Magna Carta: Muse and Mentor

Exhibition at the Library of Congress Co-Sponsored by The Federalist Society

The Library of Congress will celebrate the 800th anniversary of the first issue of Magna Carta with a 10-week exhibition from Thursday, November 6, 2014 through Monday, January 19, 2015. The 1215 Lincoln Cathedral Magna Carta will be the centerpiece of the exhibition. In addition, there will be approximately 75 items from the Law Library of Congress and from various other divisions of the Library, which will tell the story of 800 years of Magna Carta’s influence on the history of political liberty.

The Library’s exhibition will demonstrate how interpretations of Magna Carta through the centuries led to the constitutional guarantees of individual liberty brought forth by the Founding Fathers of the United States. It will describe how a number of the most basic principles of the U.S. Constitution—consent of the governed, the right to a trial by jury, the right to due process of law, freedom from unlawful imprisonment and limited government under the law—can be traced to Magna Carta.

The Library’s exhibition also will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Lincoln Cathedral Magna Carta’s first visit to the Library of Congress.  After a six-month exhibit in the British Pavilion at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, the document traveled to Washington, D.C.  In an official ceremony on November 28, 1939, Lord Lothian, ambassador to the United States handed Magna Carta over to Librarian of Congress Archibald MacLeish for safekeeping during World War II.  The Library placed the document on exhibition until the U.S. entry into the war, when the Library sent Magna Carta to Fort Knox, Kentucky.  The document returned to England in 1946.

Law Librarian of Congress David S. Mao said, "Through this exhibition we will celebrate the core tradition of the rule of law.  While aiming to detail the enduring impact of Magna Carta over 800 years, our exhibit will illuminate its influence on our legal traditions and political thought while examining the unfolding story of the rule of law throughout the world.  We look forward to taking a leading role in the American commemoration of the 800th anniversary of this legal treasure."

The exhibition curator is Nathan Dorn, rare book curator in the Law Library of Congress, and the exhibition directors are Cheryl Ann Regan and Martha Hopkins from the Library’s Interpretive Programs Office.

Additionally, the Library of Congress curated and provided materials for a facsimile traveling exhibition on Magna Carta for the American Bar Association (ABA). The exhibition opened at the 2014 ABA Annual Meeting in Boston and will travel across the United States for the next few years. In June 2015, the ABA Magna Carta Facsimile Traveling Exhibit will journey to England. For more information on ABA’s Magna Carta commemoration, visit www.facebook.com/abamagnacarta.

The Library of Congress will celebrate the 800th anniversary of the first issue of Magna Carta with a 10-week exhibition from Thursday, November 6, 2014 through Monday, January 19, 2015. The 1215 Lincoln Cathedral Magna Carta will be the centerpiece of the exhibition. In addition, there will be approximately 75 items from the Law Library of Congress and from various other divisions of the Library, which will tell the story of 800 years of Magna Carta’s influence on the history of political liberty.

The Library’s exhibition will demonstrate how interpretations of Magna Carta through the centuries led to the constitutional guarantees of individual liberty brought forth by the Founding Fathers of the United States. It will describe how a number of the most basic principles of the U.S. Constitution—consent of the governed, the right to a trial by jury, the right to due process of law, freedom from unlawful imprisonment and limited government under the law—can be traced to Magna Carta.

The Library’s exhibition also will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Lincoln Cathedral Magna Carta’s first visit to the Library of Congress.  After a six-month exhibit in the British Pavilion at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, the document traveled to Washington, D.C.  In an official ceremony on November 28, 1939, Lord Lothian, ambassador to the United States handed Magna Carta over to Librarian of Congress Archibald MacLeish for safekeeping during World War II.  The Library placed the document on exhibition until the U.S. entry into the war, when the Library sent Magna Carta to Fort Knox, Kentucky.  The document returned to England in 1946.

Law Librarian of Congress David S. Mao said, "Through this exhibition we will celebrate the core tradition of the rule of law.  While aiming to detail the enduring impact of Magna Carta over 800 years, our exhibit will illuminate its influence on our legal traditions and political thought while examining the unfolding story of the rule of law throughout the world.  We look forward to taking a leading role in the American commemoration of the 800th anniversary of this legal treasure."

The exhibition curator is Nathan Dorn, rare book curator in the Law Library of Congress, and the exhibition directors are Cheryl Ann Regan and Martha Hopkins from the Library’s Interpretive Programs Office.

Additionally, the Library of Congress curated and provided materials for a facsimile traveling exhibition on Magna Carta for the American Bar Association (ABA). The exhibition opened at the 2014 ABA Annual Meeting in Boston and will travel across the United States for the next few years. In June 2015, the ABA Magna Carta Facsimile Traveling Exhibit will journey to England. For more information on ABA’s Magna Carta commemoration, visit www.facebook.com/abamagnacarta.

Events

July 8, 2014—Magna Carta Lecture Series: Trial By Jury—Magna Carta and Influence in Criminal Law and Legal Representation. This program featured a distinguished panel of several local law professors.

August 20, 2014—Magna Carta Lecture Series: Magna Carta and Primary Source Documents featured a panel of Library staff. Nathan Dorn, Law Library rare book curator, Stephen Wesson, educational resources specialist, and Holly Krueger, head of the Library’s Paper Conservation Section, discussed how materials are prepared and selected for exhibitions and educational outreach curriculum. 

September 16, 2104—Magna Carta Lecture Series: Magna Carta and the American Constitution.  The Law Library’s annual Constitution Day event featured Dr. Akhil Amar, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University. Professor Amar’s lecture addressed the grand project of American constitutionalism, past, present, and future, highlighting the ways in which the American constitutional experience has both drawn upon and broken with English constitutional precursors such as Magna Carta and the English Bill of Rights of 1689.

November 6, 2014—Exhibition opens with a ceremony at 10:00 a.m. in the Great Hall of the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building. 

November 12, 2014 – Gallery Talk, Nathan Dorn, exhibition curator, will discuss highlights of selected items from the exhibition. The program will take place in the South Gallery, second floor, Thomas Jefferson Building from 12:00 p.m. until 1:00 p.m.

November 19, 2014 – Gallery Talk, Susan Rayburn, a specialist in the Library of Congress Publishing Office, will discuss the 1215 Lincoln Magna Carta"s first visit to the Library in 1939. This program, “Magna Carta in America: From World’s Fair to World War,” will take place in the South Gallery, second floor, Thomas Jefferson Building from 12:00 p.m. until 1:00 p.m.

December 3, 2014 – Gallery Talk, Margaret Wood, a senior legal reference librarian in the Law Library of Congress, discusses King John and life in medieval England at the time of Magna Carta"s enactment. The program will take place in the South Gallery, second floor, Thomas Jefferson Building from 12:00 p.m. until 1:00 p.m.

December 9, 2014—Symposium: Conversations on the Enduring Legacy of the Great Charter. The symposium will expand on the exhibition’s themes and will include sessions on new historical perspectives on Magna Carta, its relevance in the American Age of Reason, its impact on colonial and early republican America, and rulemaking and drafting modern constitutions.

December 10, 2014 – Gallery Talk, James Martin, a senior Legal Information Analyst in the Law Library, presents “The Merriman Case and the Writ of Habeas Corpus.”

January 14, 2015—Magna Carta Lecture Series: Magna Carta—Women in Medieval Europe in 1215. The Law Library welcomes Dr. Ruth M. Karras, chair of the History Department at the University of Minnesota, for this program. The program will take place at 1:00 p.m. in the Mumford Room (LM-649).

January 14, 2015 – Gallery Talk, Nathan Dorn, exhibition curator, will discuss highlights of selected items from the exhibition. The program will take place in the South Gallery, second floor, Thomas Jefferson Building from 12:00 p.m. until 1:00 p.m.

January 19, 2015—Exhibition closes.

April 7, 2015 – Law Day Program. Nicholas Vincent, Professor of Medieval History at the University of East Anglia, will give a lecture on the “Magna Carta: New Discoveries.” The program will take place at 1 p.m. in Room LJ-119 in the Thomas Jefferson Building.

http://youtu.be/CPtXi8RaXXE