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* NEW * CONGRESSIONAL TIMELINE 1.0: 76th CONGRESS
In October 2010 we announced The Dirksen Center’s new Congressional Timeline 1.0. Now at your fingertips are (1) major laws – more than 200 examples – passed by Congress from 1933 to the present, (2) the partisan composition of each Congress, along with the presidential administration and the congressional leaders, (3) the session dates of each Congress, (4) measures of legislative productivity, such as the number of bills introduced and passed, (5) information about women and African-Americans serving in Congress, (6) examples of documents and audiovisual materials related to legislation, and (7) the ability to add information to the timeline by using the “wiki” feature.
Each month we plan to feature a different Congress and the resources offered. This month we are featuring the 76th Congress (1939-41) -- http://www.congressionaltimeline.org/76thcongress_pg1.htm
We will use the 76th Congress to demonstrate how the timeline works:
- The link above will take you to the 76th Congress screen. At the bottom you will see five yellow blocks. The first denotes an overview of the 76th. The other four denote different pieces of legislation and the dates they were signed into law. In the case of the 76th Congress, there are two screens listing 5 laws passed in 1939 and 1940.
- Click the “expand” button under 1939 (the first left-hand yellow block on the first screen) to see general information about the 76th Congress. Then click “Collapse” to return to the timeline.
- Now move to the yellow block, April 3, 1939, Administrative Reorganization Act of 1939, and “Expand” it. Roll your cursor over the icons below the brief description of the bill. When an icon lights up as yellow, that means it is a link to additional resources. If you select “Documents,” you will see the image of the first document. Click on the drop-down dialog box at the top, and you will see that there are three documents posted as resources.
- Click on the arrow next to “76th Congress: Page 2” at the bottom to advance to page 2. Click the “expand” button under September 16, 1940, Selective Training and Service Act of 1940. Select “Photos” to see the image of the first photo. Click on the drop-down dialog box at the top and you will see there are two photos posted as resources. To return to the timeline, click the arrow next to “Return to Timeline” at the top.
- Click the “expand” button under September 16, 1940, Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, once again. Select “Videos” to see the image of the video posted. Click on the image to advance to the QuickTime video. To return to the timeline, click the arrow next to “Return to Video Gallery” at the top and then click the arrow next to “Return to Timeline” at the top of the next screen.
- We use this same approach throughout the timeline. Since this a multi-year work in progress, we don’t have resources of all types for all legislation—we’ll add them as we discover them.
We know this first version of the Congressional Timeline will have some bugs to work out. If you have suggestions, please contact me at fmackaman@dirksencenter.org. We’ll do our best to respond and improve the timeline.
Come back often. We will add information to the timeline continuously. Look for updates by becoming a Facebook fan or subscribing to our e-newsletter, Communicator. For Facebook, go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/DirksenCenter and click the LIKE button. For Communicator, go to http://www.webcommunicator.org/index.htm, enter your email address in the text field below “Subscribe to the Communicator!” and click SEND.
* NEW * EDITORIAL CARTOONS
The Dirksen Congressional Center recently announced additions to the Editorial Cartoon Collection project: http://www.congresslink.org/cartoons/index.htm.
The editorial cartoons and related lesson plans will teach students to identify issues, analyze symbols, acknowledge the need for background knowledge, recognize stereotypes and caricatures, think critically, and appreciate the role of irony and humor.
This month we have posted six new cartoons:
We now have a total of 179 cartoons posted! |
