Library of Congress's Blog, page 102

Hispanic Heritage Month: New and Improved Resources to Celebrate!

This is a guest post by Catalina Gomez, a reference librarian in the Hispanic Division.

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The Library maintains a site in collaboration with other agencies to highlight events scheduled for National Hispanic Heritage Month.

The Library of Congress is observing National Hispanic Heritage Month this year with an array of on-site concerts, exhibits, lectures and more.

But we also have exciting digital offerings for those of you who can’t visit us in person. We’ve just added 50 new recordings to our Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape, and we’ve improved the interface for another popular online resource: the Handbook of Latin American Studies.

The Archive of Hispanic Literature on Tape is a collection of nearly 700 audio recordings of U.S. Hispanic poets and prose writers and writers from Spain, Portugal and Latin America reading from their own works. Started at the Library of Congress in 1943, the collection includes recordings of prominent literary figures like Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel García Márquez, Gabriela Mistral, Pablo Neruda and former U.S. poet laureate Juan Felipe Herrera.

Our new additions include recordings of Isabel Allende, César Aira, Julia Álvarez, Eunice Odio and Martín Adán. Here are two samples.

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The Handbook of Latin American Studies is an annotated bibliography about Latin America produced in the Hispanic Division in collaboration with a network of scholars and the University of Texas Press. It includes information about recent books, journal articles and book chapters—as one might expect—and also annotated citations and links to recent webcasts, podcasts, videos, blog posts and web sites with relevant information for students, scholars or anyone with an interest in Latin America. The new interface for the handbook offers an enhanced user experience through visually appealing graphics and mobile and tablet-friendly access.

For those of you who will be visiting Washington this fall, the Library has on view a special collections display detailing the creation of National Hispanic Heritage Month. The display, located on the second floor of the Thomas Jefferson Building’s Great Hall, showcases a diverse selection of items, including Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s autobiography, photographs from the Veterans History Project and letters from Latino congressmen celebrating the importance of National Hispanic Heritage Month. It will be up until November 11, 2017.

In addition, the Library’s Hispanic Reading Room offers services that make the Library of Congress a hub for researchers interested in Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain, Portugal and the Hispanic community in the United States. Please consider stopping by!

Dating back to 1968, National Hispanic Heritage Month was first designated as a week in September by President Lyndon B. Johnson. In 1988, the observance was extended to a month, starting on September 15 and going through October 15. Why September 15 to October 15? Those dates coincide with the celebration of several Latin American independence days: Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Nicaragua all celebrate their independence from Spain each year some time between those dates.

Rare Book of the Month: ABCs Through the Centuries

This is a guest post by digital library specialist Elizabeth Gettins.

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A wood hornbook

September is traditionally known as the month that all children return to school after summer vacation. To mark this tradition, the Rare Book and Special Collection Division’s book(s) of the month are two hornbooks: a wood hornbook and an ivory hornbook.

Today’s children would likely see these rare objects as curious. But they were a commonplace teaching tool starting from as far back as 1450 and used through the late 19th century. The hornbook originated in England and served the function of teaching children to read, learn math or to receive religious instruction. Hornbooks are somewhat like the more modern idea of a primer. See “The New England Primer” in Books that Shaped America for a good example of what a primer looks like.

Hornbooks were used well into the era of mass printing primarily because they were very functional as well as physically durable. Most all had a handle of some sort and were made of wood, bone, ivory, leather, stone or even, in more modern times, cardboard. They ranged from plain and functional to quite elaborate with decorations and aesthetically pleasing letter engraving.

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An ivory hornbook

Born of ingenuity and resourcefulness, hornbooks actually used horn fashioned into a transparent sheet to cover and protect the lessons engraved on the hornbook. This was achieved by leaving the horn in cold water for several weeks, causing it to separate into distinct parts. The needed part was then heated and pressed to make it smooth and transparent. Quite commonly, hornbooks taught the alphabet with capital and lower-case letters, followed by vowels and consonants in their combinations. Another common instruction in hornbooks was The Lord’s Prayer and various numbering systems.

The 18th-century wood hornbook featured in this post is possibly American. Very functional and durable, it includes the alphabet in lower and upper cases, followed by vowels, ligatures and the Lord’s Prayer. Also included at the top is a two-line abacus with 12 wooden beads. This hornbook is a good example of the use of translucent horn, which is tacked to the wood.

The ivory hornbook was made in England sometime during the 18th century, with the alphabet in upper and lower case engraved on ivory. This is a good example of an aesthetically pleasing item that may have been intended for a well-to-do learner. It is possible that this hornbook was used often, as it received visible repairs to mend the handle, which had broken off from the body.

Children may now use computers or other advanced methods of instruction, but these old-fashioned items still are quite functional and could easily impart lessons to young children today.

More Resources for Children

Digitized Children’s Books. A selection of digitized rare children’s books.
Children’s Literature Center. Assists users in gaining access to all children’s materials dispersed throughout the Library of Congress.

World War I: Immigrants Make a Difference on the Front Lines and at Home

This is a guest post by Ryan Reft, a historian in the Manuscript Division.

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In the years immediately surrounding World War I, organizations like the New York National Americanization Day Committee hoped to use patriotic holidays such as the Fourth of July as a means to unify the country’s diverse populations.

By 1910, nearly a third of the United States’ 92 million residents were either born abroad or the progeny of parents who immigrated to America. The idea of “hyphenated Americans”—citizens who identified as Polish-American or Italian-American, for example—discomforted many native-born citizens. Former President Teddy Roosevelt insisted all citizens, no matter their birthright or ethnic heritage, embrace “the simple and loyal motto, America for Americans.” Future president Woodrow Wilson, too, expressed doubts about foreign-born citizens, worrying they might harbor “alien sympathies.”

Although Americans did not know it at the time, immigrants would soon prove critical to the country’s effort in World War I, both in military service and in industry. Despite their importance, America closed its borders in the years after the armistice, ending what had been the largest immigration flow in the country’s history.

The complicated experience of immigrants on the American home front during the WWI era is conveyed in the Library’s current exhibit “Echoes of the Great War: American Experiences of World War I,” which features artifacts from divisions across the Library. In addition, case files from the Manuscript Division’s Woodrow Wilson Papers shed further light on the wartime lives of American newcomers.

Whatever nativist doubts the native-born harbored, immigrants in 1917 poured themselves into the war effort. Nearly 500,000 servicemen in the newly conscripted army consisted of individuals born abroad in 46 different nations. Like their African-American counterparts, however, immigrants were over drafted: nearly 18 percent of enlisted men were foreign born despite making up less than 15 percent of the nation’s total population.

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Letter in which Captain Ralston Flemming writes of his desire to instill a spirit of “militant Americanism” among immigrant soldiers.

Initially, the military subscribed to the 100-percent Americanism promoted by Roosevelt. U.S. Army Captain Ralston Flemming, for example, wrote of successful efforts at Camp Jackson in South Carolina to inculcate immigrants with “enthusiastic militant Americanism.” But the military soon adopted the gentler Americanization program of progressive reformers, which allowed for retention of cultural traditions. Congress also helped by passing legislation that enabled foreign-born soldiers to obtain expedited naturalization. Eventually, about 300,000 immigrant soldiers would attain citizenship through military service in the war.

On the home front, with immigrant labor concentrated in wartime industries—coal, steel, textiles, oil, lumber and many others—newcomers to the U.S. contributed mightily to mobilization and war work. At Bethlehem Steel, one of the largest wartime steel producers, nearly 10,000 of the plant’s 30,000 workers were immigrants.

Unions, too, saw an opportunity to expand through immigration. Historically, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) had expressed ambivalence and even reticence toward immigrant labor. But during the war, it incorporated the foreign born into the labor movement. AFL membership boomed, as did that of other unions, like the International Association of Machinists.

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The New York Tribune featured a spread in its May 20, 2017, issue about the manufacture of artillery at Bethlehem Steel in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where nearly a third of workers were immigrants.

Still, government leaders and even unionists sometimes questioned the ability and loyalties of immigrant workers. Whatever his prewar beliefs regarding immigration, Wilson understood the importance of immigrants to the war effort. Recognizing the tension surrounding immigration, he dedicated July 4, 1918, to “immigrant America.” More importantly, he instituted war labor agencies like the National War Labor Board (NWLB) and the President’s Mediation Committee (PMC) to address the needs and anxieties of workers, particularly immigrant laborers who, due to their heavy concentration in industry, benefitted disproportionately from wartime labor reforms.

The NWLB and the PMC endorsed the idea of “shop committees,” internal plant representative bodies elected by workers to represent their demands to employers. To encourage participation, the NWLB used translators and “multilingual forms and announcements for shop committee ballots,” notes historian Joseph McCartin. As a result, in workplaces like Bethlehem Steel, immigrant participation exceeded expectations, and many became committee delegates. In this way, immigrants helped to deliver critical labor reforms during the war that benefitted all workers, even those who refused to, or were prevented from, joining unions.

After the armistice, changes in industry and immigration came swiftly as business leaders rolled back labor reforms established during the war. A massive wave of strikes followed, to which Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer responded by deporting immigrants the government believed to be radicals.

Further, in 1921 and 1924, Congress passed immigration restriction laws that built on the Immigration Act of 1917, which had already imposed difficult hurdles to immigration, including a literacy test and an Asiatic barred zone. The result was greatly reduced immigration, particularly from Southern and Eastern Europe; Asians, excluding Filipinos, were banned from not only immigration, but even naturalization.

Many immigrants returning from U.S. military service in World War I discovered that the better jobs were reserved for the native born. During the war “the bosses then called all Italians ‘American people,’” one Italian worker commented. “Now they are foreigners.”

Before the war, observers such as Frank Trumbull, chairman of the National Americanization Day Committee, had warned that a failure to incorporate immigrants equitably would leave the nation vulnerable to riots, strikes and anarchist movements—Trumbull’s committee organized nationwide celebrations of America that involved immigrant participants. In some ways, sadly, Mr. Trumbull proved prescient.

World War I Centennial, 2017–18 . With the most comprehensive collection of multiformat World War I holdings in the nation, the Library is a unique resource for primary source materials, education plans, public programs and on-site visitor experiences about the Great War including exhibits, symposia and book talks.

Trending: Let’s Celebrate Comics!

Did you know that today is National Comic Book Day? To celebrate, we are sharing a contribution by Michael Cavna of the Washington Post to the September–October issue of LCM, the Library of Congress magazine. The entire issue, available here, showcases the Library’s collection of some 140,000 comic books. Cavna, an Eisner Award-nominated columnist and cartoonist, writes the “Comic Riffs” column for the Post.

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Self-portrait by Michael Cavna for the Library of Congress, 2017. Used with permission.

She had come because of a comic book. She left stirred by the words of an American hero.

A young woman attended a comics-convention panel I moderated several years ago to listen in person to Rep. John Lewis, the civil-rights hero turned first-time graphic-novel memoirist.

Lewis had just published “March: Book One,” the first in an illustrated trilogy about how nonviolent protest was used to combat segregation in America. One of the graphic novel’s central messages, as illustrated by the 1965 Selma march, was about having the courage to stand up for one’s deepest convictions.

On this day, the woman came to the microphone and asked: “As a person in a same-sex relationship, should I move to D.C. so I can get married legally, or stay in Virginia and challenge the law?”

“You must fight!” Lewis exclaimed from the stage without a second’s hesitation. “You must stay. Stand up! Speak out! Speak up for what’s right!”

The room went silent, in awe of his resonant moral clarity. Then came the cheering. All because a comic book that speaks directly to American democratic ideals had been the source of inspired social connection.

America has contributed at least three unique inventions to the world’s culture: baseball, jazz and the newspaper comic strip. All three foster both the teamwork of shared production and the spark of an individual’s original genius. Yet to the reader, a comic panel is not only a window into the imagination of the creator, it is also a mirror that reveals something about ourselves.

Consider Ben Franklin, that father of American cartoon satire who sponsored such images as the iconic 1754 “Join, or Die” cartoon used in the Revolutionary cause. Think of cartoonist Thomas Nast, whose work toppled political corruption at Boss Tweed’s Tammany Hall.

Consider the social commentary of Richard F. Outcault’s Yellow Kid, establishing the funny pages as a national pastime. And then, with World War II on the horizon, the superhero comic-book boom was launched largely by Jewish creators who could identify with a cultural outsider like Superman.

“Peanuts,” Charles Schulz’s profound window into the adult psyche told through young archetypes. Art Spiegelman’s towering “Maus.” Will Eisner’s “A Contract With God.” Walt Kelly’s “Pogo.” Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s creation of the Marvel Universe. Garry Trudeau’s satirical “Doonesbury,” spanning Nixon to Trump. Each of those creations is an essential link in our nation’s long comics evolution.

Which brings me full circle to Rep. Lewis. At the 2016 Library of Congress National Book Festival, I introduced Lewis, who had helped open the National Museum of African American History and Culture that very morning. And on that magical evening, Rep. Lewis used the platform of comics to speak in soaring oratory to the resilient promise of American equality.

The Library of Congress must continue its efforts to make the preservation and curation of graphic art a central mission. Because panel by panel, comics tell a story as profoundly as any other art form. They are a national treasure.

Pic of the Week: Library and Military Service Academies Collaborate on Collections Access

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From left, Lucia Maziar, library director at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy; David Schaffter, acting director of academy libraries at the U.S. Air Force Academy; Christopher Barth, librarian and associate dean at the U.S. Military Academy; Donna Selvaggio, chief librarian at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy; Larry Clemens, library director at the U.S. Naval Academy; and Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress. Photo by Shawn Miller.

The Library of Congress and the U.S. military service academies signed a cooperative agreement this week to provide researchers with enhanced access to the institutions’ collections and grow representation of service members in the Library’s collections—including the Veterans History Project.

The three-year agreement, which took effect on September 18, provides greater access for Library researchers to the collections of the U.S. Air Force Acad­emy, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, the U.S. Military Academy and the U.S. Naval Academy and greater access to Library collections for the academies.

Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden and representatives of the five academies signed the agreement at a ceremonial gathering in the Jefferson Building.

“A major reason the Library of Con­gress is a world leader is because many of the collaborations that it has forged with institutions and organizations across the country and around the world give it its strength,” Hayden said.

Free to Use and Reuse: Adolph Metzner Civil War Drawings

This is a guest post by Julie Stoner, a reference librarian in the Geography and Map Division. It was first published on “ Picture This ,” the Prints and Photographs Division’s blog.

We’re highlighting the subject of Stoner’s post—Civil War drawings by Adolph Metzner—in our “free to use and reuse” feature on the Library’s home page . The home page showcases content from the Library’s collections that has no known copyright restrictions—meaning you can use the content as you wish. The Prints and Photographs Division recently digitized Metzner’s drawings and made them publicly available for the first time on the website.

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Battle of Peach Tree Creek, Ga., 1864, by Adolph Metzner

As an admirer of Civil War drawings, I found my interest piqued by a recently digitized collection of drawings by Adolph G. Metzner. The difference in style from many other drawings of the time, along with the richness of color, drew me in to learn more about this man and his artwork.

Born on August 13, 1834, in southwestern Germany, Adolph Metzner immigrated to the United States in 1856. Shortly after the start of the Civil War, Metzner joined the 32nd Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry, also called the First German, fighting for three years on the western front of the war.

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Adolph Metzner, c. 1861–65

During the years with his regiment, Metzner sketched any material available, drawing everything from portraits of his comrades to scenes of battle and death.

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Adolph Metzner, Lieutenant Louis von Trebra and Jacob Labinsky, Huntsville, Ala., 1862

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Lost on the Field of Chickamauga, 1863

One of the reasons I enjoy Civil War drawings is they can be a better medium for capturing movement, action or emotion as opposed to the photographs of the era. As an example, for me, the drawing below really gives the viewer a sense of the misery of marching in the mud and rain and how inglorious war can be.

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Green River, 1861

Another aspect of these drawings that I find intriguing is how they complement the photograph album of Adolph Metzner that his daughter Helen Metzner gave to the Library of Congress 60 years before it acquired the drawings. The album consists of photographic portraits of the 32nd Regiment collected by Metzner. With both the photo album and the drawings, the observer can get different perspectives of the men in the regiment. For example, I am tickled by the contrast between the formal photographic portrait of Lieutenant Colonel Karl Friedrich Heinrich von Trebra and the caricature drawn by Metzner.

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Photograph of Lieutenant Colonel Karl Friedrich Heinrich von Trebra by Wilhelm Grundner, c. 1850

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“Attention!” Adolph Metzner drawing of Lieutenant Colonel Karl Friedrich Heinrich von Trebra, 1861

As another example, the drawings give us a glimpse into the personalities of otherwise unknown people such as Private Jacob Labinsky, whom Metzner labels in the drawing as “The Camp Comedian.”

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Portrait photograph of Jacob Labinsky, c. 1861–65

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Jacob Labinsky by Adolph Metzner, 1861

Metzner’s 137 drawings constitute the largest collection of drawings from the Civil War’s western front campaigns so far in the Library of Congress collections. You can enjoy all 137 Adolph Metzner drawings with me as they are now digitized and currently available for viewing or downloading in the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog.

Scroll down for more examples and write a note in the comments section of this post if you find an interesting way to use a digitized image!

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Chicken Thieves Being Disciplined, Camp Nevin, Ky., 1861

Learn More

Enjoy all of the Adolph Metzner Civil War Collection drawings. (There are 120 scans of the 137 drawings as in some cases, there is more than one drawing on the same surface.)
View all of the photographs from the Metzner photograph album.
Explore other Civil War drawings in the Prints and Photographs Division by different artists.
For more information about Metzner and his work, grab a copy of the 2010 book Blood Shed in This War: Civil War Illustrations by Captain Adolph Metzner by the Indiana Historical Society Press

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Beginning of the Atlanta Campaign, 1864

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Company A Hospital Steward Carl Bayer, c. 1861–64

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Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, 1863

New Online: James K. Polk Papers

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Engraved portrait of James Polk.

This is a guest post by Michelle Krowl, a historian in the Manuscript Division.

“Twelve months ago this day, a very important conversation took place in Cabinet between myself and Mr. Buchanan on the Oregon question. This conversation was of so important a character, that I deemed it proper on the same evening to reduce the substance of it to writing for the purpose of retaining it, more distinctly in my memory,” President James K. Polk wrote on August 26, 1846. “It was this circumstance which first suggested to me the idea, if not the necessity of keeping a journal or diary, of events, and transactions which might occur during my Presidency.” Polk fulfilled his pledge to keep a presidential diary, recording the significant or noteworthy events in his life from August 26, 1845, to June 2, 1849. Consisting of 25 volumes, Polk’s diary is part of the James K. Polk Papers at the Library of Congress, now available online.

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Polk wrote of his decision to keep a presidential diary on August 26, 1846.

Early in his administration, President Polk shared with Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft his four key goals: tariff reduction, establishment of an independent treasury, settlement of the Oregon boundary question with Great Britain and the acquisition of California and other western territory. Each objective was achieved during Polk’s presidency and duly chronicled in his diary, as is the war with Mexico prosecuted during his administration.

Although Polk’s opinions on political issues dominate most entries in his diary, he also offers his observations on the presidency and individuals in political life and sheds light on his own personality. Polk devoted almost all of his time and energy to the presidency and frequently commented in his diary about being confined at the White House. “I have performed great labour and incurred vast responsibilities,” Polk noted in January 1847, nearly two years into his term. “In truth, though I occupy a very high position, I am the hardest-working man in the country.” Even public receptions at the White House were scheduled to allow him to “devote the balance of the evenings of the week to business in my office.” In sum, Polk concluded on April 7, 1846, “it is emphatically true that the Presidency is ‘no bed of roses.’”

Only on occasion did Polk allow himself some much-needed diversions. Sometimes he and his wife, Sarah, would dine with friends or political associates or take short excursions outside of the capital, such as to Fort Monroe in August 1846. He enjoyed a quick trip in 1847 to his alma mater at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, followed by a two-week tour of the North beginning on June 22. Polk recognized the physical strain the long hours of work put on him, which “rendered some recreation necessary.” Entertainment imposed upon him, however, could prompt his scorn. On February 6, 1846, the young people in his household arranged for a juggler to perform at the White House and encouraged the president to attend the gathering. “Mr Alexander exhibited his art, greatly to their wonder and amusement,” Polk noted, “but I thought the time unprofitably spent.”

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Polk complained about political patronage in this diary entry from January 7, 1847.

Like many presidents before and after him, Polk had nothing but scorn for the constant stream of office-seekers looking for political patronage. Many diary entries contain disparaging comments about those engaged in “the contemptible business of seeking office.” In a long entry devoted to the subject on January 7, 1847, Polk lamented the uselessness of congressional references after one senator admitted he recommended a candidate who was “without character & wholly unqualified” because congressmen were “obliged to recommend our constituents when they apply to us.” The president specifically identified Senator Sidney Breese of Illinois as “the most troublesome and inveterate seeker for office for his friends.”

Polk pledged to serve only a single term as president, a vow that he kept. Having turned over the stress and responsibility of the presidency to his successor Zachary Taylor, Polk rejoiced in his diary on March 4, 1849, that he was sure to be “a happier man in my retirement,– than I have been during the four years I have filled the highest office, in the gift of my countrymen.”

After meeting his every goal as president, however, he failed to achieve his fondest wish as a private citizen. He returned to his home in Tennessee via a southern route, where cholera was a concern. His diary records his attendance at many public functions along the way, and his corresponding physical fatigue at having done so. His constitution likely weakened by four years of toil, Polk succumbed to illness and was unable to continue his diary after June 2. James K. Polk died in Nashville on June 15, 1849, having enjoyed just over three months of retirement.

Trending: Congressional Black Caucus Takes Center Stage

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A 1972 photograph of Congressional Black Caucus members including, from left, Shirley Chisholm, William Clay, Sr., Charles Diggs and Ronald Dellums. Photo by Warren K. Leffler.

This week, thousands of people from around the country will gather in the vast Washington, D.C., Convention Center to take part in a decades’ old tradition: the annual legislative conference of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Foundation. From September 20 to 24, participants will hear from approximately 100 hundred speakers, including many members of Congress, who will challenge them to think creatively about public policy issues facing African-Americans and the global black community.

We know much about the CBC’s history, its impact on national politics and the triumphs and setbacks of its leaders thanks in part to a book researched and written at the Library of Congress by Rep. Major R. Owens (D-N.Y.). When he retired from Congress in 2007, he accepted an invitation from the Librarian of Congress to serve as a distinguished visiting scholar at the Library’s John W. Kluge Center. While he was here, he drafted “The Peacock Elite: A Case Study of the Congressional Black Caucus.”

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Major Owens, seated, with Rep. Maxine Waters at a 2007 Kluge Center event focusing on Owens’ history of the CBC. Photo by George Clarkson.

Owens’ residency at the Library was perhaps a fitting conclusion to his career: he began his working life as a professional librarian at the Brooklyn Public Library in 1958. During his time there, he became active in politics and the civil rights movement. In 1974, he was elected to the New York state senate; in 1982, he won the seat in New York’s 11th congressional district vacated by founding CBC member Shirley Chisholm upon her retirement. Owens served in the House of Representatives for 24 years and was an active member of the CBC.

The CBC came together as a formal organization in 1971 in the 92nd Congress to serve as a voice for the African-American community and, as expressed in its original mission statement, to “promote the public welfare through legislation designed to meet the needs of millions of neglected citizens.”

In domestic policy, the CBC has supported efforts to improve educational quality and access to education and health care, reduce unemployment, protect voting rights and ensure better housing and child care for poor and working-class citizens. In foreign policy, the CBC has highlighted international human rights and issues on which it believes U.S. policy may conflict with American values of liberty and equality.

Today, in the 115th Congress, the CBC has 49 members in the House of Representatives and the Senate, including Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), a founding CBC member who is serving his 26th consecutive term in the House.

The title of Major Owens’ book, “The Peacock Elite,” refers to elected officials, Shirley Chisholm among them, who have been skilled at using public display to achieve goals. His book analyzes the success of these individuals in helping to improve the lives of African-Americans as well as quieter behind-the-scenes efforts.

In October 2007, as a Kluge Center visiting scholar, Owens hosted a panel of U.S. representatives and political scientists to discuss the subject matter of his book. The panel included Rep. Maxine Waters (D- Calif.), a current CBC member; two founding CBC members, Ronald Dellums and Louis Stokes; and political scientists Ronald Walters, then at the University of Maryland, and Michael Eric Dyson of Georgetown University. Listen to the presentation here.

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Inquiring Minds: Hunting for Treasure in the Manuscript Division

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Students of Professor Ross Davies of George Mason University Law School hold up the Library of Congress reader identification cards they obtained to complete a research assignment Davies requires.

Ross Davies has been a regular in the Library’s Manuscript Division for about two decades now. He has worked with papers of Supreme Court justices, consulted collections on the federal courts and introduced his students to the Library—a “treasure hunt” he assigns requires them to find resources in the Manuscript Division and the Law Library. He has even donated original materials.

Davies teaches at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia School of Law—administrative law, contracts, employment discrimination and legal history are among his courses. He has written extensively about the U.S. court system but also about other subjects such as labor unions, the beginnings of golf at the Supreme Court, baseball and the fictional private detective Sherlock Holmes.

Besides his scholarship and teaching, Davies is known for his much-sought-after Supreme Court bobbleheads, which he designs and distributes through “The Green Bag: An Entertaining Journal of Law.” He cofounded the journal while in law school to publish brief, readable legal articles meant to provoke discussion.

Here, Davies answers a few questions about his experiences at the Library.

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Ross Davies

What first brought you to the Library to do research?

When I was in law school, I spent part of one summer—it was 1996—working in the Washington, D.C., office of one of the great law firms, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. I spent some of my spare time in D.C. doing research for a paper on the development of what is known as the “good faith exception” to one of the Fourth Amendment exclusionary rules—the Mapp v. Ohio rule, which permits criminal defendants in state prosecutions to challenge the admissibility of evidence obtained through “unreasonable searches and seizures.” I ended up spending a lot of time in the Manuscript Division Reading Room. I left at the end of the summer with half-a-dozen three-ring binders full of photocopies of useful documents from the papers of several justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. During the course of that summer, I also got an excellent education in archival research from the kind and patient and knowledgeable Library staff in the reading room.

 Which collections have you used?

I doubt I can remember them all. Here are some: the papers of Supreme Court Justices Hugo Black, Harry Blackmun, William Brennan, Harold Burton, Benjamin Curtis, William Day, William Douglas, Gabriel Duvall, Felix Frankfurter, Arthur Goldberg, John Harlan, Oliver Holmes, Robert Jackson, Horace Lurton, Thurgood Marshall, John McLean, Samuel Miller, William Moody, William Paterson, Wiley Rutledge, Joseph Story, George Sutherland, Willis Van Devanter, Byron White and Levi Woodbury and about Chief Justices Salmon Chase, Oliver Ellsworth, Melville Fuller, Charles Hughes, Harlan Stone, William Taft, Morrison Waite and Earl Warren. I’ve spent time in other collections as well, including the papers of Edward Bernays, James G. Blaine, Benjamin Bristow, Benjamin Butler, J.C. Bancroft Davis, Frederick Douglass, William Evarts, Duff Green, James Kent, Anthony Lewis, Groucho Marx, Donald Richberg, Carl Swisher and William Wirt.

What do you value most about the collections you’ve used?

The opportunity to work directly with primary sources, unfiltered by the corrections and manipulations of intervening generations. And there is also something a little bit magical—almost a kind of time travel—about holding pieces of paper that were also held, even written on, by the historical figures whose works I’m studying and whose thoughts and actions I’m trying to understand.

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Supreme Court bobbleheads designed by Davies on a shelf in the Manuscript Division. Photo by Shawn Miller.

Tell us a little about the “treasure hunt” you ask your students to conduct.

I teach a course called Institutions of American Law for first-year law students. One part of the course is a “treasure hunt,” in which they must visit several government institutions in the Washington, D.C., area and perform various tasks. One of those institutions is the Library of Congress, where they must perform three tasks:

Get a reader card. This is easy to do. The Library has an astonishingly efficient and user-friendly on-site system for issuing cards.
Find the Library department where the Papers of Harry A. Blackmun, a Supreme Court justice from 1970 to 1994, are kept. (They are in the Manuscript Division Reading Room.) Then, take a picture of an “opinion log sheet” from a case file in one of 24 boxes from the Blackmun Papers. Students tend to be nervous about this, until they meet someone on the Library staff—they’re all knowledgeable and helpful and nice—and get to use the handy finding aid for the Blackmun Papers.
Find the Library department that has a set of official reports of decisions and opinions of the Supreme Court. (It is the Law Library.) Then, take a picture of the first page of the official opinion of the Court in the case listed on the opinion log sheet the student photographed in the Manuscript Division Reading Room.

Why do you think it is important for your students to visit the Library to do research?

First, they are in Washington, D.C., home to the greatest collection of written and sketched and published human work in the world. They should know how to tap that resource. Actually going through the process at least once will help them do so with confidence again in the future.

Second, they should know just how easy it is to use the Library, and how friendly and knowledgeable the Library staff is. Here is what one of my students said to me (via email) after visiting the Manuscript Division Reading Room: “All in all, it was a great experience getting to know the ancient way to look up things (not just type in then enter, then get whatever you need), the scale and value of the scripts kept here, and most importantly, the attitude and hospitality of the staff.” I hear similar things from many of my students who visit the Library.

Third, at a more general level, my students (like all of us) probably benefit from an occasional reminder that while Googling is one good way to do research, it is not the only way, and there are useful and interesting resources that are best accessed—and, in some situations, can only be accessed—by going to a library. My students’ experiences at the Library are excellent evidence of that reality.

How did you come to be a collection donor, and what did you donate?

I came to be a collection donor for three reasons. First, I believe that documents produced by officials of our national government should be preserved for the benefit of the people of this nation, and that as many of “we the people” as reasonably possible should have access to as many of those documents as reasonably possible, as easily and affordably as reasonably possible. For officials of our national government, there are few acts that make for a more democratic and public-minded legacy than donating their papers to the Library; conversely, there are few acts that make for a more antidemocratic and elitist legacy than donating their papers to private institutions. Second, I know from long and direct experience that the Library does the best job of achieving those goals. Third, a former official of our national government, Bennett Boskey, gave me some documents produced while he and his colleagues were federal officials—specifically, members and staff of the Supreme Court—with the understanding that I was free to do donate them to the institution of my choice. And so, of course, I chose the Library of Congress.

What has your experience been like generally working with Library staff as a researcher and donor?

Great, simply great. They are knowledgeable, resourceful, nice and very, very patient!

Trending: An App to Answer Your Questions about the Constitution

This is a guest post by Margaret M. Wood, legal reference librarian in the Law Library.

Two years ago, in honor of Constitution Day—celebrated annually on September 17—I wrote a post about the publication “Constitution of the United States: Analysis and Interpretation,” also referred to as the “Constitution Annotated.” Along with the U.S. Code, it is one of my favorite work resources.

[image error]Unfortunately, it is a behemoth of a work—it takes two hands to hold the volume, which weighs a good 10 pounds. Fortunately, the text is also available online through Congress.gov and through the U.S. Government Publishing Office, whose digital system includes both the most recent edition (2016) as well as historic editions back to 1992.

But given my penchant for bringing work topics into social situations, even the online version is not very practical. I cannot, very easily, fire up the computer during a conversation at a dinner or cocktail party. However, fortunately for me, there is an app for the “Constitution Annotated.” It debuted in 2013, when Congress.gov was still in beta, and has since been updated.

Using this app, I can just whip out my phone during a casual conversation with friends and provide them with information about our tripartite system of government or search for words and phrases that will help me win my argument. The app allows me to easily access sections of the “Constitution Annotated,” the historical note on the formation of the Constitution and the annotated amendments being particular favorites. It also allows me to search the document for a word or a phrase such as “we the people.” Alternatively, I can search for U.S. Supreme Court decisions governing the freedom of expression guaranteed in the First Amendment, such as New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, or cases on the Fifth Amendment’s “rights of person,” such as Miranda v. Arizona.

My colleague Andrew Weber provided two screen shots of the app below. Now you, too, can wow your friends!

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