Representative John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), the longest-serving African American member of Congress and the third-longest serving member of the U.S. House of Representatives, served in the House for over 52 years. His first employment on Capitol Hill was as a staff member in the office of Representative John Dingell (D-MI). Conyers was elected to the House in 1965 and was re-elected every Congress until his retirement in 2017. While in Congress, Conyers served as chairman of the House Committee on Government Operations (101st through 103rd Congresses) and the House Committee on the Judiciary (110th and 111th Congresses), and was known as the dean of the Congressional Black Caucus, an organization he helped found. 

On April 8, 1968, four days after Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination, Representative Conyers introduced a bill proposing King’s birthday be celebrated as a national holiday. Conyers continued to push the legislation for the next 15 years until it was signed into law by President Reagan in 1983, a legislative victory Conyers was particularly proud of. 

Representative Conyers died on October 27, 2019, at the age of 90.

Certificate of Election for John Conyers, Jr., Representative of Michigan, 12/8/1964; Records of the Office of the Clerk, 89th Congress, U. S. House of Representatives, Record Group 233; National Archives.

H .R. 16510, A bill to designate the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. as a legal public holiday, 4/8/1968; Judiciary Committee, Legislative Files, Public Bills, 90th Congress, U.S. House of Representatives, Record Group 233; National Archives.

Elijah Cummings (D-MD) was first elected to the U.S. House of Representative in a special election in 1996. He was re-elected to Congress 12 times, continuously representing Maryland’s 7th District until his death on October 17, 2019. While in Congress, Cummings’ committee assignments included the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and the Select Committee on Benghazi. During his congressional career Cummings was a member of a number of caucuses including as co-founder and chair of the Congressional Caucus on Drug Policy, the Congressional Black Caucus (Chair in the 108th Congress), the Congressional Arts Caucus, and the Congressional Progressive Caucus. The two documents shown here are Elijah Cummings’ certificate of election and oath of office for his first term as a member of the House of Representatives. 

Rep. Cummings will lie in state in the Capitol today, Thursday, October 24, 2019. 

On July 11, 1804, Alexander Hamilton was mortally wounded during a duel with Aaron Burr and died the following day. Five years after Hamilton’s untimely death, his widow, Elizabeth Hamilton, submitted a petition to Congress asking for a pension based on her husband’s military service as Lieutenant Colonel in the Revolutionary War.

In 1782, Hamilton had been a member of the Continental Congress that passed legislation establishing army pensions. For ethical reasons, he had relinquished his claim to compensation.

In her petition, presented to the House of Representatives on May 30, 1809, Elizabeth Hamilton asked Congress to restore her husband’s right to a pension. Along with her petition, she submitted Hamilton’s October 28, 1783 Commission as Lieutenant Colonel for the Revolutionary Army and a personal statement of his property and debts. Believed to be written on July 1, 1804, just days before he died, Hamilton’s statement is an explanation of his financial circumstances “if an accident should happen to me.” In it, he ties his public service to the present state of his finances, which included debts that would prove a burden to his family.

Mrs. Hamilton’s initial attempt to secure a pension failed, but in 1816, Congress passed a bill granting five years pay, which was a full pension, to Mrs. Hamilton.

Alexander Hamilton’s “Statement of My Property and Debts, with Remarks,” 7/1/1804; Records of the US House of Representatives

Source: catalog.archives.gov

Happy Springtime!Conjuring Easter egg hunts and springtime is this adorable letterhead from the Paas Dye Company. Tiny elves dye enormous Easter eggs. The Paas Company has been making egg dyeing kits since 1893 and is still going strong today. We...
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Happy Springtime!

Conjuring Easter egg hunts and springtime is this adorable letterhead from the Paas Dye Company. Tiny elves dye enormous Easter eggs. The Paas Company has been making egg dyeing kits since 1893 and is still going strong today. 

We stumbled on this letter, from 1940, in the records of the House Ways and Means Committee. Because businesses write to Congress about tax and tariff legislation that affects them, the records of the Ways and Means Committee are filled with wonderful letterhead like this.      

Committee Papers of the Committee on Ways and Means (HR76A-F41.1), 76th Congress, U.S. House of Representatives, Record Group 233

In 1857 the Columbia Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind began to provide primary school education for deaf and blind students. In 1864 Congress authorized the institution to confer college degrees with the passage of S. 163 – seen above. President Lincoln signed the bill into law on April 8, 1864. In 1986, after several name changes, Congress gave the Columbia Institution the name it still goes by today, Gallaudet University.

Map of the Grounds of the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind, Committee Papers of the Committee on the District of Columbia, HR 38A-E5.1; Records of the House of Representatives, Record Group 233.

S. 163 38th Congress, Bills and Resolutions Originating in the Senate, Committee on the District of Columbia, SEN 38A-B2; Records of the U.S. Senate, Record Group 46.