Join us on Tuesday, June 10 at 3pm Eastern for a virtual orientation to maps of the Second World War at the Library of Congress.
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The Geography and Map Division collections include vibrant nineteenth century maps showcasing brand new American communities and promises of the “good life” to prospective lot or home buyers. This post explores the common themes and fascinating details of these highly artistic maps designed to lure investment.
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Florence Bascom broke barriers in the 19th century as a leading geologist of her time. This post discusses her life and career with the United States Geological Survey including the geologic maps she made which are in the Geography and Map Division collections.
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Dubai (Reuters)- -Nothing captured Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s isolation more starkly this week than the image of U.S. President Donald Trump shaking hands with Syria’s Islamist leader Ahmed al‑Sharaa – a man Israel has branded “an al‑Qaeda terrorist in a suit.”
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The Geography & Map Division recently digitized an important set of maps of Austria-Hungary. In this post, we explore these 19th- and early 20th-century maps and the layers of history and language that they contain.
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The Geography and Map Division has thousands of topographic maps in its collections but some have a unique take on the rest of the category. This blog post highlights several maps and models that stand out as being different in form and shape from other topographic maps including a chocolate bar map, a pop up map, and a map made of compressed paper among others.
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In the early years of the Maryland colony, Lord Baltimore’s name referred to his estates, an entire county, and a port town that would one day become the third largest city in the United States… 30 miles northeast of its current location.
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Join the Geography and Map Division and Philip Lee Phillips Society for this free in-person event, taking place on Thursday, May 8, 2025, from 1:15 PM to 4:15 PM in the Jefferson Building. Together we will will explore the significance of map surrounds through engaging talks about cartographic self portraits and the watermarks in the William Hacke atlas, along with a themed display.
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Amin Al-Habaibeh: In the 1987 classic film RoboCop, the deceased Detroit cop Alex Murphy is reborn as a cyborg. He has a robotic body and a full brain-computer interface that allows him to control his movements with his mind. He can access online information such as suspects’ faces, uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help detect threats, and his human memories have been integrated with those from a machine. It is remarkable to think that the movie’s key mechanical robotic technologies have almost now been accomplished by the likes of Boston Dynamics’ running, jumping Atlas and Kawasaki’s new four-legged Corleo. Similarly…
The post Building RoboCop: How Far Are We From Futuristic Police Tech? appeared first on Anomalien.com.
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The liquidation map showed that a HYPE short squeeze was likely in the coming hours, and traders should be wary of volatility.
Curious about our collections? Please join Geography and Map Division staff next week for a virtual orientation to our collections and resources!
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Among our collection of “bird’s-eye view” maps of U.S. and Canadian cities created from the late 19th to early 20th centuries, the work Augustus Koch in particular stands out for his artistry, geographic range, and incredible cartographic detail. His maps and historical newspaper clippings relating to his work attest not only to his mastery of the form but the value of panoramic maps in instilling civic pride.
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For a long time, scientists thought space and time were completely separate things. In the 19th century, physicists imagined space as a 3D stage—like the length, width, and height of a room—while time was like a ticking clock, moving forward on its own. But then, Albert Einstein came along and said, “No, space and time are actually part of one big thing called space-time.” He described space-time as a 4D fabric that combines the three dimensions of space (length, width, height) with time as the fourth dimension. This idea has been the foundation of modern physics for over 100 years.…
The post This violates Einstein’s theory: space can emerge from time appeared first on Anomalien.com.
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A closer look at the Library’s copy of the Eliot Algonquian Bible (1663) reveals a connection to the local history of the greater Washington area. Family birth and death inscriptions within the Bible show that it was once owned by the famous Gaither family of Gaithersburg in Montgomery County, Maryland. How and when did it arrive at the Library? Read this post to learn more.
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For centuries, there have been unconventional beliefs about the shape of the Earth. This post provides a historical overview of alternative theories about the Earth’s form.
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Learn about the development of the oscillating scan mirror (a key component of Virginia Norwood’s multi-spectral scanner), which made Landsat I a success, changing the science of earth observation forever. The development of the oscillating scan mirror is documented in the “Virginia Norwood Papers,” a new collection in the Geography & Map Division of the Library of Congress.
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Astronomers have uncovered a black hole of such immense size that comprehending its scale could trigger an existential crisis. This colossal black hole, measuring a staggering 36 billion times the mass of the Sun, stands as one of the largest ever observed, according to Live Science. For comparison, Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, has a mass of only about one million times that of the Sun. Another contender, TON 618*, is estimated to be between 40 and 60 billion solar masses, located approximately 18.2 billion light-years from Earth. This newly discovered, yet-to-be-named…
The post Astronomers Discover Colossal 36-Billion-Solar-Mass Black Hole appeared first on Anomalien.com.
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The XCN liquidation map showed that the $0.02-$0.021 region had high leverage long liquidations.
Join us on Tuesday, February 11 at 3pm Eastern for a virtual orientation to GIS and geospatial resources at the Library of Congress.
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NASA’s SPHEREx observatory is oriented in a horizontal position, revealing all three layers of photon shields as well as the telescope. This photo was taken at BAE Systems in Boulder, Colorado, in April 2024.
Short for Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer, SPHEREx will create a map of the cosmos like no other. Using a technique called spectroscopy to image the entire sky in 102 wavelengths of infrared light, SPHEREx will gather information about the composition of and distance to millions of galaxies and stars. With this map, scientists will study what happened in the first fraction of a second after the big bang, how galaxies formed and evolved, and the origins of water in planetary systems in our galaxy.
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Most American cities are encompassed by one or more counties and overlap with them in jurisdiction, but there are 41 unique cases known as independent cities, and 38 of them are in Virginia. Read more to learn why!
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On Thursday January 30th, astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are doing a 6.5-hour spacewalk outside the International Space Station. Among other goals, they’ll be collecting surface samples from the station to analyze for the presence of microbes, reports universetoday.com. The ISS “surface swab” is part of the ISS External Microorganisms project. It was developed to understand how microorganisms are transported by crew members to space. It also seeks to understand what happens to those “mini-critters” in the space environment. The “bugs” that the two astronauts bring back in for analysis will come from areas on the space station near…
The post Astronauts to Check for Microbes Outside the Station appeared first on Anomalien.com.
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In our second post on Chronicling America’s new interface, learn how to browse newspapers at the title level, and use the interactive map.
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This post highlights some of the maps that were scanned and made available on the Library website in 2024.
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Chronicling America has a new look! This post explores how to use the advanced search features and how to limit your search by title, date, language, and ethnicity.
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In creating Consider the Consequences! authors Doris Webster (1885-1967) and Mary Alden Hopkins (1876-1960) were toying with a new idea: write a book that provided readers with narrative options. The result was the first choice-based novel ever printed as well as the precursor to the Choose Your Own Adventure book series that would become popular later in the 20th century.
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An exploration of map scales and comparative areas, from miles and representative fractions to…the Midwest?
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This post features maps of the World’s Columbian Exposition that took place in 1893. Images of a guide map, souvenir maps, floor plans, and bird’s eye views are included in the post.
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This post covers the cultural geographic origins and spread of the gift giver figure through various maps.
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Curious about our collections? Please join Geography and Map Division staff next week for a virtual orientation to our collections and resources!
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The deepest point in the Atlantic Ocean can be found about 100 miles north of Puerto Rico, in a trench where two tectonic plates meet. This post discusses the Puerto Rico Trench’s unique geology and efforts to map it.
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Learn about the early history of the Women’s Bureau, including the maps they produced to make the case for establishing standards for women in the workplace.
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This blog post highlights unusual maps found in the Geography and Map Division collections including a chart of port cities, a history of the Civil War, and a railroad organization chart.
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This post highlights the Rochambeau map collection, which was purchased by the Library of Congress in 1883.
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Kelly Lambert: We crafted our first rodent car from a plastic cereal container. After trial and error, my colleagues and I found that rats could learn to drive forward by grasping a small wire that acted like a gas pedal. Before long, they were steering with surprising precision to reach a Froot Loop treat. As expected, rats housed in enriched environments – complete with toys, space and companions – learned to drive faster than those in standard cages. This finding supported the idea that complex environments enhance neuroplasticity: the brain’s ability to change across the lifespan in response to environmental…
The post Neuroscientist Teaches Lab Rats to Drive appeared first on Anomalien.com.
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Olaf Lipinski: In the 2016 science fiction movie Arrival, a linguist is faced with the daunting task of deciphering an alien language consisting of palindromic phrases, which read the same backwards as they do forwards, written with circular symbols. As she discovers various clues, different nations around the world interpret the messages differently – with some assuming they convey a threat. If humanity ended up in such a situation today, our best bet may be to turn to research uncovering how artificial intelligence (AI) develops languages. But what exactly defines a language? Most of us use at least one to…
The post Could We Ever Decipher an Alien Language? appeared first on Anomalien.com.
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Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump vied for the presidency, aiming to secure the required 270 Electoral College votes. States like Texas and Florida went to Trump, while Harris secured victories in states like California and New York. The 2024 election map illustrated the geographically divided political landscape of the United States.
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Celebrate Geography Awareness Week and GIS Day at the Library of Congress on Thursday, November 21st from 5pm to 8pm with Mapping Our World, a special Live! at the Library event diving into ocean mapping and exploration! This event will feature a collections display, interactive games and crafts, and a talk by Dr. Vicki Ferrini of Columbia University on the history of ocean mapping.
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This post explores a large, colorful map of staple crops in Puerto Rico in the first years of the US administration of the island.
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While Amos Doolittle is best known for his accurate scenes of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, his map engravings, capturing the early years of the new independent nation, deserve recognition as well.
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This blog post explores the early adoption of electrical lighting in 19th century America through maps.
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Explore the fertile history of America’s soil survey maps, which evolved alongside soil science over the course of the 20th century.
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The Borgia world map is described in this post. The map was made during the 15th century by an unknown cartographer. In 1794, the map was purchased at an antique store in Portugal by Cardinal Stefano Borgia.
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