Society Saturday - Touring the Library of Congress

At the Annual Rendezvous Banquet of the Women Descendants of the Ancient & Honorable Artillery Company, we learned about the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress.  Susan Reyburn who is a Senior Writer and Tour Docent there gave us a Virtual Tour.

We learned several interesting facts about the Library of Congress - 

It was started in 1812 as the "Book Palace of the American People".  Unfortunately the collection burned in 1814 when the British burned Washington.  This prompted Thomas Jefferson to sell his private collection of 6500 books to congress for $25000.  

The library continued to be the source of information for Congress and consisted primarily of law books and the like, until 1870 when the National Copyright Act was passed.  This required every item that was copyrighted to have 2 copies submitted to the Library of Congress.  Soon books began piling up everywhere in the room at the Capitol building used for the library.  Therefore, the Jefferson building was built in the 1890's.

It was the first government building built in DC for electricity and has more gold leaf than any other building in the US.  There are several art pieces in the building which were created by artists who had previously helped design the White City of the Columbian Exposition.

Ms. Reyburn showed us several examples of the art and told of all the various symbolism incorporated in it.

Some interesting statistics that she told us were:

There are currently 161 million items in inventory, including 64 million manuscripts, 36 million books, films, maps, and so on.

The US Copyright office receives 10,000 items per day.

The library staff fulfills 600,000 requests from Congress every year, ranging from books to review to full research reports.

The best part is that it is all free and open to the public.

Society Saturday - World War II Music and Betsy Ross

I wasn't able to attend much of the Illinois DAR State Conference this year, but was there for about 24 hours. 

The State Officers Club meets the evening before.  This is usually an entertaining evening.  The theme was Music from World War II.  The centerpieces resembled old time radio microphones.  

Our program consisted of 2 sisters, both members of DAR, who sang and played the piano.  They were in 1940's style army uniforms and sang songs like "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy".

The next morning, there was a joint breakfast of Illinois Chapters of Women Descendants of Ancient and Honorable Artillery Co., Daughters of Colonial Wars and Daughters of Founders and Patriots.  Our special guest for breakfast was Betsy Ross who told about her life and how she came to make a flag for General Washington. She even taught all of us how to make five pointed stars with a single snip.

Society Saturday - Hosting the Magna Carta

Lineage Week began for me this year at the Rendezvous of the Women Descendants of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company.

This group of ladies met for a business meeting during the day, then relaxed at the banquet that evening.  Our banquet speaker was Robert Newlen.  He is the assistant Law Librarian for the Library of Congress.  His topic was about the Magna Carta, which is coming to the LOC this year.  The Magna Carta will celebrate its 800th anniversary in 2015.  The LOC will have an exhibition featuring one of only three original 1215 copies of this document.

Mr. Newlen showing a slide of the Magna Carta

Mr. Newlen spoke a little about the history of the Magna Carta, some facts about the various copies, and told of the preparations surrounding the exhibit.  When asked how the document would travel, he stated that it flies first class with its own escort.

This was an interesting start to this busy week in Washington DC.

The Illinois delegation to A&H Rendezvous

http://blogs.loc.gov/law/2014/03/magna-carta-is-coming-to-the-library-of-congress/

Society Saturday - Women Descendants of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company

National Lineage Week started on Monday with the Annual Rendezvousof the National Society Women Descendants of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company.

This lineage group consists of lineal descendants of the famous Massachusetts military company.  President National Beverly Sceery presided as the National Officers, Chairmen, and Court Presidents gave their reports.

At the Banquet, our speaker was Dr. Nancy Bazar who told of her quest to confirm the history of her house as a stop on the underground railroad.

After the program, new officers were installed.  Jeannine Kallal was installed as the new President National.  She will lead the society for the next 3 years.

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~azwdaha/index.html