Random Fascinating Historical Artifacts Stored In Library of Congress (16 items)

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  (#16) Helen Keller's Plea To Alexander Bell

  In the early 1900s, famous folks, like everyone else, communicated via telegram. The celebrities involved in a 1907 telegram donated to the Library of Congress are Helen Keller, who was deaf and blind, yet became a noted speaker and activist, and Alexander Graham Bell, who invented the telephone and was also an advocate for deaf people. In the telegram, sent before Keller delivers a talk in New York, she asks Bell if he will “stand beside me and repeat my speech so that all may hear?”
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  (#7) Bizarre Health Product Labels

  Weight watchers in the U.S. at the turn of the century were more worried about being too thin (unhealthy) than being too fat (a sign of vim and vigor). This color lithograph from the Library of Congress, published circa 1895, is an advertising label for fat-producing products called Loring's Fat-Ten-U food tablets and Loring's Corpula food. A drugstore ad for the products, complete with skinny before and corpulent after drawings, said they were “guaranteed to make the thin plump and rosy with honest fleshiness of form."  
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  (#6) Locks Of Famous People's Hair

  "Shining, gleaming, streaming, flaxen, waxen... hair." Well, not so much anymore. These locks have lost their luster, but the Library of Congress does have samples of hair from famous people, including Thomas Jefferson, Walt Whitman and James Madison. Jefferson's family took the cuttings from his deathbed. Whitman's housekeeper chopped off a few strands of his hair. Madison's clippings are tidily braided inside a velvet-lined gold case.
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  (#8) 'Red Hot Democratic Campaign Songs For 1888'

  Today, politicians get in trouble for using popular songs during their campaigns that haven’t been approved for that purpose by the artist. Solution: self-penned campaign ditties, like “The Other Candidate," part of a book of sheet music called Red Hot Democratic Campaign Songs for 1888 at the Library of Congress. The song (for “male voices”) starts out “You may cheer for the grand old party, / As you cheered in the years before, / But her prestige has all departed, / And shorn are her pride and power.” Oh, and the word “eighteen eighty-eight” is in the song, too; it rhymes with “candidate.”
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  (#12) Culinary Advice For Motorists

  Today, on a car trip to just about anywhere in the U.S., finding nourishment is easy, with a fast-food outlet, liquor store, or protein bar close at hand. In the early days of auto travel, however, the “motor picknicker or camper” in May Southworth’s The Motorist’s Luncheon Book (1923) had trouble finding eateries, so on-the-road culinary prowess was key. Some of the items on Southworth's list of suggested emergency food supplies might turn modern-day stomachs, though: beef tablets, sardines, canned frankfurters, “bacon in jars,” and pancake flour. The book also contains gourmet on-the-go recipes like Sausage Surprise and Salad Suzette (served with cream of pea soup in paper cups).
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  (#13) Thomas Jefferson's Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe

  The Library of Congress contains the largest collection of Thomas Jefferson documents in the world – more than 27,000 items that showcase his skills as a diplomat, politician, writer, scientist, architect, and historian. But this favorite Founding Father was also a dessert maker. His highly detailed recipe for vanilla ice cream – also available in his papers at the Library of Congress – is super natural. The ingredients are simply “good cream,” egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla. For a more decipherable version of the recipe, visit The Kitchn.

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