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A Stormy Sitting

Page from Harper’s Weekly, September 15, 1888, with a print showing an official reporter calmly recording proceedings on a pad with a pen, surrounded by lively, gesturing hands, making fists, pointing, and reaching. A caption reads, “A Stormy Sitting.—Drawn by Paul Renouard.—[See Page 698.]”/tiles/collection/2/23230.xml
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Page from Harper’s Weekly, September 15, 1888, with a print showing an official reporter calmly recording proceedings on a pad with a pen, surrounded by lively, gesturing hands, making fists, pointing, and reaching. A caption reads, “A Stormy Sitting.—Drawn by Paul Renouard.—[See Page 698.]”
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Date

1888-09-15

Artist

Paul Rénouard

Publication

Harper's Weekly

Publisher

Harper & Brothers

Dimensions

15 3/4 × 10 3/4 in. (40 × 27.3 cm)

Accession Number

2007.283.000

Credit Line

Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives

Object Details

Accompanying an article on how the House recorded debates, this print showed the trying circumstances under which a stenographer worked during a floor frenzy. As the newspaper described it, a hard-working scribe “walks between a double row of shaking fists, and his trained ear catches all that is possible of the screaming.” By the next morning, the notes were transcribed, edited, proofed, and printed in the Congressional Record. The pace could be brutal, and the article noted that stenographers who could not keep up with the House were sometimes relegated to the “sedate” Senate.

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Office of the Historian: history@mail.house.gov
Office of Art & Archives, Office of the Clerk: art@mail.house.gov, archives@mail.house.gov