Occasions like the opening day of the House required those seated in the Visitor’s Gallery to have a special gallery pass to claim their seat. This example is from the opening of the 97th Congress in 1981. It shares elements with other passes from the previous century and the decades that followed: notice of the event itself, seat assignment, and the printed signature of an officer of the House. From 1895 until the position was abolished in 1995, that officer was the House Doorkeeper, in this case James T. Molloy.
