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Posted by: Bailey DeSimone
Springtime in Washington, D.C. is the perfect time to learn about something new. I’ve learned through working with the Serial Set for nearly three years that sometimes, the most interesting tidbits of information are hidden where you would least expect. A volume published in 1858 contains the “agriculture portion” of the Commissioner of Patents annual …
Posted in: Collections, Law Library
Posted by: Bailey DeSimone
Though it’s cold outside, you can explore Washington, D.C., through early illustrations of some of its most well-known landmarks. Today, we’ll be looking through the pages of the U.S. Congressional Serial Set to learn more about the 1901 plans of a Park Commission tasked with improving D.C.’s public areas. In 1902, the Senate Committee on …
Posted in: Collections, Law Library
Posted by: Bailey DeSimone
As you may have seen, the United States Congressional Serial Set documents from the 69th Congress have been digitized and made public by the Law Library and the Government Publishing Office (GPO). If you’ve ever been to any Smithsonian museum, or explored a virtual Smithsonian exhibit, you might be familiar with the Bureau of American Ethnology …
Posted in: Collections, Law Library
Posted by: Kelly Goles
The following is a guest post by Elina Lee, a library technician (metadata) formally in the Law Library of Congress Digital Resources Division. Elina has previously written for In Custodia Legis on other items in the Serial Set such as NASA’s Project Mercury – A Significant Milestone and The History of the Minimum Wage. Advertising …
Posted in: Collections, Guest Post, Law Library
Posted by: Bailey DeSimone
“The general barrenness of the country lying along our route proved a considerable obstacle to the pursuit of my favorite branch, Ornithology; though among the few species obtained some are new, and most of them rare, and concerning whose habits little was previously known.” ) – Lieutenant John G. Parke (H. Exec. Doc. 91 pt. …
Posted in: Collections, Law Library
Posted by: Bailey DeSimone
May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and we want to dedicate this month’s From the Serial Set post to the peoples of Asia and the Pacific Islands who enriched U.S. history and culture. Today, we’ll be sharing highlights from the narrative of Commodore Perry’s journey from the Chesapeake Bay to the Edo …
Posted in: Asian American History, Ask A Librarian, Law Library, Pacific Islander History
Posted by: Bailey DeSimone
In honor of National Deaf History Month (March 13 – April 15), the Law Library of Congress is proud to share the history of the first university for deaf individuals through our collections. We recognize some of the terms used in these documents to describe the deaf community are pejoratives and we have modified the …
Posted in: Collections, Law Library
Posted by: Bailey DeSimone
Every so often, our team comes across a Serial Set volume that contains photographs, maps, or plates. These visuals preserve moments in time, and in cases of geographical surveys, the early impressions of a landscape. In 1871, geologist Ferdinand V. Hayden led the first of his federally-funded explorations into the Wyoming territory that would later …
Posted in: Collections
Posted by: Bailey DeSimone
The following is a guest post by Elina Lee, a library technician (metadata) in the Law Library of Congress Digital Resources Division. In 1958, Congress passed the National Aeronautics and Space Act (Public Law 85-568, 72 Stat. 426), and it was signed into law by President Dwight Eisenhower on July 29, 1958. The act “provided …
Posted in: Law Library