House Library
Detailed Involvements
Events with rich location context
The House Library is the origin of the battered Bible; though not physically present in the green room, its institutional role is invoked when Charlie retrieves and brings one of its volumes to the President.
Implied as quiet, custodial, and repository-like — a source of ritual objects that can be tapped in a pinch.
Source of ceremonial artifacts; practical backup for oath materials.
Represents continuity of legislative traditions and the surprising ordinariness that supports high ritual.
Typically restricted to staff and official requests; lends artifacts for official ceremonies.
The House Library is the literal source of the substitute Bible; its institutional role as keeper of ceremonial artifacts allows Charlie to fetch a volume quickly, demonstrating how bureaucratic repositories solve improvisational needs on short notice.
Quietly institutional and resourceful by implication — not onscreen but crucial as the explained origin of the bible.
Repository and supplier of ceremonial objects used for official oaths.
Represents institutional continuity and the small, unexpected ways history is preserved and repurposed.
Staff-managed access; materials must be retrieved by authorized personnel.
The House Library is invoked as the immediate contingency source for a replacement Bible; its shelves represent institutional redundancy and the pragmatic resources of government available when official plans fail.
Quiet, reserved, and resourceful in implication — a repository of institutional artifacts that can be repurposed quickly.
Source location for a backup ceremonial Bible when the original does not arrive.
Represents institutional memory and the practical reserves of governance that stand behind public ritual.
Generally accessible to staff with authorization; not a public resource.
The House Library functions as the plausible source of a replacement Bible; it is the institutional repository staff immediately turn to when an official ceremonial object is missing.
Quiet, book-lined, institutional — a repository of parliamentary and ceremonial artifacts contrasted with the loud pageantry outside.
Resource pool and immediate fallback source for ceremonial props.
Embodies the legislature's continuity and the practical resources of government.
Typically accessible to congressional staff and authorized personnel; in this moment, a staffer (Charlie) will enter to retrieve an item.
Events at This Location
Everything that happens here
On the morning of the inauguration the President's world narrows to two brutal facts: his bold foreign-policy restatement has leaked and a covert 'forced depletion' inquiry into mass atrocities in …
On Inauguration Day, amid a leaked foreign-policy doctrine and an escalating humanitarian catastrophe in Khundu, President Bartlet confronts a petty but pointed crisis: he has no Bible to swear on. …
In the limousine Bartlet and Abbey trade intimate, teasing barbs about cancelling the inaugural parade — a small, comic contest that exposes Bartlet's stubborn pride and Abbey's talent for puncturing …
As the motorcade pulls into an underground parking lot during the inauguration procession, Charlie informs Bartlet the ceremonial Bible never arrived—frozen train tracks stranded the Metroliner in Philadelphia. Bartlet meets …