WASHINGTON, July 31, 2014 — The American Bar Association is joining with the Library of Congress to debut a special traveling exhibit to commemorate the 800th anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta, Aug. 8 at the ABA’s Annual Meeting Expo in Boston.
The ABA Standing Committee on the Law Library of Congress will unveil “Magna Carta: Enduring Legacy 1215-2015.” Curated by the Law Library of Congress, the exhibit will feature 16 banners, 13 of which reflect spectacular images of Magna Carta and precious manuscripts, books and other documents from the Library of Congress’s rare book collections. The exhibit also incorporates a video, produced by the Library of Congress, showing the Law Librarian and the exhibit curator handling the materials and explaining their significance.
The exhibit was developed both to raise awareness about Magna Carta’s enduring influence and to complement an upcoming Library of Congress exhibition, “Magna Carta: Muse and Mentor,” (Nov. 6, 2014 through Jan. 19, 2015), that will display the Lincoln Cathedral’s 1215 manuscript of Magna Carta.
The principles found in Magna Carta played a fundamental role in establishing the supremacy of the law in our constitutional, democratic society, including concepts embraced by the Founding Fathers in the Bill of Rights. The importance of Magna Carta to American laws and freedoms will be highlighted at the Annual Meeting as Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts Jr. speaks to the ABA House of Delegates on the subject Aug. 11 at 11 a.m. The exhibit will give people a better understanding of Magna Carta and its relevance to the modern-day rule of law.
The exhibit will be available for viewing Friday, Aug. 8, 5-7 p.m.; Saturday, Aug. 9, 9, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.; and Sunday, Aug. 10, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. In addition to the exhibit, visitors will be able to:
- Meet David Mao, Law Librarian of Congress.
- Attend a “pop up” speech by the Rare Books Curator, Nathan Dorn, on Saturday, Aug.9, 9:30- 10 a.m. and 3-3:30 p.m.
- Discuss the exhibit and the Law Library’s collections with the Law Librarian and Rare Book Curator.
After Boston, the exhibit will travel to public buildings such as courthouses, law schools, universities and public libraries around the United States. From June 11 to 14, 2015, the exhibit will be displayed in London, England in conjunction with the ABA’s London sessions and rededication of the ABA’s Magna Carta memorial at Runnymede.
The current schedule for the exhibit includes stops in:
- Indianapolis at the Indiana Statehouse, Sept. 29-Oct. 10, hosted by the Indiana State Bar.
- Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan Law School, Oct. 1-21, hosted by the Michigan Law School
- Houston, at the ABA Midyear Meeting, Feb. 6-8, 2015
- Atlanta, at the Georgia Bar Center, Spring 2015, hosted by the State Bar of Georgia
- Salt Lake City, April 3-20, 2015, hosted by the Utah State Bar
- Washington, D.C, at the ABA Section of International Law Spring Meeting, April 29-May 2, 2015, hosted by the ABA Section of International Law
- Philadelphia, at the ABA Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section Meeting, April 29-May 3, 2015, hosted by theABA Tort Trial and Insurance Practice
- London, England, at the ABA London Sessions, June 11-14, 2015
- Chicago, at the ABA Annual Meeting, July 31 - Aug. 2, 2015, hosted by the ABA Standing Committee on the Law Library of Congress
- Brooklyn, N.Y., at the Brooklyn Law School, Sept. 14-28, 2015, hosted by the Brooklyn Law School
- San Diego, at the ABA Midyear Meeting, Feb. 5-7, 2016
With nearly 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is one of the largest voluntary professional membership organizations in the world. As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law. View our privacy statement online. Follow the latest ABA news at www.ambar.org/news and on Twitter @ABANews.
The Law Library of Congress was established in 1832 with the mission to make its resources available to members of Congress, the Supreme Court, other branches of the U.S. government and the global legal community and to sustain and preserve a universal collection of law for future generations. With more than 5 million items in various formats, the Law Library of Congress contains the world’s largest collection of law books and other resources from all countries and provides online databases and guides to legal information worldwide through its website at www.loc.gov/law/.
The Library of Congress, the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution and the largest library in the world, holds more than 158 million items in various languages, disciplines and formats. The Library serves the U.S. Congress and the nation both on-site in its reading rooms on Capitol Hill and through its award-winning website at www.loc.gov.
