Love Game of Thrones? We Have a Read for You This Holiday Weekend

Posted on May 24, 2018May 17, 2018 by Meghan McCorkell

Hooked on Game of Thrones? George R.R. Martin’s novella Nightflyers is about to be a new TV series. You can check out the book first at the Pratt.

New Fiction Titles

For a complete list of new FICTION titles, click here

For a complete list of new MYSTERY titles, click here

For a complete list of new SCIFI & FANTASY titles, click here

New Nonfiction Titles

For a complete list of new NONFICTION titles, click here

New Children’s Titles

For a complete list of new CHILDREN’S titles, click here

Stay tuned tomorrow for new Young Adult titles, Graphic novels, and digital downloads.

The Catonsville Nine: 50 Years Later

Posted on May 17, 2018May 17, 2018 by Meghan McCorkell

View the digital files of the Catonsville Nine trials on Digital Maryland

On May 17, 1968, nine men and women entered the Selective Service Offices in Catonsville, Maryland. They removed several hundred draft records, and burned them with homemade napalm in protest against the war in Vietnam. The nine were arrested and, in a highly publicized trial, sentenced to jail.

This act of civil disobedience intensified protest against the draft. It prompted debate in households in Maryland and across the nation. It stirred angry reaction on the part of many Americans. The act also propelled the nine Catholic participants – especially priest brothers Daniel and Philip Berrigan – into the national spotlight.

The Catonsville action reflected not only the nature of the Vietnam antiwar movement in 1968, but also the larger context of social forces that were reshaping American culture in the 1960s.

Fifty years later, you can view historical documents linked to the Catonsville Nine on Digital Maryland, including photos, videos, and court records.

On Saturday, May 19 at 2pm the Edmondson Avenue Branch will hold a movie screening and discussion of “The Trial of the Catonsville Nine.”

Digital content contributed by Cornell University Library, Friends of the Catonsville Branch of the Baltimore County Public Library, Herman Heyn, Dean Pappas, Lynne Sachs and University of Baltimore Library.

It’s Preakness Week!

Posted on May 14, 2018January 4, 2018 by Meghan McCorkell

Learn more about the history of Horse Racing in Maryland on Digital Maryland

“Back Again” Horse Race at Pimlico, May 1948

The Hays-Heighe House Horse Racing Photographs Collection contains one color and twenty-one black and white montages of race day photographs. The photos were taken between 1934 and 1951 of prize-winning horses raised and trained at Prospect Hill Farm once owned by Robert H. and Anne Heighe of Harford County, Maryland. That Farm is now the campus of Harford Community College.

Once the manor house for the Heighes, the Hays-Heighe House maintains the archives of Prospect Hill Farm. They’ve also maintained archives of the thoroughbreds raised by Mrs. Heighe that raced at tracks in Maryland and as far away as Long Branch outside of Toronto, Canada and Tropical Park in Miami, Florida. The collection is also associated with two trainers prominent in Harford County and Maryland racing who worked for the Heighes, Jack Boniface and Joe Mergler.

Check out the photos and much more on Digital Maryland.

Look into Your Ancestry

Posted on May 7, 2018April 11, 2018 by Meghan McCorkell

You’ve seen the commercials for Ancestry.com. Now you can access those same databases inside your Pratt Library.

Ancestry® Library Edition delivers billions of records in census data, vital records, directories, photos, and more. It’s an unprecedented online collection of individuals from North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, and more. Here, you can unlock the story of you with sources like censuses, vital records, immigration records, family histories, military records, court and legal documents, directories, photos, maps, and more. And, with ongoing updates and new content always being added, you’ll keep coming back to discover more.

Popular and recently added collections include:

U.S. collections deliver hundreds of millions of names from sources such as federal and U.S. censuses; birth, death, and marriage records including the Social Security Death Index; and U.S. border crossing and trans-ocean ship records.

Canadian collections provide nearly 60 million records from the Census of Canada, and key vital records, such as the Drouin Collection (1621-1967), which includes nearly 30 million baptism, marriage, and burial records from Quebec.

U.K. collections offer censuses for England, Wales, Isle of Man, Channel Islands, and Scotland, with nearly 200 million records: Births and Baptisms (1834-1906), Marriage Licenses (1521-1869), Deaths and Burials (1834-1934), and Poor Law Records (1840-1938) in London, and more.

Other international collections continue to grow with more than 46 million records from German censuses, vital records, emigration indexes, ship lists, phone directories, and more; Chinese surnames in the large and growing Jiapu Collection of Chinese lineage books; Jewish family history records from Eastern Europe and Russia; and more.

Military collections deliver over 150 million records containing information often not found elsewhere and includes records from the colonial to the Vietnam era.

Multimedia collections deliver millions of files ranging from family and gravestone photos to postcards and newsreels.

Ancestry® Library Edition is only available inside one of your 22 Pratt Library locations.