Bibi Gaston, author of The Loveliest Woman in America: A Tragic Actress, Her Lost Diaries and Her Granddaughter's Search for Home, talks about the life of her grandmother, Rosamund Pinchot, actress, socialite, and eventual suicide, and about the research she undertook to uncover Pinchot's life story.
In 37 short video clips, ranging in length from 31 seconds to over two minutes, scholars Susan Allee, Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, Ricardo Lagos, David Kennedy, and P. Terrence Hopmann look at the history of the U.N., the United States' relationship with it, and issues the U.N. is involved in today. Intended to accompany the Choices Program's curriculum The United Nations: Challenges and Change, these clips may still be used independently.
Registration is required, but free.
In 45 short video clips, ranging in length from 53 seconds to over three minutes, scholars Jo-Ann Hart, Shala Haeri, Farzaneh Milani, Mariam Habibi, Joseph Cirincione, and Linda Miller look at Iranian history over the 20th and 21st centuries, focusing on events that led up to the 1979 Revolution, the Revolution and the Iran Hostage Crisis, and the effects of those events on Iran today. The clips examine how the U.S. was involved in all of these events. Intended to accompany the Choices Program's curriculum Iran Through the Looking Glass: History, Reform, and Revolution, these clips may still be used independently.
Registration is required, but free.
In 17 short video clips, ranging in length from 52 seconds to over two minutes, scholars Susan Allee, Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, and David Kennedy look at how global response to genocide has developed over the past century and examine U.S. response to several genocides. Intended to accompany the Choices Program's curriculum Confronting Genocide: Never Again?, these clips may still be used independently.
Registration is required, but free.
From the Library of Congress Webcasts website:
"The Music Division of the Library of Congress and the American Musicological Society, in joint partnership, presented the third in a series of lectures highlighting musicological research conducted in the division's collections. Jeffrey Magee presented 'Now It Can Be Told: The Unknown Irving Berlin.'
After Jerome Kern famously pronounced that 'Irving Berlin is American music' in 1925, Berlin continued for several decades more to define many of America's most distinctive musical idioms, from Tin Pan Alley to Broadway to Hollywood. Berlin's death 20 years ago at the age of 101 accelerated an ever-expanding cottage industry of commentary, reflection and scholarship on a legendary figure.
In an effort to amplify patterns in Berlin's stage and screen career, the talk will aim to draw connections among unknown (or little-known) materials—including songs, scripts, 'plot treatments,' and other notable documents—and Berlin's better-known work."
Although the video may appear broken, please be aware that it loads slowly, and will eventually start.
Journalist Kirstin Downey talks about Frances Perkins, the subject of her book The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR's Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience. As secretary of labor during FDR's presidency, Perkins initiated social-welfare reforms in areas including unemployment, child labor, immigration, and work-week length.
In this podcast, Richard Miller describes the steps taken to ensure the survival of AP Hotaling & Co.'s San Francisco warehouse at 451 Jackson Street—the largest depository of whiskey on the West Coast—in the aftermath of the Great Earthquake of 1906.
Ben Click looks at the National Portrait Gallery's portrait of Mark Twain by John White Alexander and tells the stories of some of Mark Twain's portrait sittings.
This podcast from the Smithsonian American Art Museum details the history of the museum's building, once the U.S. Patent Office, or "Temple of Invention."
To listen to this podcast, scroll to the bullet point which reads, "Listen to our podcast about the magnificent building that houses the Smithsonian American Art Museum," and select a file type.
In this oral history, Hermond Norwood of the Library of Congress interviews Fountain Hughes regarding his time as a slave in Charlottesville, VA.