If Independence Day is in part a celebration of the American spirit, I can think of few better ways to acknowledge it than with a reference to the “American Memory” pages at the Library of Congress. As the name implies, it is a repository for all sorts of American artifacts, from oral histories to photographs to dance manuals. History buffs will enjoy the “Today in History” feature: even on an obvious date (guess what happened on the 4th of July?) there are many treasures to be found. After the necessary references to 1776, today’s entry examines past celebrations with three appropriate FSA/OWI photographs from 1941 (a boy on a parade float, and the less common sites of wrestlers at the Ashville, Ohio fair and bystanders at a greased-pig race in Oregon), as well as audio files of speeches and music, patriotic sheet music, biographical excerpts… It is a national treasure on the internet, and one to which I return frequently.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 4th, 2005 at 2:48 pm and is filed under Miscellany. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.