It Was Today I learned about the LOC Blogs!

I had no idea that the Library of Congress has so many blogs and each blog was focused on a particular topic. Where was I?

I have a presentation on Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps and there is rarely a new article. Today there was a new article from the Library of Congress. I saw it on my phone and I wanted to get the unabridged version and went to the LOC site and amazingly I found 21 different blogs based on different types of collections. You can see them here: https://blogs.loc.gov

Detail of the inhabited border from 217r in Manuscript 85 in the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, LOC.

I have a presentation on Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps and there is rarely a new article. Today there was a new article from the Library of Congress. I saw it on my phone and I wanted to get the unabridged version and went to the LOC site and amazingly I found 21 different blogs based on different types of collections. You can see them all here: https://blogs.loc.gov

How can you not be interested in the map collection of the roads of the 18th century. US? or the latest items in public domain due to the roll over of a year? Drop a comment in about which ones look interesting to you!

Let’s look at the 21 blogs a little more closely, I include one of the three latest blogs to let you have an idea of what is covered. For the genealogists, I identified the ones in italics that piqued my interest; your interests will vary.

Timeless: Stories from the LOC:: “Forging Bonds the Veterans History Project Turns 25.” https://blogs.loc.gov/loc/2026/01/forging-bonds-the-veterans-history-project-turns-25/

Bibliomania: Rare Books & Special Collections: “Behind the Rabbit: A Short Tale” https://blogs.loc.gov/bibliomania/2026/01/22/behind-the-rabbit-a-short-tale/

Bookmarked: Celebrating Contemporary Books & Writers at the Library: “A Reading Year With our Literary Ambassadors” https://blogs.loc.gov/bookmarked/2025/12/29/a-reading-year-with-our-literary-ambassadors/

Copyright: Creativity at Work: “Lifecycle of Copyright: 1930 Works in the Public Domain.” https://blogs.loc.gov/copyright/2025/12/lifecycle-of-copyright-1930-works-in-the-public-domain/

Folklife Today: American Folklife Center & Veterans History Project: “MLK’s Philosophy of Non-Violence Revisited,” https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2026/01/mlks-philosophy-of-non-violence-revisited/

4 Corners of the World: International Collections at the Library of Congress: “Conservation as Dendritic Maps an Interview with Paper and Book Conservator Yasmeen Khan,” https://blogs.loc.gov/international-collections/2026/01/conservation-as-dendritic-maps-an-interview-with-paper-and-book-conservator-yasmeen-khan/ (dendritic: definition “having the form resembling a tree’)

Guardians of Memory: Preserving the National Collection:”Clues from the Past: Closely Examining Historic Documents,” https://blogs.loc.gov/preservation/2026/01/clues-from-past/

Headlines & Heroes: Newspapers, Comics & More Fine Print: “A Presidency Cut Short: Death of James Garfield,” https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2026/01/death-of-james-garfield/

Inside Adams: Science, Technology & Business: “Tools of the Trade: Hardware Dealers Magazine,” https://blogs.loc.gov/inside_adams/2026/01/hardware-dealers-magazine/

Insights: Scholarly Work at the Kluge Center: ““Muhammad’s Grave: Death Rites and the Making of Islamic Society,” https://blogs.loc.gov/kluge/2026/01/25-25-halevi/

In Custodia Legis: Law Librarians of Congress: “Upcoming US Law Webinars” (February 2026) https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2026/01/upcoming-us-law-webinars-february-2026/

In The Muse: Performing Arts at the Library of Congress: “The Top 5 Acquisitions for 2025,” https://blogs.loc.gov/music/2026/01/top-5-acquisitions-for-2025/

Minerva’s Kaleidoscope: Resources for Kids & Families: “Craft, Create, and Calculate: Bring Geometry to Life with the Tangram,” https://blogs.loc.gov/families/2026/01/craft-create-calculate-bring-geometry-to-life-with-the-tangram/

NLS Music Notes: Resources for the Blind & Print Disabled: “Holiday Bard Additions, December 2025,” https://blogs.loc.gov/nls-music-notes/2025/12/holiday-bard-additions-december-2025/

Now See Hear!: National Audio-Visual Conservation Center:”This Coming monte at the Packard Campus Theater-February 2026,” https://blogs.loc.gov/now-see-hear/2026/01/this-coming-month-at-the-packard-campus-theater-february-2026/

Of the People: Widening the Path: “Community Collections Grants Collections Spotlight: Documenting Bomba and Pleana Musicians in the Diaspora Los Pleneros de la 21,” https://blogs.loc.gov/ofthepeople/2025/01/community-collections-grants-spotlight-documenting-bomba-and-plena-musicians-in-the-diaspora-los-pleneros-de-la-21/

Picture This: Library of Congress Prints & Photos:”Subterranean Travel: Subway Systems in Pictures,” https://blogs.loc.gov/picturethis/2026/01/subterranean-travel-subway-systems-in-pictures/

The Signal: Digital Happenings at the Library of Congress:”What’s New Online at the Library of Congress,” https://blogs.loc.gov/thesignal/2026/01/new-loc-jan-2026/

Teaching with the Library: Primary Sources & Ideas for Educators:”The American Revolution: A New Primary Source Set for Teachers from the Library of Congress,” https://blogs.loc.gov/teachers/2026/01/the-american-revolution-a-new-primary-source-set-for-teachers-from-the-library-of-congress/

Unfolding History: Manuscripts at the Library of Congress: “Thomas Jefferson and the Rumford Fireplace,” https://blogs.loc.gov/manuscripts/2026/01/thomas-jefferson-and-the-rumford-fireplace/

Worlds Revealed: Geography & Maps at the Library of Congress: “An 18th Century Survey of the Roads of the United States of America,” https://blogs.loc.gov/maps/2026/01/an-18th-century-survey-of-the-roads-of-the-united-states-of-america/

Whew!! Sign up for the ones that catch your eye.

Happy Hunting!

Jill

What I have done since the last posting: I continue to work on my family books. The paternal book as gone to the publisher for a draft and to the editor for final edits. I started work on the maternal book and in the last day or so, have got a good handle on the content and front matter. It will be about 160 pages long (about 1/2 the size of the paternal book). the content is to the editor for first review. Other then that just regular stuff–actually read for pleasure this past week.

Alan Roy Jacobson & the 43-K class

My uncle died in WWII flying over Germany. I never met him. While cleaning out some items, I discovered that I had his “annual” created during flight school inEagle Pass, Texas. You can find the entire annual under Resources in this website. He was in class 43-K. My brother, Jim Jacobson, has has collected more information about him but here is a biography of his brief life.[1]

Alan Roy Jacobson was born 8 April 1921, at home near Britt, Hancock County, Iowa, to Christian Jacobson (1883–1950) and Emma (Anderson) Jacobson (1882–1941). 

 He grew up in Britt, where he appeared in the household with his parents in the 1925 Iowa census and again in the 1930 U.S. census. He was a member of the Congregational Church in Britt. 

Family and community glimpses hint at a lively small-town childhood: at about age one, he famously managed to get into kerosene, frightening everyone, but he recovered quickly; and at age five his kindergarten class celebrated with ice cream, wafers, and homemade cookies—brought and served by his mother and the teacher—“a treat on Allen Jacobsen,” as the paper put it. 

Alan’s early education stayed rooted in Britt. He graduated from Britt High School on 26 May 1938, and then from Britt Junior College on 23 May 1940—a commencement shared with the high school, where the address was given by Mason Ladd, Dean of the State University of Iowa Law School (a detail that would later feel like foreshadowing).  By 4 September 1941, he was a law student at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.  That same year brought personal loss: his mother, Emma, died of cancer. 

Alan continued and completed his studies, graduating in 1942 with a B.A. degree from the State University of Iowa (Iowa City). 

On 11 April 1942, he married Marguerite Hall (born 1922)—with the marriage recorded at Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, and an alternate location noted as St. Louis, Missouri in one source. 

Alan entered the military in earnest on 8 February 1943, beginning training as a pilot and eventually attaining the rank of 1st Lieutenant with the 78th AAF Fighter Group. His path to combat flying was not straightforward: he spent Christmas 1943 at Ft. Douglas, Utah, initially waiting to train as a bomber co-pilot, but he was deeply unhappy with that direction—he wanted fighters, specifically P-47s—and he ultimately did get selected for fighter training, including time in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Eagle Pass, Texas. 

On 6 April 1944, he shipped out for Duxford, England, serving with the 78th Fighter Group, 83rd Fighter Squadron; his name was remembered among the pilots who died in service. 

Alan was killed in action during operations over Germany in November 1944. On 9 November 1944 he crashed his Thunderbolt about 1 km south of Oeschelbronn and “was found dead,” while an alternate death entry places the event on 10 November 1944 “east of Pforzhelm [Pforzheim].” 

Alan was buried on 11 November 1944 in the  Oeschelbronn cemetery, with another note indicating Isenburg, Germany, and later reburials after the war—one noted a military cemetery in Belgium, and ultimately to Evergreen Cemetery in Britt, Iowa. 

My brother Jim later emphasized that the formal statement describing Alan’s death was written by Ed Miller, Alan’s wingman, and that Miller and fellow flight-school classmate Jack LaGrange (a POW after a crash landing) narrated Alan’s wartime experience in vivid detail—hours of “Remember this” and “Remember that” as they turned the pages of Alan’s diary together. 

“Statement from Lt. Ed Miller:
Lt. Jacobson called saying he had been hit. I saw his plane smoking and called about it. He then pulled up to approximately 2,500 feet, clouds preventing his gaining more altitude. He was losing altitude when he rolled the plane on its back. The nose dropped immediately, and it was not until the plane was at about 200 feet when I saw him leave the aircraft. His chute opened but did not billow. He hit the ground a split second later. I circled the inert body four times very low and could observe no movement.”

 Jim preserved haunting specifics: the aircraft had been built in New York only months earlier, accepted by the Army in July 1944, and was “95% burned” on impact; the crash site later became the concession stand for a soccer field. 

War’s aftermath unfolded slowly. In probate on 28 March 1946 (Garner, Hancock County, Iowa), Alan’s will left his possessions to Marguerite H. Jacobson, and if she predeceased him, then to his sister Betty Carol Jacobson; the estate was valued at $550. 

Jim also recorded family memories around the long process of wartime burials and returns, noting that Alan’s body was returned in February 1949, and that their father, Chris, “never recovered from Alan’s loss,” dying in June 1950. 

Alan’s name endured in the family, including as the namesake of Jim’s son, Alan Christopher Jacobson. 

[1] Facts were collected by me; ChatGPT wrote the narrative, I did the fact checking.