Library of Congress Tour

An overview of the history of the Library of Congress. Also available on the Library of Congress website at https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-6631/?loclr=fbloc | The Library of Congress

Most silent-era film productions have been lost to time & hardly *any* material shot by Black filmmakers pre-1920 has survived. But recently, the earliest known footage produced by a Black film company was found, hiding in plain sight, in our collections. http://go.loc.gov/78Tl50L52k2 | The Library of Congress

Several films added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress this year explore stories from the nation’s diverse communities. Here, “Selena” star Edward James Olmos discusses putting the Queen of Tejano music’s life on screen just months after she was killed. https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2021/12/return-of-the-jedi-mark-hamill-and-the-2021-national-film-registry/?loclr=fbloc | The Library of Congress

The archival collections of the Library include the largest body of early indigenous American music recordings in the U.S.: about 10,000 wax cylinders of songs and stories. Many of them are recordings made by Omaha ethnographer Francis La Flesche (pictured). La Flesche was the first professional Native American ethnologist and a member of the Omaha Nation. His recordings and others like them are used by both native and non-native researchers. Their greatest value lies in the cultures and languag