"Today in History" on LC Website

[Elizabeth L. Brown]

This notice is being sent to multiple lists.  
Please forgive any duplication.


 "TODAY IN HISTORY" DEBUTS ON THE AMERICAN MEMORY PAGE
         OF THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS WEBSITE
         

     Beginning April 1, the Library of Congress will 
offer "Today in History" from the American Memory home 
page of its on-line collections.

     "Today in History" is designed to present daily 
historical facts highlighted by materials from the American
Memory collections, available at http://www.loc.gov/.

     For example, April 1 provides links to Life History 
Manuscripts, which includes memories of April Fools' Day
before the turn of the century.  Mrs. Sally Skippers
remembers pranks and punishments in a rural schoolhouse.   
The teacher described in the interview  "Dr. Samuel Lathan"
recalls how  "April 1 was dreaded by most rural 
schoolteachers.  The pupils would get inside and
lock the teacher out."  The Life History Manuscripts 
collection contains 2,900 documents that tell the life 
stories of Americans from all walks of life and were 
produced as part of the Federal Writers' Project of the 
Works Progress Administration in 1936-40.

     The April 1 page will also offer humorous photographs 
from the Detroit Publishing Company collection of more than 
25,000 photographs.

     Each day, users can visit the site to learn about the 
history of the day and to view or hear Library materials 
relating to that day.  Previous offerings will be archived 
for reference.  The site's direct address is 
http://memory.loc.gov/.

     American Memory is an initiative of the National Digital 
Library Program of the Library of Congress that aims to make 
millions of the nation's most important American history 
materials freely available on the Internet.  The nearly 
400,000 items offered so far include portraits of the
presidents and first ladies, documents relating to slavery 
and the civil rights movement, early short films by Thomas 
Edison and selected notebooks of Walt Whitman.

# # #

PR97-58
Contact: Guy Lamolinara  (202) 707-9217

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Elizabeth L. Brown, M.L.S.
Reference Librarian, National Digital Library Program
Library of Congress, Washington DC  20540-1320
http://www.loc.gov/            http://memory.loc.gov/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~