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"The House of Representatives, in some respects, I think, is the most peculiar assemblage in the world," Speaker Joe Cannon of Illinois once observed. Behind the legislation and procedure, House Members and staff have produced their own institutional history and heritage. Our blog, Whereas: Stories from the People's House, tells their stories.
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Cloaked in Secrecy
by Art on June 6, 2019
The House Cloakrooms are simple, comfortable waystations where Members can wait between votes, escape for a snack, or conduct business with other Members.
Categories: Women & Minorities on the Hill, Capitol Campus, House Chamber, Practice & Customs
by Art on April 30, 2019
The Speaker's rostrum announces its importance visually. Framed by walls of multicolored marble, columns, symbolic relief sculptures, and a large American flag, it is located front-and-center in the House Chamber.
Categories: Congressional Staff, House Chamber, Practice & Customs
Edition for Educators—The House Chamber
by History on January 24, 2019
Since 1789, the House of Representatives has met in a number of locations. But regardless of the setting, the House Chamber has always been a storied space. Since the House first met in closing years of the eighteenth century, thousands of men and women from all corners of the country have filled its seats to debate legislation and shape the rhythms of American life. Today, the modern House Chamber, which first opened in 1857, can often seem to be two things at once: intimidating but also welcoming, imposing but also familiar. This Edition for Educators highlights the spaces which have served as the meeting place for the People's House.
Categories: House Chamber, Edition for Educators
Reporting Live from the House Chamber
by Art on September 10, 2018
Reporters have covered the House from its earliest days, providing a vital link between the people and their Representatives.
Categories: House Chamber, Practice & Customs, Artifacts
An Ode to Poetry at the Capitol
by Archives on July 2, 2018
During a Joint Meeting honoring the bicentennial of Congress in 1989, Minority Leader Robert Michel suggested that what Congress needed during the celebration was "not more congressional prose, but the fiery, living truth of great poetry."
Categories: Capitol Campus, House Chamber, Photographs
A Proper Symbol of Office
by Art on December 4, 2017
Wherever and whenever the U.S. House of Representatives meets, this historic artifact is there.
Mourning in the Chamber
by Archives on October 30, 2017
The House Chamber is known as a space for discourse and debate, but it also has a more somber history. From 1820 to 1940, the Chamber served as the setting for the funerals of some sitting Members. Learn more about this tradition through four photographs from the House Collection.
Categories: House Chamber, Speakers of the House, Practice & Customs, Photographs
Women Take the Spotlight
by Archives on April 10, 2017
On January 6, 1941, Jeannette Rankin attended a Joint Session of Congress just days after being sworn in to a second term in the House. For Rankin, who'd first entered Congress 24 years earlier at the opening of the 65th Congress in 1917, the scene must have been familiar—war clouds gathering on the horizon, a dramatic presidential address, and a whirl of press attention, much of it paid to her return and, remarkably, still focused on her gender.
Categories: Women & Minorities on the Hill, House Chamber, Photographs, Rankin Centennial
Inside the Chamber on Opening Day
by Art on January 3, 2017
Every two years, as mandated in Article I, Section 2, of the Constitution, the U.S. House of Representatives starts a new legislative session, known as a Congress. Using longstanding precedent and a few highly visible artifacts, the House embarks on the pomp and ritual of its biennial Opening Day.
Categories: House Chamber, Practice & Customs, Opening Day, Photographs, Artifacts
"Female Cranks" and "Gallery Girls"
There once was a room in the Capitol that no longer exists—the Ladies' Reception Room. Well-dressed young women, stouthearted activists, and despairing widows filled its sofas and chairs in the 19th century. Long before women entered the House Chamber as Representatives, this space was a battleground in the clash over women's "proper" role in politics.
Categories: House Chamber, Art, Artifacts, Rankin Centennial
Adjournment Fever
by Archives on July 18, 2016
Finishing the legislative session in the summer used to be a yearly occurrence, with its own traditions. Members tried to guess the correct date of adjournment, sweltered through the final bills of summer, then sang into the night. Before Congress headed home for the season, these congressional traditions were recorded in photographs and oral histories.
Categories: House Chamber, Practice & Customs, Photographs
Before the Flag
by Art on June 14, 2016
In 1929, the Capitol celebrated Flag Day with the United States Flag Association rolling out the (allegedly) largest flag in the world on the West Front, accompanied by an amplified, patriotic program. But what about the normal-sized, everyday flags in the Chamber? One might assume that its current spot— front and center, behind the Speaker on the rostrum—was always the case. However, there is no official protocol on flag display, so we turn to images from the House Collection to piece together the history of the flag in the House Chamber.
Categories: House Chamber, Photographs, Art
History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, "Blog Search," https://history.house.gov/Blog/Search (January 19, 2020)