The nation’s wide collection
The most bizarre things held in the Library of Congress
Image: Stephen Walker
The Library of Congress is famously vast, but the strangest treasures are the ones that make you blink and ask: why? Old cake, locks of hair, specific songs, and even ordinary social media posts are all part of the nation’s most important collection. Read on to discover some of the oddest items the national library keeps guarded!
1
12 years of all tweets
Image: Marten Bjork
If you were an active and public Twitter user between the years 2006 and 2017, guess what? Your words are preserved in the Library of Congress .
The platform’s first twelve years are contained in a digital collection meant as a historical record of a new communications channel. From 2018 onwards, the Library started acquiring only "particularly interesting" tweets.
2
Oddly specific movies, like "Shrek" or "Wall-E"
Image: Denise Jans
The Library preserves film culture through the National Film Registry and other collections.
Recent registry additions have included animated hits such as Shrek , while the Library’s preservation programs and official announcements explain why even mainstream animated features matter as cultural artifacts worth saving. The Registry also contains enduring classics such as Grease , Citizen Kane , and The Wizard of Oz .
3
Specific songs, like "Livin’ La Vida Loca"
Image: Bruno Guerrero
Music enters the Library’s life via the National Recording Registry and the Music Division. Ricky Martin’s "Livin’ La Vida Loca" is one of the recordings the Library has recognized for cultural impact; these entries help posterity understand what particular songs meant to listeners at the time.
Other anthems are also preserved in the collection, like Aretha Franklin’s " Respect " and Journey’s " Don’t Stop Believin. "
4
A moldy wedding cake
Image: gryzoon
A sliver of wedding cake from P.T. Barnum’s era spectacles survives in the Library of Congress’s Manuscript Division as a historical oddity. Donated in the 1950s, it now sits darkened with age and mold.
The cake came from the wedding of Charles Stratton, who was 25 years old and just 35 inches tall at the time. Stratton performed in Barnum’s shows under the name General Tom Thumb, delighting audiences with his song-and-dance routine.
5
A map of the Grand Canyon made of chocolate
Image: Steve Johnson
Yes, that is a real thing. The Geography and Map Division highlights a 1991 topographic map of the Grand Canyon molded in chocolate , made by the Chocolate Topographic Company.
6
What Lincoln was carrying when he died
Image: Engin Akyurt
The Library’s Treasures and related pages describe the modest, deeply human contents found on Abraham Lincoln after he was shot : a silk-lined wallet with newspaper clippings, a Confederate five-dollar bill kept as a curiosity, spectacles, a pocketknife, a handkerchief, and a watch fob, among other everyday items.
7
Locks of hair from Jefferson, Beethoven, and others
Image: benjamin lehman
Why not? The Library’s Manuscript and Music Divisions preserve numerous strands of hair attributed to notable figures : from presidents such as Thomas Jefferson to composers like Ludwig van Beethoven, as well as other cultural icons including Walt Whitman, Clara Barton, and George Washington!
8
Thomas Jefferson’s vanilla ice cream recipe
Image: Colin Fearing
Among Jefferson’s papers, which the Library and Monticello both reproduce and discuss, is his handwritten vanilla ice cream recipe : cream, egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla, frozen using ice and salt. A fundamental (and surprisingly delicious) document of history!
9
A precursor of the Monopoly Game (The Office Boy)
Image: Kathy Marsh
Monopoly’s genealogy includes several predecessors. Most famously, Elizabeth Magie’s 1904 The Landlord’s Game is the well-documented precursor.
Other commercial board games , such as Parker Brothers’ The Office Boy (an 1889 Horatio Alger–style career game), along with various moral and occupational boards, helped shape the emerging mass-market game industry that ultimately produced Monopoly .
