Library Of Congress

Dec. 24 1851 Fire devastated the Library of Congress in Washington, destroying about 35,000 volumes.

WASHINGTON -- It has been a season of tumult for those who would guard the legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. -- and things are only promising to get more contentious.This month, a federal commission approved a 4-acre site for a memorial on the Washington Mall to the slain civil rights leader, to take its place among the tributes to the nation's heroes.And a civil jury in Memphis sided with hotly disputed arguments made by the King family's lawyers, finding that a broad-gauged conspiracy was involved in his assassination.

In recent years, the Library of Congress has become increasingly crowded. Its librarians have been forced to move collections and double-shelve books to make room for new arrivals.But relief in the form of extra space should come soon -- at Fort Meade in western Anne Arundel County.The library and the office of the Architect of the Capitol have started to build storage facilities at the military base.Construction of the first storage module, along with its accompanying office space, loading docks, mechanical rooms, vestibule and circulation corridors, is scheduled to be complete next fall.

In recent years, the Library of Congress has become increasingly crowded. Its librarians have been forced to move collections and double-shelve books to make room for new arrivals.But relief in the form of extra space should come soon -- at Fort Meade in western Anne Arundel County.The library and the office of the Architect of the Capitol have started to build storage facilities at the military base.Construction of the first storage module, along with its accompanying office space, loading docks, mechanical rooms, vestibule and circulation corridors, is scheduled to be complete next fall.

Filmgoers were treated to two outstanding artists introducing groundbreaking films at the Senator Theatre last weekend. On Friday, award-winning cinematographer Allen Daviau introduced Orson Welles' 1958 thriller "Touch of Evil," which delighted the audience with its rich black and white photography and soaring camera work.Daviau, who photographed the Barry Levinson films "Bugsy" and "Avalon," explained that "Touch of Evil," which begins with a legendary tracking shot, owes its distinctive look to the lightweight camera equipment that Welles used -- equipment that gained prominence when used by the French New Wave directors just a few years later.

WASHINGTON -- Americans who try to access Kenneth W. Starr's report on the Monica Lewinsky matter via the Internet may well face a traffic jam that could make rush hour on the Jones Falls Expressway seem as placid as an empty beach."

A small hardware store in Hampden now has a place in the nation's art collection.In a strange sequence of events that might have only happened here, a pipe sculpture of a human figure made by a boy 40 years ago has leapt into the realm of posterity, preserved by the Library of Congress.How it happened tells a tale of two Hampdens, old and new, meeting as neighbors do -- walking along the street.David Plunkert, 32, a graphic designer whose work has won awards and acclaim, first noticed the little figure in the window of Sirkis Paint and Hardware in 1993, when he opened his Falls Road studio two blocks away.

In the 16th century, a British country gentleman named Reginold Scot published a book on magic tricks, hoping it would stem the tide of witch-hangings, a popular pastime just then in the English countryside. Scot believed that if people understood that magic performances were the result of skillful - but purely human - manipulations, they would be less likely to see the hand of the Devil in every innocent event.Alas, Scot proved an innocent when it came to his own appreciation for the tenacity of ignorance.

The Maryland Center for the Book at the Howard County library, the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress and Weekly Reader Corp. are sponsoring a contest, "1999 Letters About Literature," in which pupils write a letter to an author -- living or dead -- explaining how the author's book changed their view of the world.Winners at the national level will receive $1,000 savings bonds. First-place winners in Maryland will receive $100 awards.Entries are divided into Level I, for pupils in grades four through seven, and Level II for grades eight through 12.The deadline for the contest is Dec. 18.An entry form may be obtained by calling the center in Columbia at 410-313-7750, or online at www.howa.

Harry Houdini, the greatest escapologist the world has ever known, promised his wife that if he died before she did, he would try to return to her from beyond the grave.For a less audacious, less imaginative man, such a vow would have been merely ludicrous. But for the first quarter of the 20th century, Houdini had astounded the whole world by extricating himself from every imaginable restraint. His resolve to cheat even death carried an undeniable plausibility, so much so that hundreds of thousands of people regarded his burial as only a first act.If anyone could return from the Great Beyond, who else but the "Master Mystifier"?

2009 National Book Festival Where: : National Mall, between Seventh and 14th streets in Washington When: : 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday What: : A slew of celebrity writers from John Irving to Jodi Picoult are scheduled to take part in this year's National Book Festival, organized by the Library of Congress to celebrate the joy of reading. Book signings take place throughout the day at pavilions dedicated to fiction, children, biography, poetry, mysteries and more. Authors expected to participate include James Patterson, Marilynne Robinson, Judy Blume, John Grisham, Junot Diaz, Colson Whitehead, Jeannette Walls and Julia Glass.

It's among the most iconic images of the Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln and Gen. George B. McClellan are conferring at a table erected beneath a tent a few weeks after the Battle of Antietam. McClellan looks both weary and worried. He leans forward slightly as Lincoln leans back. It's easy to see who's in charge, and it's easy to see that McClellan - who was dismissed one month later as commander of the Army of the Potomac - has an inkling of what lay in store for him. That photo was taken by famed Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner.

Senator owner lauded by theater group Senator Theatre owner Tom Kiefaber, whose financially troubled North Baltimore landmark is scheduled to go on the auction block in 12 days, is being lauded by the Theatre Historical Society of America for his devotion to the 70-year-old movie house. Karen Noonan, president of the society, said her group will be making a presentation to Kiefaber during its visit to the Senator, set for 1:45 p.m. today. In the 20 years since Kiefaber bought the Senator from his family's theater business, it has become a showpiece among the nation's few remaining single-screen theaters.

The poet Josephine Jacobsen, in an essay she wrote for The Sun almost 30 years ago, decried how hard it was to get inside things that should be easy to open (milk cartons, aspirin bottles), yet how quickly Americans seemed to expect personal intimacy. Friendship, the Baltimore native wrote in her elegant way, should be a matter of "gradation - the stages by which acquaintance becomes congeniality, congeniality becomes intimacy. ... It is the flowering of long preparation." Jacobsen, the celebrated author of nine books of verse who once served as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (a position later renamed U.S. Poet Laureate)

Dec. 24 1851 Fire devastated the Library of Congress in Washington, destroying about 35,000 volumes.

ATLANTA --After years of trying to sell the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s archives to a library or university, the King family will instead put them up for auction on June 30, Sotheby's announced yesterday. The sale, expected to bring $15 million to $30 million, will take place exactly five months after the death of Coretta Scott King, King's widow, who was keenly interested in finding an institutional home for the papers. The buyer will determine the future accessibility of the papers.

A young French damsel seems to be polishing Ben Franklin's bald pate with a feather duster in the hand-colored lithograph depicting his reception at the Court of France in 1778. But it's not a feather duster, says Gerard W. Gawalt, manuscript historian and curator of the exhibition, Ben Franklin: In His Own Words, which opens today at the Library of Congress. "It's supposed to be a laurel wreath," he says. The lithograph is among 75 items from the library's Ben Franklin Collection on display in celebration of Franklin's 300th birthday(on Jan. 17)

President Bush told Americans that the federal government will help rebuild the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast. Estimates put the cost at $200 billion. The administration already has spent $300 billion on the war in Iraq. To paraphrase the late Sen. Everett Dirksen: Two hundred billion dollars here and $300 billion there, and pretty soon you are talking real money. Despite strangling federal deficits, Mr. Bush vows he won't raise taxes. He says that he can pay off the country's debt by finding additional cuts in unnecessary spending.

Americans are accustomed to looking at the Depression in black and white. But a more vibrant nation appears in an exhibition of 70 color photographs now on view in Washington at the Library of Congress. Culled from a collection of little-known color images by photographers from the federal Farm Security Administration and the Office of War Information, the prints bring alive everyday rural life from 1939 through 1943. Among the scenes in the exhibition "Bound for Glory: America in Color, 1939-1943" are five girls in pink dresses at a Vermont state fair; a woman from Pie Town, N.M., displaying a quilt she made; and square dancers in Oklahoma.

Alexandria Festival of the Arts Visit downtown Alexandria this weekend for the Virginia city's annual Festival of the Arts. The event features works by more than 200 artists and craftspeople, including hand-crafted jewelry, pottery, ceramics, paintings, sculptures and photography. All works on display will be for sale, and visitors can talk with artists to learn more about how pieces were made. Items range in price from $15 for a pair of earrings to $20,000 for a decorative sculpture. The Alexandria Festival of the Arts runs 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, outdoors along King Street in Alexandria, Va. Free admission.