About a year ago, the Library worked in conjunction with HISTORY (AKA History Channel) to produce a series of two dozen video vignettes called “This Week’s Hidden Treasure.” Each highlights in roughly two or three minutes a fascinating item from our collections, with its story told by a Library of Congress curator.
The videos were posted online on HISTORY’s website and at myLOC.gov, and now we’re hoping they go viral. For your additional viewing pleasure, all 24 of them are now on YouTube and iTunes U.
A few examples include the postcard Ehrich Weiss (later known as “Harry Houdini”) sent to his mother when he ran away to begin his magical career, a raised-relief map commanders used to plan the Normandy Invasion, a telegram from the Wright brothers announcing the success of their first flight, and for “true believers” everywhere, the original artwork for Spider-Man’s first comic-book appearance.
It’s part of an ongoing relationship we’ve had with HISTORY to help bring the Library’s vast collections to life and to greater recognition.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go download all of them to my iPhone for weekend viewing.
September 10, 2010 at 4:01 pm
Great job! It’s time to refresh American memories and history. That must be an intelligence pump! Off to ur vids at YouTube now! Have a great day.
September 10, 2010 at 9:59 pm
Library of Congress Hidden Treasures include its employees. While all of these curators featured are exceptional, I wish Dr. Marvin Kranz would come out of retirement to make a video about Margaret Thatcher’s visit to the Library of Congress and her reaction to him showing her original documents about the separation of church and state as written by our nation’s founding fathers. The story is as good as its story teller.