Clerks of the U.S. House of Representatives
(1789 to Present)
“The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers...”
The Constitution
of the United States, Article I, Section 2
On April 1, 1789, the House of Representatives convened with its first quorum. Its
initial order of business was the election of the Speaker, Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg, a Representative from
Pennsylvania. The next order of business was the election of the Clerk, John Beckley,
Esquire, a citizen of Virginia.
The first five Clerks of the House also served as Librarian of Congress, which became a separate position in 1815. South Trimble, a former Representative from Kentucky, who served as Clerk from 1911 to 1919 and again from 1931 to 1946, is the longest-tenured Clerk in House history.
Current Clerk of the House
The 34th Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, Karen L. Haas, was sworn in as Clerk of the 114th Congress on January 6, 2015.
Image courtesy of the Office of the Clerk
For more information about the Clerks of the U.S. House of Representatives, visit the History, Art & Archives website.