The following is a guest post by David Mao, Law Librarian of Congress. He has previously guest posted on Rebellious Children and Witches. David has been previously interviewed in his role as the Deputy Law Librarian of Congress.
Moving into my new office, I came across two curious artifacts in a drawer: a pair of old keys. One of the keys had a tag labeled Mr. Kenyon’s Desk Key and the other a tag labeled Mr. Kenyon’s Credenza Key.
Mr. Kenyon, of course, refers to Carleton W. Kenyon who was Law Librarian of Congress from 1971-1989. The desk at which I’m sitting to type this post isn’t new, but it certainly isn’t 23-years old. I wonder what ever happened to that desk and credenza and what stories it could tell about the Law Library during Mr. Kenyon’s tenure.
Mr. Kenyon came to the Library of Congress in 1971 from a distinguished career as law librarian in California, having wo