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Posted by: Jennifer González
Thomas Jefferson is featured in this third blog post about the Virginia Dynasty, following posts on two other renowned Virginians–James Madison and George Washington. Thomas Jefferson was born at Shadwell,Virginia in 1743 to Peter Jefferson and Jane Randolph. From his successful and wealthy parents, Thomas inherited considerable property and began building Monticello when he was 26 years …
Posted in: Education, Law Library
Posted by: Jennifer González
This second installment of the Virginia Dynasty blog posts highlights our first president, George Washington, the “Father of his country.” George’s great grandfather, John Washington, immigrated to America in 1656 and settled in the Northern Neck of Virginia in 1657, on the Potomac River near the present-day town of Colonial Beach. George was born in …
Posted in: Education, Law Library
Posted by: Jennifer González
Four of the first five United States presidents were Founding Fathers from Virginia. Of the first 36 years of the United States’ existence, Virginian men served as president for 32 of them. This period became known as the Virginia Dynasty. In the last few months, I have visited all of their homes and wanted to …
Posted in: Education, Law Library
Posted by: Jennifer González
Yesterday I highlighted 14 Nobel Peace Prize winners who were leaders of their country before, during, or after they won the prize. Today, I will highlight 19 more winners with legal backgrounds. Many of these laureates were leaders in international law, disarmament policies, or helped to broker peace in time of conflict. Elihu Root was …
Posted in: Education, Law Library
Posted by: Jennifer González
As Elin mentioned yesterday, the Nobel Peace Prize will be given out on Thursday in Oslo, Norway. I was interested in the recipients this year, the National Dialogue Quartet, and while researching I found that one quarter of this organization was the Tunisian Order of Lawyers. That piqued my interest as to how many other …
Posted in: Education, Law Library
Posted by: Jennifer González
On this day, 215 years ago, Congress met in the Capitol Building for the first time. The Sixth Congress established the residence of the Congress and seat of the United States government in Washington, D.C. with the move on November 17, 1800. The newly established United States had nine capitals between 1776 and 1800: Philadelphia, …
Posted in: Education, Law Library
Posted by: Jennifer González
On a recent trip to Philadelphia, I stopped at the Eastern State Penitentiary. Opened in 1829, this was the most famous and expensive prison of its time. Tourists and researchers came from around the world to study this innovative prison system, including Alexis de Tocqueville and Charles Dickens. Eastern State Penitentiary was famous because it …
Posted in: Education, Law Library, Pic of the Week
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: Jennifer González
In Stafford County, about 45 miles southwest of Capitol Hill is a 17-acre park that is also on the National Register of Historic Places. It is the site from which the stone was quarried to construct part of the Capitol and White House, as well as many other Virginian buildings in the early 1800s. …
Posted in: Education, Law Library, Pic of the Week