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Posted by: Jennifer Davis
On December 30, 1903, a fire broke out in the Iroquois Theatre in Chicago, Illinois when a broken arc light ignited a muslin curtain. The theatre burned to the ground and over 600 theatre occupants, more than two-thirds women and children, died of asphyxiation, burns, or trampling. It remains one of the deadliest fires in …
Posted in: Collections, Law Library
Posted by: Betty Lupinacci
Surprise! Another baseball-related post from Betty. This one is not entirely my fault. A would-be anonymous colleague brought the pictured item to me, having received it from the general collection. Why would the general (non-law) collection have congressional hearings, you may ask? Well, up until the 1960s when the Class K schedule was completed, congressional …
Posted in: Collections
Posted by: Kelly Buchanan
The history of the British penal colonies in Australia is fascinating, and something that I have become increasingly interested in while researching my own family history. As a New Zealander, I have long been aware that many Australians are now quite proud of having convict ancestry. There are a number of resources available online and …
Posted in: Collections, Global Law
Posted by: Jennifer Davis
The Caribbean is a term for the area that comprises nearly twenty-five sovereign territories, overseas departments, and dependencies in the Caribbean Sea basin. The U.N. Statistical Division and the CIA World Factbook recognize the Caribbean as a distinct geographical subregion for statistical and economic purposes. Historically, the Caribbean has not generated much legal material compared …
Posted in: Collections, Law Library
Posted by: Kelly Buchanan
Once again, for Veterans Day, we decided to highlight the Veterans History Project (VHP) of the Library of Congress American Folklife Center. The VHP was established following the passage of the Veterans’ Oral History Project Act in October 2000, with the primary purpose of collecting “video and audio recordings of personal histories and testimonials of American …
Posted in: Collections, Interview
Posted by: Betty Lupinacci
In this edition of On the Shelf we’re examining a rather large title both in size of the individual volumes and the total number of volumes that comprise a complete set. Staatskoerant is the current official government gazette of the Republic of South Africa. The title has been published continuously since 1961 when South Africa …
Posted in: Collections, Global Law
Posted by: Kelly Buchanan
During a vacation in New Zealand in September, I was able to visit a new exhibition at Te Papa (New Zealand’s national museum) called Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War. The exhibition, which opened in April, provides insight into this particular aspect of World War I by telling the stories of eight New Zealanders involved …
Posted in: Collections, Education, Global Law, World War I
Posted by: Jennifer González
Last year, we added Statutes at Large to our Digitized Material page. Initially, each Congress from 1789-1950 had a webpage that included a large PDF file of all statutes for that congressional session. Then we began splitting the large PDF documents into smaller pieces, which meant that we had to browse each statute, add metadata to …
Posted in: Collections, Education, Law Library
Posted by: Betty Lupinacci
The newest entry in our On the Shelf series is one of my favorites: Das Österreichische Recht. Well favorite may not be the right word. Those few of us who have had the pleasure of working with this title both love and fear it. Das Osterreichische Recht is a 113 volume looseleaf set containing the …
Posted in: Collections, Global Law