News
Entertainment
Science & Technology
Life
Culture & Art
Hobbies
News
Entertainment
Science & Technology
Culture & Art
Hobbies
History
The History of Member Pins | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives
“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?Pinning Up WatergateIn a word, Watergate—and the massive turnover in Congress that resulted. The fallout from the Watergate scandal resounded across the country and set in motion changes that led to Member pins. After a break-in at the Democratic Party’s offices, congressional investigations implicated President Richard Nixon in widespread misconduct, ultimately driving the President from office in August 1974. Nixon’s resignation and President Gerald Ford’s pardon of the former president changed the political landscape. Democrats saw massive gains in their House majority following the 1974 elections, bringing a new generation into the Capitol.The 86 new Members in 1975 became known as the “Watergate babies,” the largest incoming class since the 1940s. As their nickname implied, the new Members were a young bunch. Many were decades younger than the average age of House Democrats. The freshman class was so youthful that it increased the under-40 representation in the House by more than 50 percent over the previous Congress.Tousle-haired Tom Downey of New York was an example of the new breed of Representative and the press’ poster child for the freshman class. Downey was only 25 on Election Day and looked even younger. In the first weeks of the new Congress, Representative William Barrett, 78 years old, beckoned Downey over to his desk. “Here, take these papers to my office,” Barrett directed. Downey replied with an expletive that he would do no such thing. When Barrett summoned Donn Anderson, the cloakroom supervisor to complain, Anderson had to inform the Congressman that Downey was not, in fact, a Page but was instead one of his new colleagues from New York. Downey later noted that it was far from the only time he was mistaken for a teenager.In addition to salty showdowns on the floor, some Members reported being stopped by the Capitol Police, including, according to one newspaper, “demands to check them for concealed weapons.” The Committee on House Administration fielded complaints and decided to act. At the May 1, 1975, meeting of the committee’s Subcommittee on Personnel and Police, Chairman Frank Annunzio proposed “Members Security Identification Pins,” assuring his colleagues that they would be “neat and in good taste.”The full committee took up the proposal, and although it was clearly destined for approval, a few Members tossed in half-hearted objections. One Member said that pins would be a crutch for Capitol guards, who should have memorized all the Members. Another thought it was ridiculous to have the House pay for the pins, which would cost too much. Lindy Boggs asked that the design be changed so that there was a pin and catch on the back instead of a thick tie tack post. Another comment was that Members would forget their pins, and then where would that leave them?The first Member pin featured a starry blue background with a silver image of the House Mace’s top. Since then, the Committee on House Administration has determined Member pin designs, generally with a different set of colors each Congress. More recently, the pin design has included the eagle and shield of the Great Seal of the United States, along with the Congress number.Pinning Down Member FlairBased on a close look at photographs in the House Collection, it appears that early on, very few Members wore their pins. One image from the 1980 State of the Union shows only four of 59 Members visible in the frame wearing their pins.Similarly, in a photograph of 24 members of the Budget Committee from the 97th Congress (1981–1983), only Norman Mineta of California wears his. Mineta was an early adopter of the Member pin, and he presaged its greater use by women and minorities. Photographs in the House Collection demonstrate the disparity. In 373 headshots from between 1975 and 1985 in the House Collection, women Members and Members of color are two and a half times more likely than White men to wear their pins.There is no written documentation of a relationship between Member pins and racial or gender profiling in those early days, but in the 21st century, some Representatives spoke with frankness about the challenges they faced. Yvette Clarke of New York, after five terms in the House, expressed why it might be, even in the 2010s, that “I can get on an elevator with some of my colleagues and they still ask me who I work for. Sometimes, just coming into the House complex, I have to show my ID and make sure my pin is shown, because people say I have a more youthful look than my age would indicate. The average man on the Hill is a graying white dude, so I’m not given the benefit of the doubt. I have to make it clear why I’m here.” As recently as 2019, one female Member told a reporter that “I still get mistaken—I even went over to the Senate Gallery and [a guard] said, ‘No spouses allowed.’”Member Pin(terest)Specific security changes from the 1990s and 2000s, such as magnetometers, likely speeded up adoption, as Members were able to bypass lines for the increasingly complex security apparatus at entrances to the House with a flash of the pin. Another reason is likely generational. By 2005, when nearly all Members wore them at least some of the time, only nine began their service in a time before pins. That year, Bob Ney, chair of the committee that started the Member pin policy, said “We might have our differences, but the one similarity that we share is that we’ve all got the same pin.”As pins became more common, they also shifted from being solely an ID badge to being also a symbol of office, used in portraits as part of a Member’s self-presentation. Tallying up the pins in committee chair portraits can show how this ceremonial use grew. There is not a single portrait from the 1970s or 1980s that includes a Member pin. Slowly the numbers inched up: three in the 1990s, four in the 2000s, and a whopping 15 in the 2010s. This growth was likely due both to security-driven ubiquity and to the bright-eyed freshmen of 1975 and later who had risen through the ranks to chair committees. Of the 30 pin-sporting chairs with portraits painted between 1980 and 2024, 27 are of legislative leaders who arrived after 1975, knowing only a pinned world on Capitol Hill.In the 2020s, Member pins have become not only a visual reminder of status and ceremony, but part of Hill parlance, too. They have become a substitute for saying that someone has gotten elected to Congress. Newspapers report whether a potential candidate is “pursuing a Member pin.” For those who have won congressional elections, the shiny symbol of legislative service awaits at the start of each Congress.Sources: Committee on House Administration, Subcommittee on Personnel and Police, 1 May 1975; Committee on House Administration, 14 May 1975; John Lawrence, The Class of ’74: Congress after Watergate and the Roots of Partisanship (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018); Roll Call, 20 September 2019; Roll Call, 19 July 2017; Roll Call, 27 January 2016; Roll Call, 20 September 2019; Washington Post, 3 August 2016; Wall Street Journal, 16 May 1975; Los Angeles Times, 18 May 1975.
Giving Thanks for the Institution | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives
Behind the scenes and away from the spotlight, the staff of the U.S. House of Representatives ensure that America’s large and complex legislative institution runs smoothly. On any given day over the years, House employees have performed a myriad of tasks: delivering messages for Members of Congress, keeping track of votes on the House Floor, and assisting with committee hearings.When the Office of the House Historian began conducting oral histories twenty years ago, a major goal of the program was to describe and explain the work of staff. Documenting the responsibilities of staff and how they have changed over time offered a unique look at how the House of Representatives evolved and adapted to new technology and the growing demands on lawmakers. Interviews conducted with longtime employees proved especially useful in learning about the culture, interpersonal dynamics, and day-to-day proceedings of the House.In this final post commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the House’s oral history program, four former staff members, whose collective service covered more than 150 years, described their impressions of the institution and offered advice to a new generation of employees. Themes of gratitude, inspiration, and service emerge in this collection of interviews.Joe Bartlett (1941–1979)Dorsey Joseph Bartlett, better known as Joe to his colleagues on the Hill, was born on August 7, 1926, in Clarksburg, West Virginia. Bartlett first came to the House as a Page in 1941 where he enrolled in the Capitol Page School and ran errands for lawmakers. After serving in the Marines during World War II, Bartlett returned to the Capitol, where he served as chief Page, reading clerk, and later as Clerk to the Minority. Bartlett’s career as a House staffer spanned 38 years.Bartlett’s affable personality and skillful storytelling added colorful detail and vitality to his oral history. In one instance, he offered a description of the audition for the coveted job of reading clerk in 1953. More than twenty people traipsed to the House Floor to test their memory and auditory skill, while hoping to display the ability to think and react quickly. “One of the tricks they had—we were not allowed to audition in the presence of the other candidates—but one of the tricks they had was to turn off the microphone,” Bartlett remembered. “And these professionals had no idea what to do when the microphone went off. And so some, in a sense, sort of lost it. I didn’t have enough sense not to continue, and so I just raised my voice a little bit more, which was what they were looking for.” Bartlett’s strategy paid off. The West Virginia native served as House reading clerk for nearly two decades.With ample time in the chamber, Bartlett, who became an astute student of House proceedings, delighted in his interactions with Speakers, rank-and-file Members, and staff. Throughout his oral histories, Bartlett expressed a sense of gratitude for the opportunity to work for the House and to witness historic events including President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Day of Infamy” speech on December 8, 1941. “I would say to young people that democracy is worth serving,” Bartlett observed during his oral history. “Representative government is an ideal that has more than justified itself in the last 200 years and to be a participant in it is very enriching. To have an opportunity to work with the elect of that process, there’s just nothing like it.”Pat Kelly (1957–2011)Born on June 5, 1934, in Brooklyn, New York, Maura Patricia (Pat) Kelly grew up in a political family. The daughter of Representative Edna Kelly of New York, Pat Kelly came to Washington, DC, in 1957, to work as a researcher for the House Committee on Un-American Activities. After a decade of committee work, she switched gears finding employment as a legislative assistant for three Representatives, including her mother during her final term in Congress from 1967 to 1969. Kelly also worked for the House Committee on Rules before joining the Clerk’s Office where she spent the next 37 years editing the House Daily Digest and the Congressional Record.Kelly’s personal connection to the institution as the daughter of a Representative, in addition to her diverse employment portfolio on the Hill that stretched more than 50 years, offered a unique perspective of the House of Representatives. In her oral history, Kelly outlined her approach to working at the Capitol. She described the value of having a “deep desire” to help people and a commitment to supporting the objectives of the institution. A longtime member of the Congressional Staff Club, Kelly worked to help House employees make lasting connections with colleagues. She flourished in the staff club, organizing events, attending parties, and making an annual trip to New York City. After serving in several leadership positions for the club, Kelly became president in 1976.When asked to advise others who may consider working for Congress, Kelly drew upon her own experiences and deep respect for the House. “You have to be knowledgeable about issues of the world, and about state and local concerns,” she observed. “And think of service to your fellow countrymen in one area or one legislative body, whether it be in the state, in the Congress, or local government, whatever it might be. Think, ‘I wonder if I could really do something to help them do a better job?’ And not just to be picking up a paycheck, but to really say, ‘Well, what can I really do?’ If they have to have the desire to do it, number one, it’s just not a job to go up and apply for. I mean, you have to have a feeling, like I do, about the institution itself.”Donn Anderson (1960–1995)Donnald K. Anderson was born on October 17, 1942, in Sacramento, California. As a teenager, Anderson wrote a letter to his Congressman, John Moss of California, requesting a Page appointment to “see firsthand how our government at the national level conducts the affairs of the people.” Moss, impressed by Anderson’s conviction, extended him an invitation to serve as a House Page in 1960. Anderson thrived during his time as a Page and went on to hold several other positions (elevator operator, for example) before managing the Democratic Cloakroom for 15 years, which kept him in close proximity to lawmakers and the House Floor.An institutionalist at heart, Anderson expressed a genuine respect for the rules and procedures of the House. But he was also open to change if it helped Members improve efficiency without undermining House traditions. He recalled how he led a pilot program for Members to use “beepers” to stay informed of House proceedings while away from their congressional office.From the time he arrived at the Capitol, Anderson knew he wanted to serve as Clerk of the House. Over the years, he developed a deep admiration for the institution. “I’ve often said that being manager of the cloakroom, as far as I was concerned, was the best job there was, as least for me, except being Clerk of the House. When, after a total of 18 years in the cloakroom, I left to become the Clerk of the House, which was the fulfillment of my dreams and my fantasies, I never stopped missing the intimacy and the excitement of working in the cloakroom. It was like being at Mecca. It was the focal point of everything that went on on the House Floor. You knew absolutely everything that was happening.” Anderson served as Clerk for eight years and left his own mark on the institution when he oversaw the establishment of two House offices: Employee Assistance and Fair Employment Practices.Tina Tate (1972–2007)Ruth (Tina) Tate was born on September 5, 1944, in Atlanta, Georgia. The first woman employed by the House Radio-TV Gallery, Tate’s oral history offered a rare look at the office during the 1970s. She described a close-knit staff of four who worked in a small office with space for only three desks. Tate marveled at how, for much of her tenure, she took notes and processed records by hand before the widespread adoption of personal computers in the 1990s.Tate was the first woman and only the third person to hold the position of director of the Radio-TV Gallery, and her oral history offered a comprehensive look at her responsibilities and the mission of the office during her 34-year career on the Hill. From supervising the daily log of House proceedings to coordinating press coverage of Joint Sessions and lying-in-state ceremonies, Tate managed logistics and provided information to radio and TV broadcasters. She spoke about the challenge of balancing the requests of reporters with adhering to House Rules. Tate also routinely expressed a sense of pride in the work of the gallery and of the House, including times where they managed the press coverage of difficult events. After the shooting deaths of two Capitol Police officers in 1998, Tate solemnly recalled the importance and privilege of coordinating coverage of their lying-in-honor ceremony, describing her efforts to honor their memory as the “best work I ever did.”Service to the institution and an awareness of the distinctive nature of her work guided Tate’s career. “Just remember every day that you are privileged to be where you are,” Tate recommended when contemplating advice she would give to prospective employees. “That building and both the press corps that you serve there are the best in the business. And the Members of Congress and their staffs are the best at what they do. It’s a privilege to be there every day that you go there. You are watching history be made.”
“A Favored Son of America”: the Marquis de Lafayette’s 1824 House Reception | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives
On 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. Other than the size of the entourage, little seemed to distinguish the caravan as it traversed the capital city. The Frenchman’s private secretary, Auguste Levasseur, noted that “the cortege was composed of a dozen carriages, but without escort, without pomp and without decorations. Our trip across the City was slow and silent.” Despite the apparent solemnity of the procession, the House and its visitors eagerly awaited the arrival of the French guest for whom they had prepared an official reception, set to begin promptly at 1:00 p.m.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, Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert 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.By the time Lafayette stepped foot on America’s shores in 1824, the heroes of 1776 were fading from the scene and the responsibilities of governing—of upholding and propagating the ideals and promises of the American Revolution—had passed to the next generation. The youngest Member of the House in 1824, Kentucky Representative Thomas Patrick Moore, was around 27 years old, and was himself already a veteran of another more recent conflict with the British—the War of 1812—that helped reaffirm America’s independence.An entire lifetime had come and gone since the Revolution. As America’s 50th anniversary approached in 1826, Lafayette’s visit bridged the eras. But, in a sense, the reception the House held in Lafayette’s honor signified a new beginning entirely. 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 Nation’s GuestCongress had done almost everything in its power to facilitate Lafayette’s visit. Ten months earlier, in February 1824, after lawmakers learned that Lafayette hoped to visit America, Congress passed a resolution reserving a U.S. ship for his voyage across the Atlantic and directed President James Monroe to communicate to the French war hero “the assurances of grateful and affectionate attachment still cherished for him by the Government and people of the United States.”When Lafayette arrived in New England to begin his grand tour of America in August 1824, the House was out of session. Over the next few months, Lafayette made his way south down the eastern seaboard and when lawmakers gathered in Washington to begin the second session of the 18th Congress (1823–1825) seven months later in December, Members rushed to organize a committee to determine how best to honor and welcome him. After conferring with the Senate—which decided to hold its own meet-and-greet with Lafayette—the House committee recommended that lawmakers invite Lafayette to visit the chamber at 1:00 p.m. on December 10, where he would be feted by remarks from Speaker Henry Clay of Kentucky.Lafayette had last visited America in 1784, and in the intervening 40 years much had changed—both for Lafayette and his American compatriots. After defeating the British and returning to France, Lafayette had helped spark the French Revolution in the 1790s and, with the help of Thomas Jefferson, authored the first draft of the Declaration of the Rights of Man. But Lafayette had barely survived the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution and spent years in prison after he fled the country. Across the Atlantic, meanwhile, America’s original 13 colonies had transformed into a country on the make: 24 states united under the Constitution, a population of roughly 10 million, and a foothold on the world’s stage.Lafayette’s visit to America in 1824 captured the country’s attention. Newspapers documented his every move and filled column after column with patriotic well wishes. Along the way, Lafayette visited sites and people important to the American Revolution. He reminisced with the 89-year-old John Adams in Boston and later visited Thomas Jefferson at his Virginia home, Monticello. Throughout it all, Lafayette made time to meet everyday Americans and surviving Revolutionary War veterans. During a private event in New York, a man was turned away as he tried to enter. Later, when an opportunity appeared, the man approached Lafayette to ask if the Frenchman remembered him. A reporter covering the event noted that “the General recognized him, called him by name, and extending his hand, said, ‘Yes, you assisted me off the field of battle, when wounded.’”The gravity of Lafayette’s visit was so strong that it even eclipsed the contested presidential election that year between John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. Newspapers across the country “closed their long columns to the passionate discussions of the parties in order to open them only to the unanimous expression of joy and national gratitude,” Levasseur, Lafayette’s personal secretary, noted.The ReceptionOn December 10, 1824, as Lafayette’s entourage approached the Capitol, Representatives waiting in the chamber extended an invitation to the Senate to join them for the reception. Extra seats were quickly arranged as Senators filed in. With the galleries filled to capacity with guests, additional spectators stood in the spaces and alcoves not already occupied by lawmakers on the floor. Before long, the 24 Members of the House welcoming committee organized to accompany and introduce Lafayette entered the chamber. Everyone in attendance removed their hats and stood. The committee chair, Representative George Mitchell of Maryland, ushered Lafayette in and presented him to Speaker Clay. Speaker Clay, born the same year Lafayette had arrived in America to support the country’s independence, stood and addressed his esteemed guest.“General,” Clay began, “the House of Representatives of the United States, impelled alike by its own feelings, and by those of the whole American People, could not have assigned to me a more gratifying duty than that of being its organ to present to you cordial congratulations upon the occasion of your recent arrival in the United States, in compliance with the wishes of Congress.” Clay acknowledged that while few in attendance that day had fought alongside Lafayette during the Revolution, everyone knew “of the perils, the sufferings, and the sacrifices, which you voluntarily encountered, and the signal services in America and in Europe, which you performed, for an infant, a distant, and an alien, people.”The Speaker celebrated Lafayette’s commitment “to regulated liberty, in all the vicissitudes of a long and arduous life” and commended the French general on his role as the “faithful and fearless champion” of freedom on two continents.Clay concluded by turning his attention to America and its future. Lafayette had been given a rare opportunity to witness the fruit of his revolutionary labors, Clay said. “You are in the midst of posterity!” the Speaker exclaimed. “Every where you must have been struck with the great changes, physical and moral, which have occurred since you left us.” Clay spoke of the “the forests felled, the cities built, the mountains levelled, the canals cut, the highways constructed, the progress of the arts, the advancement of learning, and the increase of population.” When Lafayette was last in America, Washington, DC, did not exist. But by 1824, “even this very city, bearing a venerated name, alike endeared to you and to us, has since emerged from the forest,” Clay said. But regardless of the physical changes America had undergone and would surely undergo in the future, Clay was confident that the nation’s esteem for Lafayette would “be transmitted, with unabated vigor, down the tide of time, through the countless millions who are destined to inhabit this continent, to their last posterity.”Standing in the chamber that afternoon, Levasseur, Lafayette’s assistant, observed that “the profound emotion that had swept over the Speaker, and which had visibly shaken him through his speech, passed rapidly into the hearts of all the audience.”Lafayette spoke next. He expressed his gratitude for the invitation to tour America and for the honor of the reception. “I am proud and happy to share those extraordinary favors with my dear Revolutionary companions,” he said. “My obligations to the United States . . . far exceed any merit I might claim. They date from the time when I have had the happiness to be adopted as a young soldier, a favored son of America. They have been continued to me during almost half a century of constant affection and confidence; and now . . . thanks to your most gratifying invitation, I find myself greeted by a series of welcomes, one hour of which would more than compensate for the public exertions and sufferings of a whole life.”After four decades away, Lafayette exalted “the immense improvements” made in America since his last visit—what he called “all the grandeur and prosperity of these happy United States.” Lafayette found it remarkable that the children of his revolutionary compatriots held him in the same regard as those he had fought alongside in the 1770s and 1780s. All these years later, Lafayette said, “I have the honor, and enjoy the delight, to congratulate the Representatives of the Union . . . upon the almost infinite prospects we can with certainty anticipate,” Lafayette concluded.After the speeches, the House adjourned for the day. Clay descended from the rostrum and saluted Lafayette, a gesture which the other Members emulated as Lafayette left the chamber.An Act Concerning General LafayetteLater that month, lawmakers on Capitol Hill sought to extend Lafayette’s honor by offering the French general a substantial gift. The original bill, drafted by the Select Committee on Services and Sacrifices of General Lafayette, gifted $200,000 to Lafayette for his contributions to America during the Revolution—this at a time when lawmakers earned $8 per day while the House was in session and a pound of coffee cost about 18 cents in New York. The Senate, after considering the bill, decided that Lafayette deserved even more, and added a 24,000-acre plot of land from the government’s public land holdings.When the House received the amended bill, several Members expressed concern over its cost. The House debated the bill for two days. At certain points, lawmakers sought to reduce the size of the compensation to $100,000 then $150,000. But, as debate wore on, fears of seeming ungrateful outweighed the expense, and the House approved the original $200,000 and 24,000 acres of land. The House voted 166 to 26. The bill became law on December 23, 1824.Lafayette was deeply in debt, and when he learned of the gift, he sent a letter to Congress expressing his immense appreciation for the money and land, later confessing his belief “that the American Nation has done far too much for me.”Lafayette’s Legacy in the HouseOne legacy of Lafayette’s visit to the House exists to this day. On the same day the House approved Lafayette’s gift, Clay read a letter from a French artist, Ary Scheffer, dated October 1824. In the letter, Scheffer explained that he had sent a full-length portrait of Lafayette as a gift of gratitude “for the national honors which the free people of the United States are, at this moment, bestowing on the friend and companion in arms of your illustrious Washington, on the man who has been so gloriously received as ‘the Nation’s Guest.’” Scheffer’s portrait arrived at the Capitol in December, having been delayed by headwinds as it left France, and was displayed in the Capitol Rotunda during the remainder of Lafayette’s trip. It was later moved into the House Chamber, where it still hangs.Much like the invitation extended to Lafayette, Congress has often asked foreign leaders to speak to affirm the friendly relations between the United States and the individual or, in more recent decades, the country that person represents. Since 1824, the House has invited 55 foreign dignitaries to address its members; many more international guests have addressed both the House and Senate in Joint Meetings—most of which have been held in the House Chamber. Since the first official address before a Joint Meeting in 1874 by King David Kalakaua of Hawaii, there have been more than 130 addresses by foreign dignitaries and heads of state.It is perhaps fitting that the ally who helped an upstart nation throw off the yoke of British colonialism set the precedent. As much as Lafayette’s reception on December 10, 1824, linked the new republic to its roots in the Revolution and advertised its youthful achievements, it also presaged America’s place as a rising world power and made Congress the place where the world has since come to speak to the American people.Sources: Annals of Congress, House, 18th Cong., 1st sess. (12 January 1824): 988; Annals of Congress, House, 18th Cong., 1st sess. (20 January 1824): 1101–1104; Register of Debates, Appendix, 18th Cong., 1st sess. (4 February 1824): 3279; Register of Debates, House, 18th Cong., 2nd sess. (6 December 1824): 1–4; Register of Debates, House, 18th Cong., 2nd sess. (10 December 1824): 3–5; Register of Debates, House, 18th Cong., 2nd sess. (21 December 1824): 34–35, 45–56; Register of Debates, Senate, 18th Cong., 2nd sess. (3 January 1825): 111; House Journal, 18th Cong., 2nd sess. (23 December 1824): 75–76; An Act concerning General Lafayette, 6 Stat. 320 (1824); Auguste Levasseur, Lafayette in America in 1824 and 1825: Journal of a Voyage to the United States, trans. Alan R. Hoffman (Manchester, NH: Lafayette Press, Inc., 2006); American Watchman (Wilmington, DE), 13 August 1824; Washington Intelligencer, 11 December 1824; “Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Labor and Industrial Statistics,” Michigan bureau of labor and industrial statistics (1 February 1885): 248; Ida A. Brunick, “Salaries of Members of Congress: Recent Actions and Historical Tables,” Report 97-1011, 26 September 2024, Congressional Research Service; Lafayette: A Guide to the Letters, Documents, and Manuscripts in the United States, ed. Louis Reichenthal Gottschalk, Phyllis S. Pestieau, and Linda J. Pike (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1975); David T. Canon et al., Committees in the U.S. Congress, 1789–1946, vol. 4 (Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press, 2002); Lina Mann, “The Nation’s Guest: General Lafayette’s 1824-1825 Tour of the United States,” 30 March 2018, The White House Historical Association, https://www.whitehousehistory.org/the-nations-guest.
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.