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"I Do Solemnly Swear . . .": Presidential Inaugurations is a collection of approximately 400 items
or 2,000 digital files relating to inaugurations from George Washington's in 1789 to Barack Obama's inauguration of 2009.
This presentation includes diaries and letters of presidents and of those who witnessed
inaugurations, handwritten drafts of inaugural addresses, broadsides, inaugural tickets and
programs, prints, photographs, and sheet music. The selections are drawn from the Presidential
Papers in the Manuscript Division and from the collections of the Prints and Photographs Division,
Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Music Division, and the General Collections of the
Library of Congress. Additional material has been included from the photography collections of the
Architect of the Capitol, the White House, and the United States Senate Office of the Sergeant at
Arms. Some items, from records of early sessions of Congress to early films, that are already
online in American Memory have been incorporated. An important component is the collaboration
with the Avalon Project at the Yale Law School, which permits the site to offer Yale's online
presentations of the inaugural addresses from Presidents Washington to Obama with associated
searchable text transcriptions. A key objective of this online presentation is to make accessible to
the public, many of the treasures and other important
primary source materials held by the Library of Congress as well as by other institutions. The
collection has been organized chronologically by presidential inauguration and an effort has been
made to offer a balanced number of items for each inaugural event.
The mission of the Library of Congress is to make its
resources available and useful to Congress and the American people and to sustain
and preserve a universal collection of knowledge and creativity for future
generations. The goal of the Library's National Digital Library Program is to
offer broad public access to a wide range of historical and cultural documents as
a contribution to education and lifelong learning.
The Library of Congress presents these documents as part of the record of
the past. These primary historical documents reflect the
attitudes, perspectives, and beliefs of different times. The Library of Congress
does not endorse the views expressed in these collections, which
may contain materials offensive to some readers.
Special Presentations:
Presidential Inaugurations: Historical Insights—A Video Presentation
Presidential Inaugurations: Words and Images
Presidential Oaths of Office
Precedents and Notable Events
Bibles and Scripture Passages
Presidential Inaugurations: A Selected List of References
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