On May 20, 1797, President John Adams nominated his son, John Quincy Adams, to be Minister Plenipotentiary to the King of Prussia. JQA served in this position until 1801.  Nomination of John Quincy Adams to be Minister Plenipotentiary, 5/20/1797, McCormick Collection, Records of the U.S. Senate (ARC 306287)
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On May 20, 1797, President John Adams nominated his son, John Quincy Adams, to be Minister Plenipotentiary to the King of Prussia. JQA served in this position until 1801.

 Nomination of John Quincy Adams to be Minister Plenipotentiary, 5/20/1797, McCormick Collection, Records of the U.S. Senate (ARC 306287)

Congress in the Archives will feature monthly staff posts on our blog. Today’s post comes from Center archivist Kristen Wilhelm. Forty years ago today self proclaimed “ol’ country lawyer” Senator Sam Ervin stepped onto center stage as chairman of the Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, better known as the Watergate Committee. Senator Ervin became a household name as an estimated 85% of U.S. households viewed at least some of the hearings broadcast that summer.  Attorney General John Mitchell, shown in the photo, was one of the high-level Nixon administration figures whose testimony was broadcast. For the committee, bringing the hearings directly to the people was vital. As stated in its Final Report: “The full import of the hearings could only be achieved observing the witnesses and hearing their testimony.” Photograph of Attorney General John Mitchell, 1973, Records of the U.S. Senate
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Congress in the Archives will feature monthly staff posts on our blog. Today’s post comes from Center archivist Kristen Wilhelm.

Forty years ago today self proclaimed “ol’ country lawyer” Senator Sam Ervin stepped onto center stage as chairman of the Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities, better known as the Watergate Committee. Senator Ervin became a household name as an estimated 85% of U.S. households viewed at least some of the hearings broadcast that summer. 

Attorney General John Mitchell, shown in the photo, was one of the high-level Nixon administration figures whose testimony was broadcast. For the committee, bringing the hearings directly to the people was vital. As stated in its Final Report: “The full import of the hearings could only be achieved observing the witnesses and hearing their testimony.”

Photograph of Attorney General John Mitchell, 1973, Records of the U.S. Senate

Did you vote for a U.S. Senator last November? If you did, it’s thanks to the 17th Amendment. The U.S. Constitution originally called for each state legislature to choose two senators. After decades of controversy, scandal, and even William Randolph Hearst’s muckraking, S. J. Res. 39 passed both houses on May 13, 1912 and started its 11-month journey toward ratification. On April 8, 1913, Connecticut’s approval of the 17th Amendment made the direct election of senators the law of the land. Credentials of Joseph Taylor Robinson of Arkansas, the last Senator elected by a state legislature, 2/7/1913, Records of the U.S. Senate
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Did you vote for a U.S. Senator last November? If you did, it’s thanks to the 17th Amendment. The U.S. Constitution originally called for each state legislature to choose two senators. After decades of controversy, scandal, and even William Randolph Hearst’s muckraking, S. J. Res. 39 passed both houses on May 13, 1912 and started its 11-month journey toward ratification. On April 8, 1913, Connecticut’s approval of the 17th Amendment made the direct election of senators the law of the land.

Credentials of Joseph Taylor Robinson of Arkansas, the last Senator elected by a state legislature, 2/7/1913, Records of the U.S. Senate

Well that’s an upsetting primary source.

While this comment was in reference to this morning’s letter requesting the National Guard’s assistance at Kent State, you could probably say that about many of our posts.  But these comments are an opportunity we hate to miss.  Sometimes history is upsetting (a lot of the time, actually). This is probably a good time to mention our post from last year:

“All the documents of “homesteaders” stealing land from Native Americans is bumming me out.”

In short,  if you’re not bummed out sometimes by our posts, then we’re probably not doing our job.  

But to make up for it, maybe you missed our post from Bugs Bunny’s sort-of-75th birthday?

And thanks for writing!

(via todaysdocument)

Petition from Minnie Fisher Cunningham of the Texas Woman Suffrage Association for passage of the “Susan B. Anthony Amendment” sent to Congress on May 2, 1916 The amendment passed Congress on June 4, 1919. It was ratified as the 19th Amendment on August 18, 1920. Petition from Texas Woman Suffrage Association, 5/2/1916, Records of the U.S. House of Representatives (ARC 306659)
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Petition from Minnie Fisher Cunningham of the Texas Woman Suffrage Association for passage of the “Susan B. Anthony Amendment” sent to Congress on May 2, 1916

The amendment passed Congress on June 4, 1919. It was ratified as the 19th Amendment on August 18, 1920.

Petition from Texas Woman Suffrage Association, 5/2/1916, Records of the U.S. House of Representatives (ARC 306659)

Newspaper publisher and multi-millionaire William Randolph Hearst was viewed as a strong candidate for the Democratic nomination for President in 1908. This illustration entitled, “Hearst’s New Make-up”, by cartoonist Clifford Berryman, appeared in the Washington Evening Star on June 5, 1907 and shows Hearst attempting to convince the common man that he is their friend. Hearst was born on April 29, 1863.  Hearst’s New Make-up by Clifford Berryman, 6/5/1907, U.S. Senate Collection (ARC 6010707)
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Newspaper publisher and multi-millionaire William Randolph Hearst was viewed as a strong candidate for the Democratic nomination for President in 1908. This illustration entitled, “Hearst’s New Make-up”, by cartoonist Clifford Berryman, appeared in the Washington Evening Star on June 5, 1907 and shows Hearst attempting to convince the common man that he is their friend. Hearst was born on April 29, 1863. 

Hearst’s New Make-up by Clifford Berryman, 6/5/1907, U.S. Senate Collection (ARC 6010707)

Congress in the Archives will feature monthly staff posts on our blog. Today’s post comes from Center archivist Kristen Wilhelm.

Love it or hate it, it’s tax day! This year marks the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 16th Amendment, which allows Congress to collect a tax on income. Preparing my income tax return always brings out my archivist spidey senses – all those numbers in neat columns, tracking every receipt, having documentation for every entry — delightful!

The only thing as sure as death and taxes is that Congress in the Archives wouldn’t miss remembering the 16th Amendment!

Senate Joint Resolution 40, proposing a constitutional amendment, SEN 61A-B9, 6/28/1909, Records of the U.S. Senate

On September 18, 1975, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hosted a luncheon in honor of Margaret Thatcher. Her note thanking the committee for their hospitality spoke volumes of her courtesy as well as her political aspirations: “I hope we shall meet again soon.” In 1979 Thatcher was the first woman to be elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. She served until 1990. Thatcher passed away on April 8, 2013.  Margaret Thatcher letter, 9/23/1975, Records of the U.S. Senate
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On September 18, 1975, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hosted a luncheon in honor of Margaret Thatcher. Her note thanking the committee for their hospitality spoke volumes of her courtesy as well as her political aspirations: “I hope we shall meet again soon.” In 1979 Thatcher was the first woman to be elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. She served until 1990. Thatcher passed away on April 8, 2013. 

Margaret Thatcher letter, 9/23/1975, Records of the U.S. Senate

Source: congressarchives

While we’re still reeling from the National’s Opening Day victory, we wanted to share this awesome new (free!) eBook from the National Archives. 

“Baseball: The National Pastime in the National Archives” tells the story of baseball in America through documents, photographs, audio, video, and other records preserved at the National Archives. Chapter 9 “Saving the Integrity of the Game” features records from congressional hearings during the steroid era. 

The book can be downloaded for free on your iPhone, Android, iPad, and eReaders, so check it out!

Congress in the Archives will feature monthly staff posts on our blog. Today’s post comes from Adam Berenbak.  Today is Opening Day in DC and all eyes are on the Nationals, especially their new mascot based on William Howard Taft. Taft is being celebrated as an addition to the ‘Presidents Run’ not only because he was an accomplished statesman and President, but because he is recognized as the first president to ever throw out a ‘first pitch’ on Opening Day, April 11, 1910.  Though the game is mostly remembered for Taft’s first pitch, Walter Johnson was the star, pitching within one hit of a no-hitter for Washington. Frank ‘Home Run’ Baker (who earned his nickname the following year with two dramatic home runs in the World Series) was the one batter to luck into a hit off of Johnson that day. In the fourth inning, Baker came to bat and lined a foul ball towards the President’s box. Though the ball missed Taft, it careened into the adjacent box, narrowly missing Vice President James Sherman before hitting Secretary of the Senate Charles Bennett in the head. Luckily for all involved, the ball “had spent its force when it landed in the box,” leaving everyone uninjured. Later reports and references to the incident, though, incorrectly refer to Bennett as the Secretary of State (and report that he was knocked out!). As Secretary of the Senate, the chief legislative officer in the Senate, Bennett helped to usher the Senate into the modern era. In doing so, he was one of the first to collect and publish the various procedures of the Senate into a concise guide for Senators. He also enjoyed frequent outings to Boundary Field, and then National Park (later Griffith Stadium), to watch baseball. Though no mascot of Bennett will be around during this year’s opening day game, their story reminds us all to watch out for the foul ball! Will the Base Runner Start for Third? by Clifford Berryman, 8/17/1906, U.S. Senate Collection (ARC 6010644)
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Congress in the Archives will feature monthly staff posts on our blog. Today’s post comes from Adam Berenbak. 

Today is Opening Day in DC and all eyes are on the Nationals, especially their new mascot based on William Howard Taft. Taft is being celebrated as an addition to the ‘Presidents Run’ not only because he was an accomplished statesman and President, but because he is recognized as the first president to ever throw out a ‘first pitch’ on Opening Day, April 11, 1910. 

Though the game is mostly remembered for Taft’s first pitch, Walter Johnson was the star, pitching within one hit of a no-hitter for Washington. Frank ‘Home Run’ Baker (who earned his nickname the following year with two dramatic home runs in the World Series) was the one batter to luck into a hit off of Johnson that day. In the fourth inning, Baker came to bat and lined a foul ball towards the President’s box. Though the ball missed Taft, it careened into the adjacent box, narrowly missing Vice President James Sherman before hitting Secretary of the Senate Charles Bennett in the head. Luckily for all involved, the ball “had spent its force when it landed in the box,” leaving everyone uninjured. Later reports and references to the incident, though, incorrectly refer to Bennett as the Secretary of State (and report that he was knocked out!).

As Secretary of the Senate, the chief legislative officer in the Senate, Bennett helped to usher the Senate into the modern era. In doing so, he was one of the first to collect and publish the various procedures of the Senate into a concise guide for Senators. He also enjoyed frequent outings to Boundary Field, and then National Park (later Griffith Stadium), to watch baseball.

Though no mascot of Bennett will be around during this year’s opening day game, their story reminds us all to watch out for the foul ball!

Will the Base Runner Start for Third? by Clifford Berryman, 8/17/1906, U.S. Senate Collection (ARC 6010644)