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January2008
HOME Mapmaker, Mapmaker, Make Me a Map I Eat, Therefore I Am On the Twelfth Night of Christmas E.T., Phone Home Conquest of Mexico What’s Important About Jan. 8? He’s in Hog Heaven!
He’s in Hog Heaven!

The man in this 1962 photograph may be in hog heaven because Jayne Mansfield is posing next to him, but it could also be because Mansfield is standing next to a real "hog," as in a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

"Hogs" are celebrating their centennial this year, and the Library is observing the anniversary with its Hog Heaven: Celebrating 100 Years of the Harley-Davidson special Web presentation. In 1920, Leslie "Red" Parkhurst broke 23 speed records on a Harley racing bike. The racing team's mascot, a pig, was then carried on a victory lap after wining each race. Thus began the association of hogs and Harleys.
Jayne Mansfield, posed as motorcycle cop "Miss Traffic Stopper," ticketing male driver], 1962 Advertisement, from "Motorcycling" magazine, Dec. 12, 1912

The special presentation is from the Science, Technology and Business Division of the Library. The division's reading room is one of many Research Centers at the Library that offer a world of online information:

  • Images of film stars are found in the motion picture poster collections of the Library. More than 250 of these are online. Go to the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog Search Page and type in "motion picture posters" in the box. You will get links to posters for such cult films as Mamie Van Doren in 1959's "The Beat Generation" or more mainstream titles such as "The Godfather" or "Cabaret," following its win of eight Academy Awards.

  • The collections from the Geography and Map Division offer images of maps ranging from 1500 to the present. Using the MrSID software you can zoom in on maps and see them in greater detail than you could with the naked eye.

  • At the Places in the News page, you can see maps relating to current events, and you can read about places in the news by visiting the Country Studies page with the text of books covering 102 countries and regions, produced by the Library's Federal Research Division. These comprehensive volumes on the nations and regions of the world include one on Iraq.

  • Books from the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, including pages from the extraordinary Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection of illustrated manuscripts and printed books from the 12th through the 20th centuries, can be viewed page-by-page.

Included in the Library's historic mission is a requirement that the institution "sustain and preserve a universal collection of knowledge and creativity." We have done that since our founding in 1800. That's why you can find at the Library everything from 12th century manuscripts and the oldest example of printing in the world, to a photograph of Jayne Mansfield and a "hog," or maps illustrating where today's events are unfolding around the world.


A. [Jayne Mansfield, posed as motorcycle cop "Miss Traffic Stopper," ticketing male driver], 1962, New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection, Prints and Photographs Division. No information on creator. Reproduction No.: LC-USZ62-120121 (b&w film copy neg.)

B. Advertisement, from "Motorcycling" magazine, Dec. 12, 1912.
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