Congressional Directory

The Congressional Directory is the official “Who's Who” of Congress. The thick volume, published at the beginning of each two-year term of Congress, contains biographies of each senator and representative, as well as a hodgepodge of other information: lists of committees, telephone numbers, maps of congressional districts, diagrams of Capitol offices, staffs of executive agencies, and a roster of ambassadors, among other material.

The Directory has been published since 1821. The postmaster printed it until 1857, when the Joint Committee [Page p100]on Printing took over. The format of the book has changed little over the years, although it has grown larger. The 1877 edition had 160 pages; the 2002 edition had 1,200 pages. Single copies of the Directory can be purchased from the Government Printing Office.