About the Center for Legislative Archives

The Center for Legislative Archives, a part of the National Archives and Records Administration, preserves and makes available to researchers the historical records of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. Through its public outreach programs, the Center uses these historical records to promote a better understanding of Congress and the history of American representative government.

Our Research Room

Located in the National Archives Building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC, the Center for Legislative Archives maintains a Research Room to provide on-site reference assistance to researchers ranging from Congressional scholars and historians to attorneys looking for legislative intent and genealogists searching for individual petitions and claims.

In the research room, the Center maintains published source material on Congress including the Journals of the House and Senate, the Congressional Record (and its predecessors the Globe and the Annals of Congress), Guide to the U.S. Serial Set, CIS Indexes, as well as other works on the history of Congress.

Our Staff

The Center is staffed by 14 employees including a director, supervisory archives specialist for outreach, seven professional archivists, two archives technicians, one electronic records specialist, a congressional relations specialist, and an exhibit specialist.

Richard Hunt is the Director of the Center for Legislative Archives