Magna Carta educational traveling exhibit begins tour

The American Bar Association has joined with the Library of Congress and its Law Library to present a special traveling exhibit commemorating the 800th anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta. The ABA Standing Committee on the Law Library of Congress unveiled "Magna Carta: Enduring Legacy 1215-2015" at the ABA Annual Meeting in Boston last month. Curated by the Library of Congress, the exhibit features 16 banners, 13 of which reflect spectacular images of Magna Carta and precious manuscripts, books and other documents from the Library of Congress's rare book collections. The exhibit also incorporates a video, produced by the Library of Congress, showing the Law Librarian and the exhibit curator handling selected materials depicted in the exhibit and explaining their significance. The exhibit was developed both to raise awareness about Magna Carta's enduring influence and to complement an upcoming Library of Congress exhibition, "Magna Carta: Muse and Mentor," (Nov. 6, 2014 through Jan. 19, 2015), that will display the Lincoln Cathedral's 1215 manuscript of Magna Carta. The principles found in Magna Carta played a fundamental role in establishing the supremacy of the law in our constitutional, democratic society, including concepts embraced by the Founding Fathers in the Bill of Rights. The importance of Magna Carta to American laws and freedoms was highlighted at the ABA Annual Meeting as Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts Jr. spoke of its significance. "When we talk about Magna Carta today, we're not celebrating antiquated relics of a time long past," he said. "Instead we are referring to a small collection of provisions that express kernels of transcendent significance." The exhibit will travel in the next year and a half to public buildings such as courthouses, law schools, universities, state houses and public libraries around the United States. The exhibit will be displayed in London, England from June 11-14, 2015, in conjunction with the ABA's London sessions and rededication of the ABA's Magna Carta memorial at Runnymede. The schedule for the exhibit includes a local stop in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan Law School, Oct. 1-24, hosted by the University of Michigan Law School. The traveling exhibit is made possible by the generous contributions of major donors, which include the ABA Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources; the ABA Section of International Law; the ABA Section of Tort Trial & Insurance Practice; Nicholas W. Allard ; Baumeister & Samuels PC; In Memory of Walter H. Beckham Jr., by His Family; State Bar of Georgia; Indiana State Bar Association; Kentucky Bar Association; Rivkin Radler LLP; Swanson, Martin & Bell LLP; Utah State Bar; Wein Hirshon Charitable Foundation; and West Corporation. For additional information about ABA's "Magna Carta: Enduring Legacy 1215-2015," visit http://ambar.org/mctravelingexhibit. Published: Wed, Oct 01, 2014