The Biographical Directory contains detailed historic information about our government from 1789-2005. It contains five (5) distinct sections: The Executive Officers of the United States from 1789 – 2005; The Continental Congress which includes the meeting dates and places where these occurred; the apportionment of Congress through the 2000 Census; the individual Congresses from 1789-2005 and the biographies of those who served in Congress from 1789 to 2005.
The Executive Officers section includes information such as cabinet officers, and it reveals the growth of the Presidency aligned with the growth of the cabinet.
The Continental Congress section lists those delegates who were elected to serve; those who attended and those who declined to attend.
The census apportionment of the House of Representatives is the smallest section of the book; in essence each state and the number of representatives it was allowed as a result of the census.
The individual Congresses section is very detailed including the name of the doorkeeper of the House and Senate and the Sergeant at Arms of the House. The earlier Congresses contain information about Territories and their delegates; for example, Territory of Idaho; New Mexico; Arizona before they became states.
The biographical section contains information including birth, education, previous employment, death and place of internment.
An example of the individual entries is:
ROGERS, Edith Nourse (wife of John Jacob Rogers), a Representative from Massachusetts; born in Saco, York County Maine, March 19, 1881; graduated from the Rogers Hall School, Lowell, Mass; graduated from Madame Julien’s School, Paris, France; volunteered, American Red Cross, 1917-1922; Presidential inspector of veterans’ hospitals, 1922-1923; president, board of trustees, Rogers Hall School, Lowell, Mass; elected as a Republican to the Sixty-ninth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of her husband, United States Representative John Jacob Rogers; reelected to the Seventieth and to the sixteen succeeding Congresses (June 30, 1926-September 10, 1960); chair, Committee on Veterans’ Affairs (Eightieth and Eighty-third Congresses); died on September 10, 1960, in Boston, Mass; internment in Lowell Cemetery, Lowell, Mass.
THE BIOGRAPHICAL DIRECTORY is available at the Reference Desk at the State Library in room 341 of the State House. The hours of the Library are 9 AM to 5 PM Mondays through Fridays. More current information is available on line at: http://bioguide.congress.gov/
