The LOC.GOV Wise Guide : Time for a Picnic!

Summer is the perfect time for a picnic ? whether it?s with family or friends, or with the entire town, as is the case of the Hancock Old Home Days. What started as a family picnic in 1879 has grown into a picnic that includes the entire town and anyone who has ever lived there.

Old Settlers Picnic--July 15, Du Page County Centennial, Roselle, between 1936 and 1939. Prints and Photographs Division.

Eleanor Briggs, photographer. The Y2K Bug Shows Up at the Hancock Old Home Days Parade, August 1999.

Hancock Old Home Days is a Local Legacy -- events, crafts, customs or activities that represent traditional community life. In 2000, members of Congress and communities across the country sponsored and documented more than 1,300 Local Legacies. Participants sent photographs, reports and sound and video recordings to the Library's American Folklife Center, where they have been preserved, to be shared for generations to come. Local Legacies was a project designed to involve Americans nationwide in the celebration of the Library's 200th birthday.

The America's Library Web site offers a selection of these projects in the "Explore the States" section. If you want to read about your state's Local Legacies, click on the state in the U.S. map. For a complete list of the 1,300 Local Legacies, you can visit the Local Legacies Web site (click on "Project Listing" link on the right).

A picnic was part of the very first Labor Day celebration, on Sept. 5, 1882, in New York City. The full story is in the "Jump Back in Time" section of America's Library. Here, you can read what happened on any day in history or play a game, called "Super Sleuth," in which you determine what's wrong with a series of photographs.

America's Library is a Web site for kids and families that provides more than 4,000 "historical anecdotes" richly illustrated with materials from the Library of Congress. This interactive site appeals to users of all ages, with its fascinating, sometimes idiosyncratic, details of U.S. history.

A. "Old Settlers Picnic--July 15, Du Page County Centennial, Roselle," between 1936 and 1939. Prints and Photographs Division. Reproduction information: Reproduction No.: LC-USZC2-5235 (color film copy slide); Call No.: POS - WPA - ILL .K744, no. 5 (B size) [P&P]

B. Eleanor Briggs, photographer. "The Y2K Bug Shows Up at the Hancock Old Home Days Parade, August 1999." Photo by Eleanor Briggs, for "Hancock Old Home Days," a New Hampshire Local Legacies project. Reproduction information: Image not available for reproduction.