The State Library received The Citizen’s Almanac: Fundamental Documents, Symbols, and Anthems of the United States, a publication from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services as part of the federal government depository program.
The Citizen’s Almanac is a document concerning U.S. Citizenship. It has many wonderful pictures and documents related to citizenship and the founding of the U.S. It has a picture of two suffragettes petitioning for the right to vote in 1917; a painting of the signing in 1620 of the Mayflower Compact, which was a social contract for self-government and an inspiration to the framers of the Constitution and a painting of the “Spirit of ‘76” by Archibald M. Willard in 1876. The image in the book is from the National Archives but there is also a copy in Abbott Hall, Marblehead’s Town Hall.
Materials included are the Declaration of Independence, with a John Trumball painting of the signing of this document; The Federalist Papers which were a series of eighty-five essays written by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison under the pen name “Publius”; The Bill of Rights; The Emancipation Proclamation; summaries of landmark decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court including Marbury vs. Madison (1803), Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), West Virginia State v. Barnett (1943) and Brown vs. the Board of Education (1954). Naomi Allen
Reference Librarian
