
The Sound of Drums
November 22, 2013 by Jennifer Gavin
On Friday, November 22, 1963, the students in Mrs. Maxwell’s third-grade class at Sabin Elementary School in southwest Denver got a singular history lesson: the news came in that President John F. Kennedy had been murdered.
Janet Maxwell, a popular young instructor who taught 25 kids reading, math, science and history by turns, was trying to get an educational program on a radio at the front of the classroom – a weekly radio play called “I Am an American” in which actors dramatized the lives of famous figures in U.S. history. But she couldn’t seem to lock in the station. So she went next door to Mrs. Grossman’s room to see if they were having difficulty there, as well.
When she came back, perhaps 10 minutes later, her students – I was one of them — were startled to find her weeping.
“Boys and girls, I don’t know how to tell you this,” she said. “President Kennedy has been shot. I hope he will be all right.”
We were stunned. A couple of kids began crying, too. We were old enough to understand that the leader of our country was fighting for his life, and might even be dead. The president! The president of the United States.
This was not an era of instant communication. There might have been one TV in the whole school. But we did have the radio in the classroom, and Mrs. Maxwell began dialing around to find news coverage of the shooting.
It was only a matter of minutes before the announcement came: President Kennedy was dead.
Mrs. Maxwell tried to project an air of calm, but her grief could not be hidden, and it upset all of us.
Lunchtime came, and we took our sack lunches and went out on the gravel field beside the school. Some kids were hysterical. Other kids were silent, a little frightened by the effect this news had on adults. I wondered what my Mom and Dad were thinking. I knew they liked President Kennedy and had voted for him.
We tried to have a normal afternoon in school, but no one could keep their mind on the work. One boy cracked an inappropriate joke; Mrs. Maxwell upbraided him. At 3:20 we got to go home.
That night I went to my friend Jonnie Sue’s house for a sleepover. My mother urged me to have fun and not to dwell too much on the sad event.
But all Jonnie Sue and I did Saturday morning, when we would ordinarily have been watching cartoons, was to stay glued to the wall-to-wall television coverage of the assassination, the swearing-in of LBJ, the speculation about the arrested man, Lee Harvey Oswald. I walked home at noon and a few hours were spent away from the TV.
Sunday morning I got up and went to the basement, where we had a big black-and-white tube set. As I sat there in my pajamas, police officers were seen moving Lee Harvey Oswald along a corridor crowded with people. A man—later identified as Jack Ruby — stepped forward, and suddenly Oswald’s face contorted in pain. He had been shot, right there on live TV, and I had witnessed it as it happened.
I ran upstairs, delivering my first “flash” in a lifetime that later included 18 years as a newspaperwoman: “Dad! Dad! Somebody shot Lee Harvey Oswald!”
The true tragedy came through to me as I watched the state funeral Monday on TV. JFK’s children stood by their mother as their father’s casket rolled past. I was only a little older than those kids. The roll of the drums was unforgettable:
Brum – brum – brum – brrrr
Brum – brum – brum – brrrr
Brum – brum – brum – brrrr
Brum
Brum – ba – brum.
It may be hard for people born more recently to grasp the impact John F. Kennedy had on lives in that era. In later years I met several people who had been inspired by his challenge to “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country” and in response had actually joined the Peace Corps or done some kind of public service. Kennedy’s killing did great damage to their collective spirit.
Within five years, both Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King were dead at the hands of assassins. It was a profoundly disquieting time.
But this is America. New leaders step forward, and we build the bench so new leaders can step forward. Democracy can be untidy, and not always satisfying, but it still beats the alternatives.
Who will fill out that bench – by serving on the city council, or the school board, or in the legislature?
What can you do for your country?
Monday, November 18, 2013
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS & WGBH BOSTON WILL PRESERVE COLLECTION OF PUBLIC RADIO AND TV CONTENT
FROM: U.S. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Corporation for Public Broadcasting Awards Library of Congress and WGBH with Stewardship of the American Archive of Public Broadcasting
An unprecedented and historic collection of American public radio and television content - dating back through the 1950s - will be permanently preserved and made available to the public through a collaboration between the Library of Congress and WGBH Boston as the American Archive of Public Broadcasting.
In 2007, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) initiated an inventory of public media content from contributing stations, resulting in 2.5 million records representing complete programs, raw footage, unedited interviews, recorded speeches, and live music sessions. Now, 40,000 hours of that content is being digitized and is slated for transfer and long-term preservation through a collaboration between the Library of Congress and WGBH, with funding support from CPB.
"The American Archive of Public Broadcasting is a national asset that will preserve thousands of hours of iconic, at-risk, local, and national content," said Pat Harrison, CPB president and CEO. "I want to congratulate and thank the public media stations, and the local communities they represent, who provided content for the Archive. For the past six years, CPB has created, defined and managed this initiative and we are very pleased to announce that it has finally found a permanent home with the Library of Congress and WGBH."
The American Archive of Public Broadcasting includes local, regional, and national history, news, public affairs, civic affairs, religion, education, environmental issues, music, art, literature, filmmaking, dance, and poetry from the mid-20th century through the first decade of the 21st century.
"The American people have made a huge investment in public radio and television over many decades," said James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress. "This collaboration will ensure that this rich and creative cultural history will be saved and made available to future generations."
"We are very excited and proud to become the home for the American Archive, and to be part of keeping history alive for audiences and for the public," said Jon Abbott, president and CEO of WGBH. "We couldn’t have a better partner than the Library of Congress in making these treasures available, and we’re grateful to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for their leadership and support of this effort."
The collection includes interviews and performances by local and national luminaries from a broad variety of professions and cultural genres. Just a few examples of the items in the collection include: Iowa Public Television’s interview with Olympic runner Jesse Owens, recorded in 1979, the last year of his life; KUSC’s (Los Angeles) broadcast of commentary by George Lucas on the original three Star Wars movies; Twin Cities Public Television’s recording of a 1960 interview with presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Minnesota Senator Hubert Humphrey; and WGBH’s 1967 interviews with then-California Governor Ronald Reagan.
Regional coverage and programming abounds, such as an award-winning series of 48 programs on the history of Southwest Florida from WGCU in Fort Myers; WCTE’s (Tennessee) news magazine which highlights the Upper Cumberland, a region that most Americans have never seen; KUED’s (Salt Lake City) films from the 1950s of performances by the famed organist of the Mormon Tabernacle; a 1929 film reel of a hike on Mount Katahdin, Maine’s highest peak, discovered by Maine Public Broadcasting; and WEDU’s (Tampa) collection of several dozen Aeronautics & Space Report programs from NASA.
"This is an important step in CPB’s commitment to preserve and make available to the American public the tremendous amount of high quality programming and content produced by public media television and radio stations over the past several decades and in the future," said Patty Cahill, Chairman of the CPB Board of Directors. "We are pleased that the Library of Congress and WGBH will continue this culturally and historically significant project on behalf of the public media system and the American people."
A national advisory panel, comprised of leaders from public media, the arts, academia, technology, and business recommended to the CPB Board of Directors the collaborative team of the Library of Congress and WGBH to lead this historic project. The panel was instrumental in guiding the selection process, providing questions, observations, and recommendations regarding core elements of the Archive’s future success.
American Archive National Advisory Panel members include: Bruce Ramer, partner at Gang, Tyre, Ramer & Brown, a Los Angeles entertainment and media law firm, and member of the CPB board of directors; Henry Becton, vice chair and former president of the board of trustees of the WGBH Educational Foundation; Ken Burns, award winning filmmaker; John W. Carlin, former Governor of Kansas and archivist of the United States, and currently visiting professor, executive-in-residence in the School of Leadership Studies at Kansas State University; Dr. Jeffrey Cole, founder and director of the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism; Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., professor, author, documentary filmmaker and director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research; Deanna Marcum, managing director at Ithaka S+R, a not-for-profit research and consulting organization, and former associate librarian of Congress; John Ptak, film producer and former talent agent at CAA, William Morris and ICM, and member of the National Film Preservation Board and the National Film Preservation Foundation; Cokie Roberts, commentator for ABC News and contributor to NPR’s Morning Edition; Dr. Stephen D. Smith, executive director of the University of Southern California Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education; Hon. Margaret Spellings, senior advisor to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, and former U.S. Secretary of Education from 2005 to 2009; Sir Howard Stringer, chairman of the board of directors, Sony Corporation; and Jesús Salvador Treviño, writer, director, and producer.
"The American Archive of Public Broadcasting continues to be a priority for CPB – to preserve decades of high quality local and national public media content," said Bruce Ramer, who, in addition to being a member of the American Archive National Advisory Panel, is also chairman of the USC Institute on Entertainment Law and Business. "I want to thank the panel for their leadership which helped to ensure the preservation and permanent availability of public broadcasting’s rich legacy."
Responsibilities for governance and long-term strategy development will be shared by the Library of Congress and WGBH, including expansion of the digital archive by acquiring additional content, and providing on-site access to the material at both WGBH in Boston and at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. They will work with AudioVisual Preservation Services to develop and manage the website/content management system for the digitization of the 40,000 hours of content, and with Crawford Media Services to do the digitization for the stations.
More information is available at the American Archive blog.
About The Library of Congress
The Library of Congress, the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution, is the world’s preeminent reservoir of knowledge, providing unparalleled collections and integrated resources to Congress and the American people. The Library holds the largest collection of audio visual recordings in the world and has been collecting and preserving historically, culturally and aesthetically significant recordings in all genres for nearly 120 years. Many of the Library’s rich resources and treasures may also be accessed through the Library’s website, www.loc.gov.
About WGBH
WGBH Boston is America’s preeminent public broadcaster and the largest producer of PBS content for TV and the Web, including Frontline, Nova, American Experience, Masterpiece, Antiques Roadshow, Arthur, Curious George and more than a dozen other award-winning prime-time, lifestyle, and children’s series, reaching nearly 75 million people each month. WGBH also is a major supplier of programming for public radio, and oversees Public Radio International (PRI). A leader in educational multimedia for the classroom, WGBH supplies content to PBS LearningMedia. WGBH also is a pioneer in technologies and services that make media accessible to those with hearing or visual impairments. Find more information at www.wgbh.org.
About CPB
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress in 1967, is the steward of the federal government's investment in public broadcasting. It helps support the operations of more than 1,400 locally-owned and -operated public television and radio stations nationwide, and is the largest single source of funding for research, technology, and program development for public radio, television and related online services. Visit us at www.cpb.org.
Corporation for Public Broadcasting Awards Library of Congress and WGBH with Stewardship of the American Archive of Public Broadcasting
An unprecedented and historic collection of American public radio and television content - dating back through the 1950s - will be permanently preserved and made available to the public through a collaboration between the Library of Congress and WGBH Boston as the American Archive of Public Broadcasting.
In 2007, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) initiated an inventory of public media content from contributing stations, resulting in 2.5 million records representing complete programs, raw footage, unedited interviews, recorded speeches, and live music sessions. Now, 40,000 hours of that content is being digitized and is slated for transfer and long-term preservation through a collaboration between the Library of Congress and WGBH, with funding support from CPB.
"The American Archive of Public Broadcasting is a national asset that will preserve thousands of hours of iconic, at-risk, local, and national content," said Pat Harrison, CPB president and CEO. "I want to congratulate and thank the public media stations, and the local communities they represent, who provided content for the Archive. For the past six years, CPB has created, defined and managed this initiative and we are very pleased to announce that it has finally found a permanent home with the Library of Congress and WGBH."
The American Archive of Public Broadcasting includes local, regional, and national history, news, public affairs, civic affairs, religion, education, environmental issues, music, art, literature, filmmaking, dance, and poetry from the mid-20th century through the first decade of the 21st century.
"The American people have made a huge investment in public radio and television over many decades," said James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress. "This collaboration will ensure that this rich and creative cultural history will be saved and made available to future generations."
"We are very excited and proud to become the home for the American Archive, and to be part of keeping history alive for audiences and for the public," said Jon Abbott, president and CEO of WGBH. "We couldn’t have a better partner than the Library of Congress in making these treasures available, and we’re grateful to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for their leadership and support of this effort."
The collection includes interviews and performances by local and national luminaries from a broad variety of professions and cultural genres. Just a few examples of the items in the collection include: Iowa Public Television’s interview with Olympic runner Jesse Owens, recorded in 1979, the last year of his life; KUSC’s (Los Angeles) broadcast of commentary by George Lucas on the original three Star Wars movies; Twin Cities Public Television’s recording of a 1960 interview with presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Minnesota Senator Hubert Humphrey; and WGBH’s 1967 interviews with then-California Governor Ronald Reagan.
Regional coverage and programming abounds, such as an award-winning series of 48 programs on the history of Southwest Florida from WGCU in Fort Myers; WCTE’s (Tennessee) news magazine which highlights the Upper Cumberland, a region that most Americans have never seen; KUED’s (Salt Lake City) films from the 1950s of performances by the famed organist of the Mormon Tabernacle; a 1929 film reel of a hike on Mount Katahdin, Maine’s highest peak, discovered by Maine Public Broadcasting; and WEDU’s (Tampa) collection of several dozen Aeronautics & Space Report programs from NASA.
"This is an important step in CPB’s commitment to preserve and make available to the American public the tremendous amount of high quality programming and content produced by public media television and radio stations over the past several decades and in the future," said Patty Cahill, Chairman of the CPB Board of Directors. "We are pleased that the Library of Congress and WGBH will continue this culturally and historically significant project on behalf of the public media system and the American people."
A national advisory panel, comprised of leaders from public media, the arts, academia, technology, and business recommended to the CPB Board of Directors the collaborative team of the Library of Congress and WGBH to lead this historic project. The panel was instrumental in guiding the selection process, providing questions, observations, and recommendations regarding core elements of the Archive’s future success.
American Archive National Advisory Panel members include: Bruce Ramer, partner at Gang, Tyre, Ramer & Brown, a Los Angeles entertainment and media law firm, and member of the CPB board of directors; Henry Becton, vice chair and former president of the board of trustees of the WGBH Educational Foundation; Ken Burns, award winning filmmaker; John W. Carlin, former Governor of Kansas and archivist of the United States, and currently visiting professor, executive-in-residence in the School of Leadership Studies at Kansas State University; Dr. Jeffrey Cole, founder and director of the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism; Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., professor, author, documentary filmmaker and director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research; Deanna Marcum, managing director at Ithaka S+R, a not-for-profit research and consulting organization, and former associate librarian of Congress; John Ptak, film producer and former talent agent at CAA, William Morris and ICM, and member of the National Film Preservation Board and the National Film Preservation Foundation; Cokie Roberts, commentator for ABC News and contributor to NPR’s Morning Edition; Dr. Stephen D. Smith, executive director of the University of Southern California Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education; Hon. Margaret Spellings, senior advisor to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, and former U.S. Secretary of Education from 2005 to 2009; Sir Howard Stringer, chairman of the board of directors, Sony Corporation; and Jesús Salvador Treviño, writer, director, and producer.
"The American Archive of Public Broadcasting continues to be a priority for CPB – to preserve decades of high quality local and national public media content," said Bruce Ramer, who, in addition to being a member of the American Archive National Advisory Panel, is also chairman of the USC Institute on Entertainment Law and Business. "I want to thank the panel for their leadership which helped to ensure the preservation and permanent availability of public broadcasting’s rich legacy."
Responsibilities for governance and long-term strategy development will be shared by the Library of Congress and WGBH, including expansion of the digital archive by acquiring additional content, and providing on-site access to the material at both WGBH in Boston and at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. They will work with AudioVisual Preservation Services to develop and manage the website/content management system for the digitization of the 40,000 hours of content, and with Crawford Media Services to do the digitization for the stations.
More information is available at the American Archive blog.
About The Library of Congress
The Library of Congress, the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution, is the world’s preeminent reservoir of knowledge, providing unparalleled collections and integrated resources to Congress and the American people. The Library holds the largest collection of audio visual recordings in the world and has been collecting and preserving historically, culturally and aesthetically significant recordings in all genres for nearly 120 years. Many of the Library’s rich resources and treasures may also be accessed through the Library’s website, www.loc.gov.
About WGBH
WGBH Boston is America’s preeminent public broadcaster and the largest producer of PBS content for TV and the Web, including Frontline, Nova, American Experience, Masterpiece, Antiques Roadshow, Arthur, Curious George and more than a dozen other award-winning prime-time, lifestyle, and children’s series, reaching nearly 75 million people each month. WGBH also is a major supplier of programming for public radio, and oversees Public Radio International (PRI). A leader in educational multimedia for the classroom, WGBH supplies content to PBS LearningMedia. WGBH also is a pioneer in technologies and services that make media accessible to those with hearing or visual impairments. Find more information at www.wgbh.org.
About CPB
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), a private, nonprofit corporation created by Congress in 1967, is the steward of the federal government's investment in public broadcasting. It helps support the operations of more than 1,400 locally-owned and -operated public television and radio stations nationwide, and is the largest single source of funding for research, technology, and program development for public radio, television and related online services. Visit us at www.cpb.org.
Thursday, November 14, 2013
CARL SAGAN, ANN DRUYAN ARCHIVE OFFICIALLY OPENS AT LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
FROM: U.S. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
November 12, 2013
News from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress Officially Opens The Seth MacFarlane Collection of Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan Archive
Librarian of Congress James H. Billington was joined by Emmy Award-winner Seth MacFarlane and Ann Druyan, the longtime collaborator and widow of astrobiologist Carl Sagan, to celebrate the official opening of The Seth MacFarlane Collection of the Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan Archive to the public at the Library of Congress.
Carl Sagan (1934-1996), a celebrated American astronomer, pioneering space scientist, astrobiologist, educator, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, was a consummate communicator who bridged the gap between academe and popular culture. The processed collection comprises 1,705 archival boxes of materials and came to the Library through the generosity of Emmy Award-winner MacFarlane. It includes Sagan’s earliest notebooks and report cards, extensive correspondence with scientists and other major figures of the 20th century, drafts of scientific papers, books, articles, historical documents of the first 40 years of the space age and his laboratory research at Cornell University on subjects as varied as the origin of life, global warming and nuclear winter.
"It is exciting that the Sagan-Druyan Archive is joining other great collections of scientific knowledge from various time periods that are here at the national library," said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. "Now, the information it contains will be available for the inspiration of the next generation of scientific thinkers and will represent an ongoing memorial to the great ‘science exciter,’ Carl Sagan."
Sagan and Druyan co-wrote several books and the Cosmos television series and were co-creators of the motion picture, "Contact." Druyan was the creative director of NASA’s Voyager Interstellar Record Project, complex messages affixed to the two Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977, to convey earth images and sounds to beings elsewhere in the galaxy (voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/goldenrec.html). Druyan is an executive producer and writer of the new series, "COSMOS: A SpaceTime Odyssey," a 13-part successor to the legendary original. The new program is being produced by her Ithaca, N.Y.-based Cosmos Studios in conjunction with FOX and the National Geographic Channel. Two asteroids named for Sagan and Druyan are in perpetual "wedding-ring orbit" around the sun.
MacFarlane has created some of the most popular content on television and film today while also expanding his career in the worlds of music, literature and philanthropy. He is the creator of Family Guy and American Dad!, voicing many characters on both shows. MacFarlane made his feature film directorial debut in 2012 with the highest-grossing original R-rated film of all time, "Ted." MacFarlane, like Druyan, is an executive producer of "COSMOS: A SpaceTime Odyssey." The new series will explore how human beings began to comprehend the laws of nature and find their place in space and time. By exposing never-before-told stories of the heroic quest for knowledge, the series aims to take viewers to other worlds and travel across the universe for a vision of the cosmos on the grandest scale. It will premiere on FOX on March 9, 2014. In 2009, MacFarlane created The Seth MacFarlane Foundation to focus his charitable efforts.
The Library of Congress, the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution and the largest library in the world, holds more than 155 million items in various languages, disciplines and formats.
November 12, 2013
News from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress Officially Opens The Seth MacFarlane Collection of Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan Archive
Librarian of Congress James H. Billington was joined by Emmy Award-winner Seth MacFarlane and Ann Druyan, the longtime collaborator and widow of astrobiologist Carl Sagan, to celebrate the official opening of The Seth MacFarlane Collection of the Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan Archive to the public at the Library of Congress.
Carl Sagan (1934-1996), a celebrated American astronomer, pioneering space scientist, astrobiologist, educator, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, was a consummate communicator who bridged the gap between academe and popular culture. The processed collection comprises 1,705 archival boxes of materials and came to the Library through the generosity of Emmy Award-winner MacFarlane. It includes Sagan’s earliest notebooks and report cards, extensive correspondence with scientists and other major figures of the 20th century, drafts of scientific papers, books, articles, historical documents of the first 40 years of the space age and his laboratory research at Cornell University on subjects as varied as the origin of life, global warming and nuclear winter.
"It is exciting that the Sagan-Druyan Archive is joining other great collections of scientific knowledge from various time periods that are here at the national library," said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. "Now, the information it contains will be available for the inspiration of the next generation of scientific thinkers and will represent an ongoing memorial to the great ‘science exciter,’ Carl Sagan."
Sagan and Druyan co-wrote several books and the Cosmos television series and were co-creators of the motion picture, "Contact." Druyan was the creative director of NASA’s Voyager Interstellar Record Project, complex messages affixed to the two Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977, to convey earth images and sounds to beings elsewhere in the galaxy (voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/goldenrec.html). Druyan is an executive producer and writer of the new series, "COSMOS: A SpaceTime Odyssey," a 13-part successor to the legendary original. The new program is being produced by her Ithaca, N.Y.-based Cosmos Studios in conjunction with FOX and the National Geographic Channel. Two asteroids named for Sagan and Druyan are in perpetual "wedding-ring orbit" around the sun.
MacFarlane has created some of the most popular content on television and film today while also expanding his career in the worlds of music, literature and philanthropy. He is the creator of Family Guy and American Dad!, voicing many characters on both shows. MacFarlane made his feature film directorial debut in 2012 with the highest-grossing original R-rated film of all time, "Ted." MacFarlane, like Druyan, is an executive producer of "COSMOS: A SpaceTime Odyssey." The new series will explore how human beings began to comprehend the laws of nature and find their place in space and time. By exposing never-before-told stories of the heroic quest for knowledge, the series aims to take viewers to other worlds and travel across the universe for a vision of the cosmos on the grandest scale. It will premiere on FOX on March 9, 2014. In 2009, MacFarlane created The Seth MacFarlane Foundation to focus his charitable efforts.
The Library of Congress, the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution and the largest library in the world, holds more than 155 million items in various languages, disciplines and formats.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
DOES IT RAIN FISH AND FROGS? MAYBE
FROM: U.S. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PHOTO: U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
Can it rain frogs, fish, and other objects?There have been reports of raining frogs and fish dating back to ancient civilization. Of course, it doesn’t “rain” frogs or fish in the sense that it rains water - no one has ever seen frogs or fish vaporize into the air before a rainfall. However, strong winds, such as those in a tornado or hurricane, are powerful enough to lift animals, people, trees, and houses. It is possible that they could suck up a school of fish or frogs and “rain” them elsewhere.
Many scientists believe tornadic waterspouts may be responsible for frog and fish rainfalls. According to Complete Weather Resource (1997), “a tornadic waterspout is merely a tornado that forms over land and travels over the water.” An especially strong kind of waterspout, they are not as strong as land based tornadoes, which can reach up to 310 miles per hour. But tornadic waterspouts can reach 100 miles per hour, which can still be quite destructive.
A popular misconception is that waterspouts “rise out of the sea.” In reality, they begin in the air and descend toward the water’s surface. The first visible sign of a tornadic waterspout is usually a dark spot on the water’s surface, which is caused by a spinning column of low-pressure air stirring up the water from overhead. As the spinning column of air, or vortex, gains momentum, the surrounding water is pulled into a spiral pattern of light and dark bands. Eventually a ring of spraying water, called the cascade,forms around the base. The characteristic funnel extending from the sky toward the water’s surface becomes visible in the fourth stage of the waterspout’s development. At this point, it is considered a mature storm.
Like a tornado, a mature waterspout consists of a low-pressure central vortex surrounded by a rotating funnel of updrafts. The vortex at the center of these storms is strong enough to “suck up” surrounding air, water, and small objects like a vacuum. These accumulated objects are deposited back to earth as “rain” when the waterspout loses its energy. Most of the water seen in the funnel of a waterspout is actually condensate —moisture in the air resulting from the condensation of water vapor.
Professor Ernest Agee from Purdue University says, “I’ve seen small ponds literally emptied of their water by a passing tornado. So, it wouldn’t be unreasonable for frogs (or other living things) to ‘rain’ from the skies” (Chandler, 2004). Most scientists agree that salt, stones, fish, or frogs can be pulled into a waterspout’s swirling updrafts and deposited once the waterspout hits land and loses its energy.
Although waterspouts are the most commonly offered explanation for animal rainfalls, some scientists, such as Doc Horsley from Southern Illinois University, theorize that any unusually powerful updraft could lift small organisms or organic material into the sky during a storm (Chandler, 2004). An updraft is a wind current caused by warm air from high pressure areas near the earth rising into cooler, low-pressure areas in the atmosphere. Because the cooling causes water in the air to condense, updrafts play an important role in cloud formation and storm development. During thunderstorms, updrafts can reach speeds of more than 60 miles per hour— comparable to the winds of moderate-intensity waterspouts.
When it rained frogs in Kansas City in 1873, Scientific Americaconcluded that it must have been caused by a tornado or other land-based storm, since there were no swamps or other bodies of water in the vicinity (Cerveny, 2006). Similarly, when it hailed frogs in Dubuque, Iowa on June 16, 1882, scientists speculated that small frogs were picked up by a powerful updraft and frozen into hail in the cold air above earth’s surface. Although no one has actually witnessed an updraft lifting frogs off the ground, the theory is scientifically plausible since updrafts regularly pick up lightweight debris and carry it considerable distances.
What is unusual in reports of animal rainfalls is the uniformity of the deposition. When it rains frogs or fishes, witnesses reportonly fish or only frogs falling. According to William Hayden Smith of Washington University, this makes sense since objects of similar size and weight would naturally be deposited together. As winds lose their energy, the heavier objects fall first and smaller objects drop later.
PHOTO: NOAA
Despite the numerous reports of raining animals, scientists still approach the area with skepticism. Many historical reports are provided by second or third-hand accounts, making their reliability questionable. Also, because of the popularity and mystery surrounding stories about raining animals, some people falsely report an animal rainfall after seeing large numbers of worms, frogs, or birds on the ground after a storm. However, these animals did not fall from the sky. Instead, storms fill in worm burrows, knock birds from trees and roofs, wash fish onto the shores of rivers and ponds, and drive frogs and other small animals from their habitats. People who live in suburban or urban environments tend to underestimate the number of organisms living around their homes. Therefore, they may suspect that animals came from the sky rather than their natural habitat.
Despite the cautious skepticism of the scientific community, a number of eyewitness reports strongly suggest rainfalls of frogs, fish, and other materials on occasion. For instance:
On October 23, 1947, A.D. Bajkov, a biologist with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife, was eating breakfast at a restaurant in Marksville, Louisiana when the waitress told him and his wife that fish were falling from the sky. “There were spots on Main Street, in the vicinity of the bank (a half block from the restaurant) averaging one fish per square yard. Automobiles and trucks were running over them. Fish also fell on the roofs of houses…I personally collected from Main Street and several yards on Monroe Street, a large jar of perfect specimens and preserved them in Formalin, in order to distribute them among various museums.”
On June 7, 2005, thousands of frogs rained on Odzaci, a small town in northwestern Serbia. Climatologist Slavisa Ignjatovic described the phenomenon as “not very unusual” because the strong winds that accompanied the storm could have easily picked up the frogs.
At the end of February, 2010, residents of Lajamanu, a small Australian town, saw hundreds of spangled perch fall from the sky. Christine Balmer was walking home when the rain/fish started to fall. “These fish fell in their hundreds and hundreds all over the place. The locals were running around everywhere to pick them up,” she reported.
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