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Recent Artifacts Online, Winter 2024 | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives

Everything old is new again—this season, treasures from 150 years ago take center stage in newly digitized additions to our online collection. Find the furniture in an 1858 print and compare the picture to examples that survive today.The Hall of Representatives in the New Extension of the Capitol at WashingtonThis print showing the details of the newly completed House Chamber, which had opened just months before, is also the earliest image of Pages in the House Collection. Small boys can be seen sitting alongside the lowest level of the three-tiered Speaker’s rostrum. By the late 1850s, Pages had been working in the Capitol for nearly half a century. Note the chairs and desks furnishing the new chamber. Surviving examples of these are also part of the House Collection, included below.Walter DeskIn 1857, the House met in its new chamber, with Representatives sitting at highly decorated desks designed for the room. Carved symbols on the desk’s front illustrate power: a shield with the nation’s stars and stripes anchors the top rail above a globe with “America” emblazoned across it.Walter ChairAs the House of Representatives prepared to occupy its new chamber in 1857, deadlines loomed. More than one company scrambled to build the many formidable oak armchairs needed for the chamber. The Hammitt Desk Manufacturing Company of Philadelphia provided 131 chairs, and Bembe & Kimbel, a New York City firm, supplied another 131. The two versions have slight variations. Look closely: this one, made by the Hammitt Desk Manufacturing Company, has circular decorations around the chair’s seat, with small wooden hemispheres in the center of each circle. The Bembe & Kimbel chairs use a variation on the circular design that marks them as works from that manufacturer.Formal Notice of the Impeachment of Andrew JohnsonThe full-page image on one side of this sheet from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper showed Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania and John Bingham of Ohio delivering the formal notice of the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson to the Senate. The reverse included five more images, building a narrative of the proceedings. Scenes include a crowd rushing to enter the Chamber to hear the message delivered, people at the Willard Hotel discussing the transpiring events, and a crowd in Baltimore reacting to the “impeachment telegram” being posted on the bulletin. As evidenced by this example, the story was followed in detail by the contemporary press.Our New President—General View of the Inauguration CeremoniesAfter a disputed election, Rutherford Hayes was sworn in as President in March 1877. This Harper’s Weekly print shows a sea of spectators—and two playful dogs—gathered near the East Front of the Capitol for the inauguration. Although the public ceremony took place on March 5, Hayes was sworn in privately at the White House two days earlier.Are you more of a modernist? Check out these 20th-century artifacts, new on the website:For additional new paintings, photographs, and objects on Collections Search, check out other Recent Artifacts Online blogs.

Best of the Blog in 2024 | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives

In 2024, the Office of the Historian and the Office of Art and Archives published 34 blog posts exploring the rich history of the House of Representatives. This year’s submissions covered a range of topics, including deep dives on the portrait of pathbreaking California Representative Dalip Singh Saund, the curious career of Pennsylvania Representative Thomas Forrest, and the history and development of the House Chamber’s electronic voting system.Additionally, the oral history program at the Office of the Historian celebrated its twentieth year of operation with posts looking back at two decades of interviews with remarkable Members of Congress, staff, and family members.House curators and archivists continued to update readers about new additions to the House Collection and Records Search. House historians maintained the long-running Edition for Educators series for teachers and students and provided an annual update for students competing in National History Day. The office also expanded its educational series by offering closer looks at two major events in modern House history: the 1954 shooting in the House Chamber and the first lying-in-honor ceremony in the Capitol. Finally, readers more inclined to statistics over narrative were treated to an updated snapshot of the House by its numbers.As the 118th Congress prepares to adjourn sine die, we’re featuring six of our favorite blog posts from the past year.An Empire or a Gavel: Speaker Thomas Brackett Reed’s Opposition to the Spanish-American WarIn late March 1898, Republican Speaker Thomas Brackett Reed of Maine found himself in an unfamiliar position. Known as “Czar Reed” for his iron-fisted control over the legislative process, Reed now struggled to maintain the direction of the House’s agenda as war loomed on the horizon. For months, lawmakers on Capitol Hill had worried as Spain suppressed a war for independence in Cuba, which Madrid controlled as a territory. By the spring, many in Congress sought to confront the European monarchy over its actions in the Caribbean. But Reed fiercely opposed conflict with Spain, and generally resisted America’s larger imperial ambitions overseas. A loyal Republican and the leader of his party in Congress, Reed felt he had certain obligations to adhere to party orthodoxy, even in the rare event that he disagreed with it. As the drumbeat for war grew louder in the GOP, Reed confronted an issue that pitted his party loyalty against his personal convictions and his duties as Speaker of the House.The Records of a Growing Nation: Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)As the United States grew in size and population, it grappled with the challenges of its expansion. Congress began the complicated process of dividing and parceling out land, much of it already inhabited, contended with pro- and antislavery activism, and started to determine what kinds of support and relief the government should provide its citizens. This second entry in an ongoing series about House documents focuses on a few of the most prominent issues facing Congress during the antebellum era. This overview invites readers to learn more about this turbulent period with these records from the House of Representatives.“A Favored Son of America”: the Marquis de Lafayette’s 1824 House ReceptionOn December 10, 1824, two dozen U.S. Representatives accompanied a 67-year-old French nobleman named Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier through the streets of Washington, DC, on the way to the U.S. Capitol. The reception scheduled for that day marked the first time the U.S. House had formally hosted a foreign dignitary—hundreds of others, including many heads of state, would follow over the next two centuries. But in that initial instance the guest was not the leader or a representative of any overseas government. In the United States, du Motier was better known as the Marquis de Lafayette, a French volunteer and general in the American Revolution who had served under George Washington in the Continental Army and whose leadership was pivotal to securing America’s independence five decades earlier. An entire lifetime had come and gone since the Revolution. The upstart democracy Lafayette had helped seed in the eighteenth century had, by the third decade of the nineteenth, grown into a force all its own.The House's Plot to Steal a LibraryIn June 1974, as the U.S. House of Representatives opened an impeachment investigation into President Richard M. Nixon amid the Watergate scandal, a construction crew was hard at work on a massive new building for the Library of Congress in the 100 block of Independence Avenue in Southeast, Washington, DC—near the heart of Capitol Hill. Congress had authorized the building in 1965 to help alleviate overcrowding across the library complex. Only steps away, a group of Representatives took stock of the House’s own office space and decided that it was overcrowded as well, packed with thousands of Member, committee, and support staff. Perhaps what the House required was a new office building. And perhaps the new library facility was just the space the House needed.The History of Member Pins“The first day I was here, I was just walking around,” newly minted Representative Roger Marshall reported. “Nobody even noticed me. Then I put this on and all of a sudden, the eyes started trailing me.” Marshall came to Congress in 2017 and quickly learned what gets you noticed on the Hill: the official, Members-only lapel pin. Like a hall pass, the little metal disc has identified Representatives to police, Members, and others in the know for 50 years. But for the previous 180 years, the House saw no need for them. What happened to make Member pins a must-have in Congress?Not Horsing Around: Speaker Sedgwick Attempts to Rein in the PressOn December 22, 1800, the U.S. House of Representatives held a somewhat routine debate on whether to examine the conduct of Mississippi’s territorial governor. As debate dragged on, Democratic Republican William Charles Cole Claiborne of Tennessee declared that he had heard enough, and recommended the House move swiftly to punish the governor, surmising that “a delay of justice is often equal to a denial of it.” Claiborne’s remarks struck a chord with a man named James Lane who watched the proceedings from the gallery. In a show of support, Lane began clapping. Lane’s disruption sparked an immediate rebuke from Speaker Theodore Sedgwick of Massachusetts, who ordered the House Sergeant at Arms to remove Lane from the chamber. The clapping may have lasted a split second, but it set in motion a lengthy series of events that underscored the power of the Speaker and House leadership’s contentious relationship with the press. It also, apparently, caused James Lane to lose his horse.Be sure to follow the blog in 2025 for more House history, art, and records!

Development of the Industrial United States and the Emergence of Modern America (1870–1931), Part II: The Records of Progress | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives

As the United States expanded, developed, and went to war overseas, Americans and their government responded to the rapid changes happening in the country and abroad. Citizens petitioned Congress for consumer protections, better working conditions, assistance for vulnerable people, voting rights, and conservation of the country’s natural landscapes. The government responded with reforms—both welcome and unwelcome, depending on one’s perspective. Learn more about how the country navigated the shift from the unregulated excess of the Gilded Age to social and political reforms of the Progressive Era with these records from the House of Representatives.Transcriptions and downloadable PDFs of these records are available at the links below.Discussion Questions:How did the country’s workforce change during this period?Identify at least three areas that Americans worked to reform during this period. Are Americans still working to bring about change in these areas today?How did changes in communication, transportation, and industry during this period bring about government reform?What methods did Americans use to advocate for changes for themselves and for others?What connections can you make between this period and today?Is what is considered progress by some always positive for everyone? Why or why not?1890, Give Us Pure Lager Beer PetitionThis petition was sent to the House from citizens of Avon, New York, who supported H.R. 8522, a bill that defined the required ingredients of lager beer. The petitioners warned that “adulterants such as corn, rice, starch, glucose and other substitutes,” when used instead of malt and hops, may affect the purity of beer, as well as the drinker’s health. The petition is an example of the demand for more government regulation of consumer goods that culminated in the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.1893, John Muir Yosemite LetterA founding member of the Sierra Club, John Muir served as president from its inception in 1892 until his death in 1914. Muir and his fellow club members petitioned Congress to preserve Yosemite National Park’s boundaries when California Representative Anthony Caminetti proposed opening it up to farming and mining in 1893. The petition includes a four-point list detailing the damage to the park if it were developed, along with a map illustrating the reduced size advocated by the legislation. Congress eventually sided with the conservationists and decided to maintain the original boundaries for the time being.1900, Anti-Lynching PetitionPetitioners from New Jersey protested the lynching of African Americans in the South. The petition was submitted on the House Floor on February 21, 1900, by Representative George Henry White of North Carolina, the only African American in Congress at the time, in support of H.R. 6963, anti-lynching legislation he introduced on January 20, 1900. White left at the end of that Congress, and it was nearly three decades before another African American served in Congress.1902, Letter Supporting Anti-Injunction and Anti-Conspiracy LegislationThe Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, Bradford Lodge No. 288, in McKean County, sent this petition to Congressman Joseph C. Sibley of Pennsylvania in 1902. The union encouraged the consideration of H.R. 11060, which would limit the meaning of the word “conspiracy” and the use of “restraining orders and injunctions.” As a labor union for railroad employees, the group had a vested interest in legislation that protected its right to organize and protest, which had been curtailed by allegations of civil conspiracy and court ordered injunctions against strikes and boycotts.1912, Child Labor PhotographIn 1908, Lewis Wickes Hine began documenting the conditions of young workers in Washington, DC. The notation Hine typed on the back of the photograph observed that the three boys were about 9 years old. One newsboy was a “chronic truent [sic],” and another had already been working as a newsboy since the age of 6. Their work required them to rise early and work long days, until all their papers were sold. Hine’s documentary photographs, often depicting gritty, true-to-life scenes, made their way into the investigative files of the Committee on the District of Columbia to bolster proposed legislation that would ban child labor in the District.1917, Student Resolution for ProhibitionIn 1917, a group of high school students from Flemington, New Jersey, submitted a resolution supporting a bill introduced by Congressman Asbury Lever in support of the prohibition of alcohol to conserve resources for the impending war. H.R. 4961 included the “limitation, regulation, or prohibition of the use of foods, food materials, or feeds in the production of alcohol.” Although the bill became the Lever Food and Fuel Control Act and was signed into law on August 10, 1917, nationwide Prohibition would not take effect until 1920.1919, House Joint Resolution 1 for Women’s SuffrageH.J. Res. 1 proposing an amendment to the Constitution extending voting rights to women was introduced in the House on May 19, 1919, and referred to the House Committee on Woman Suffrage. H.J. Res. 1 passed the House on May 21, 1919, followed by the Senate on June 4. The amendment achieved ratification in three-fourths of the states, and the U.S. Secretary of State certified it as the 19th Amendment to the Constitution on August 26, 1920, allowing women nationwide to head to the polls that November.1927, Funds for a Veterans’ HospitalThis petition, a concurrent resolution from the state legislature of Indiana, urges the U.S. Congress to establish a hospital for veterans within the state. The resolution argues that, “As Indiana is the center of population of the United States, a nucleus of the agricultural and industrial elements, the greatest railroad center of the world, and easily accessible by highways,” a veterans’ hospital would serve the area well. After the creation of the Veterans Administration, a health facility serving veterans opened in Indiana in 1932.Interested in more records from this era?1886, Postcards to Label Oleomargarine1886, Resolution to Create a Bureau of Labor for Women1875, Railway Joint Tariff1879, Letter against the Comstock Actca. 1890, Petition against Obscene Literature1894, Normal and Industrial Schools Billca. 1902, Petition for National Appalachian Forest Reserve1902, Resolution on Enforcement of the 14th Amendment1902, Higher Education for People Who Are Blind1905, Letter to Amend the Interstate Commerce Act1906, Report on Chicago Stock Yards1908, Supporting a Child Labor Bill for DC1910, Letter to Julius Kahn on Establishing a Children’s Bureau1910, Letter in Favor of a Children’s Bureau1911, Support for a National Archives Building1915, Letter Regarding Mount Baker1916, Letter for National Park Service1917, Urging Prohibition During Wartime1917, Letter against Prohibition1918, Maternity and Infancy Hygiene Bill1922, Red Record of Lynching Map1924, Letter against Child Labor AmendmentRead the first part of this blog, “Development of the Industrial United States and the Emergence of Modern America (1870–1931), Part I: The Records of Power,” here.This is part of a blog series about records from different eras of U.S. history.

Edition for Educators—John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives

John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts remains the only President elected to the U.S. House of Representatives after his service as chief executive. When Adams took his seat in the House in 1831, he had already enjoyed a long career in some of the federal government’s most powerful posts. The son of the second U.S. President, Adams brought a stubbornness and a lifetime of experience to his job as Representative. Adams served for 17 years in the House, representing his Massachusetts district from 1831 until his death in 1848. From both committee rooms and the House Floor, Adams argued ceaselessly against the expansion of slavery and remained steadfast in upholding the right of the American people to petition their government. Thanks in large part to the voluminous diary entries he left behind, historians enjoy ample access to Adams’s various musings and frustrations during one of the most tumultuous periods in House history.Relying on a wealth of material published on the History, Art and Archives website, this month’s Edition for Educators highlights the life and congressional career of Representative John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts.Son, Senator, Secretary, PresidentPEOPLE PROFILE—John Adams of MassachusettsJohn Adams was one of the most famous men in early America. As a Member of the Continental Congress, Adams proposed George Washington to head the Continental Army and helped write the Declaration of Independence. While his new nation grappled with the Articles of Confederation, Adams represented American interests abroad in France, Holland, and England. He returned to the United States in 1788 to serve as the first Vice President under Washington. When Washington declined to run for a third term in 1796, Adams won election as the second President of the United States. Adams, a Boston lawyer of esteem long before joining the Continental Congress, ensured his children received excellent educations. His oldest son John Quincy Adams was schooled in Europe before following his father’s path through Harvard College and into law in Boston and diplomacy abroad.HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHT—The House of Representatives Elected John Quincy Adams as President On February 9, 1825, the House of Representatives elected Secretary of State John Quincy Adams as President. Following an inconclusive Electoral College result, in which no candidate won a majority, the House performed its constitutionally prescribed role of deciding the 1824 presidential election. Andrew Jackson of Tennessee had won the popular vote and commanded 99 electoral votes. He was followed in the electoral tally by Adams (84), Treasury Secretary William Crawford (41), and Speaker of the House Henry Clay (37). Despite Jackson’s lead following Election Day, lawmakers in the House elected Adams President on the first ballot.From the White House to the House of RepresentativesHISTORICAL HIGHLIGHT—The Election of John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts The 1830 midterm election made Adams the first and only former President to be elected to the House of Representatives. Adams sought a second term as President in 1828 but lost to former Representative and Senator Andrew Jackson of Tennessee. Two years later, Adams handily won election to the House to represent a district encompassing southeastern Massachusetts in the 22nd Congress (1831–1833). Prior to the election, Adams reflected on his candidacy for the House in his journal, “no person could be degraded by serving the people as a Representative in Congress . . . [nor] would an ex-President of the United States be degraded by serving as a selectman of his town, if elected thereto by the people.”BLOG—“Planting Laws and Institutions”: The Election of Representative John Quincy Adams On November 6, 1830, former United States President John Quincy Adams spent the day at his family’s farm near Quincy, Massachusetts, planting trees. On the edge of what would become the orchard, he laid out five rows of chestnuts, oaks, and shagbark hickories. Adams ate lunch at home and went back to the farm “to lay out the ground for the Orchard,” all the while debating what else he would plant there. Toward the end of the day, he read the evening newspapers and nonchalantly noted in his diary that the news had “brought the last returns of the Congressional Election for the District of Plymouth. Twenty-two Towns gave 2565 votes, of which 1817 were for John Quincy Adams, 373 for Arad Thompson (Jacksonite), 279 for William Baylies (federal), and 96 scattering votes.” The final line in Adams’s diary that day: “I am a member elect of the twenty-second Congress.”Antislavery CrusaderHISTORICAL HIGHLIGHT—The House “Gag Rule” On May 26, 1836, during the 24th Congress (1835–1837), the U.S. House of Representatives instituted the “gag rule,” the first instance of what would become a traditional practice forbidding the House from considering antislavery petitions. Representative John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts raised the first and most impassioned objections to the procedure. Adams shouted during the roll call vote, “I hold the resolution to be a direct violation of the Constitution of the United States.” For the next four Congresses, Adams fervently fought against the gag rule, declaring it a restriction on free speech. Despite his efforts, the House successfully reintroduced the gag rule each Congress until Adams finally mustered enough votes to repeal it on December 3, 1844.HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHT—A Motion to Censure Representative John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts On February 7, 1842, the House voted 106 to 93 to table a motion censuring Representative John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts for antislavery agitation. Weeks earlier, Adams had masterfully manipulated the public debate over slavery by baiting proslavery Representatives into a prolonged dialogue. Because the House had instituted the “gag rule” in 1836—preventing floor discussion of abolition petitions—Adams manufactured a debate by submitting a petition, allegedly drafted by a group of Georgians, to have Adams removed as Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman. (Historians doubt the authenticity of the petition—some implying that Adams or one of his allies authored it). Through this sleight of hand, Adams used the defense of his chairmanship to hold the floor for days delivering a far-ranging harangue against “slave mongers,” as one observer recalled, “till slaveholding [and] slave trading . . . absolutely quailed and howled under his dissecting knife,” inspiring the effort to censure Adams.“Old Man Eloquent"HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHT—Congressman and Poet John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts A man of many talents, Congressman John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts was a poet as well as a statesman. During his first term as Representative, Adams penned the epic poem, “Dermot MacMorrogh, or The Conquest of Ireland.” Adams once confessed, “Could I have chosen my own genius and condition, I should have made myself a great poet.” Another poem, “Fragments From an Unfinished Manuscript: An Epistle To the Muse of History,” captured a poignant moment in his House career. While seated at his desk in the old House Chamber (now National Statuary Hall), Adams wrote the poem honoring Clio, the Greek muse of history. He was inspired by a marble clock, located over the north door of the chamber, depicting Clio riding in the “Winged Car of History” and recording the deeds of Congress.HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHT—The First Parliamentary Procedure to Limit House Floor Debate On July 7, 1841, the House adopted the first rule intended to limit the time a Representative could speak in debate on the House Floor. Concerns about long speeches impeding House business had dated to at least 1820, when the irascible John Randolph of Virginia held the House Floor for a four-hour speech on the Missouri Compromise bill. This 1841 rule, adopted on the motion of Lott Warren of Georgia, required that “no member shall be allowed to speak more than one hour to any question under debate.” It passed the House by a vote of 111 to 75—with John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts (known as “Old Man Eloquent” by his peers) among those dissenting. Warren’s amendment, however, only temporarily altered the House Rules. According to Hinds’ Precedents the one-hour limit did not become a standing rule of the House until June 1842.BLOG—Father Knows Best Shortly after noon on an unseasonably mild Thursday in late February 1842, a hush fell over the House as the venerable John Quincy Adams creakily arose from his chair. Just weeks earlier, the House had considered censuring the gray-haired Massachusetts Congressman whom many knew as “Old Man Eloquent” to punish him for manufacturing a crippling debate about the evils of slavery. But on this day Adams eulogized North Carolina’s Lewis Williams, whom colleagues revered as the “Father of the House”—the Member with the longest continuous service. The prior afternoon Williams had succumbed to pneumonia. His abrupt passing shocked colleagues and ended an unbroken run of House service reaching back to 1815—far longer than any of his peers in that 27th Congress (1841-1843), Adams included.Mr. ChairmanBLOG—A Mob in Search of a Speaker During the chaotic first two weeks of the 26th Congress (1839–1841) in December 1839, three separate men presided over the House of Representatives: Clerk Hugh Garland of the previous Congress, Representative John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts in an entirely invented position, and finally Robert M.T. Hunter of Virginia, the youngest Speaker of the House ever to hold the office.BLOG—The Apportionment Act of 1842: Legal, When Convenient Throughout his 17-year career in the House, Representative John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts existed in a state of almost perpetual irritation. Whether it was debate over tariff rates or his fight against slavery, the House’s daily business routinely left Adams exasperated but nevertheless resolute that he was right and everyone else was wrong. Adams was in no mood then, when on June 25, 1842, a curious decision by President John Tyler stretched Adams’s already short patience to its breaking point. After failing to convince the House to take up his bill providing back payments to the American victims of French privateers, Adams sat in disbelief as John Tyler Jr., the President’s son and aide, delivered a message to the House from his father explaining his decision to begrudgingly sign the Apportionment Act of 1842.RECORD—Smithsonian Fund Stocks After his death in 1829, British scientist James Smithson left $500,000 to the United States to found an institution dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. The House Select Committee on the Bequest of James Smithson, chaired by Representative John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, determined what should be done with the windfall. This House record shows how the United States Treasury used these funds while the select committee worked. The Secretary of the Treasury primarily invested the bequest in the states of Arkansas, Michigan, Illinois, and Ohio, with a rate of interest around six percent. As this record shows, Smithson’s capital temporarily supported the Detroit and Pontiac Railroad Company and canals in Ohio, among other economic and infrastructural projects. In 1846, the Smithsonian Institution was officially created by law.Death and LegacyBLOG—The Last Hours of John Quincy Adams The morning of February 21, 1848, was bright and clear. Representative John Quincy Adams left his house on F Street for the Capitol for the last time. Age had made him frail and a little hunched over in the winter air, but still with a piercing gaze. Adams knew he was nearing the end of his career. But he likely did not suspect that his last hours in the Capitol would become a national media event, driven by brand-new technologies and nostalgia that Adams represented.HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHT—The Death of Representative John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts On February 21, 1848, Representative and former President John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts suffered a fatal stroke on the House Floor. Members moved the 80-year-old former President to the Rotunda for fresher air and then relocated him to the Speaker's Room (the present-day Lindy Claiborne Boggs Congressional Women’s Reading Room). Adams mustered the strength to thank the Officers of the House for their service. He then lapsed into a coma and died two days later. A funeral to celebrate the life of the great sage took place on February 26, 1848, in the House Chamber which was attended by political friends and foes alike. Until arrangements could be made to move his remains to the family burial grounds in Quincy, Massachusetts, his body was laid to rest in Congressional Cemetery. A cenotaph marker remains in the cemetery to honor the former President.Extra ResourcesLearn more about the career of John Quincy Adams as a Senator from Massachusetts, U.S. Secretary of State, and the sixth President of the United States—the opening acts to his tenure as Congressman from Massachusetts.John Quincy Adams kept a diary for much of his life, which is publicly available online through a number of databases, including the Massachusetts Historical Society and the Library of Congress.This is part of a series of blog posts for educators highlighting the resources available on History, Art & Archives of the U.S. House of Representatives. For lesson plans, fact sheets, glossaries, and other materials for the classroom, see the website's Education section.