Legislative composites function much like a yearbook for each Michigan Legislature, serving as both a visual record of members and a seating chart for each term. As a result, they are a valuable resource for documenting the structure, leadership, and arrangement of each chamber, while also preserving a photographic record of legislators through the years.
Because the Michigan Senate has fewer members and longer terms than the House of Representatives, Senate composites are relatively scarcer. Fewer were produced, and they were created less frequently than those for the House.
The Capitol Collection holds a several early Senate composites in a variety of formats. The earliest individual member-issued composites exist as cabinet card photographs, which could be placed in late nineteenth century photo albums. After the turn of the twentieth century, those small take-home composites were printed on postcard stock, a popular photographic format at the time.
Larger, frameable personal composites were also produced during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Even fewer of those have survived, though, and they were likely obtained primarily by wealthier Senators.
Composites of both chambers lined the walls of offices, including that of the Lieutenant Governor, who presides over the Senate. For decades, it has also been practice for large size House and Senate composites to be placed in the lobby of or inside each chamber.
Prior to the 1960s, composites were produced by local photographers, some of whom served as de facto photographers to the legislature. Ralph Ellison and LeClear were two Lansing studios which had the job of photographing legislators and compiling legislative composites for a half century.
By the 1960s, legislators supplied their own photo for composites, which were then assembled by the offices of the Clerk of the House or Secretary of the Senate. By the 1970s, staff photographers began popping up in the legislature, initially part time and eventually full time.
Today, each caucus employs a photographer to create modern composites and document day-to-day work in the legislature.
To learn more about the history and purpose of legislative composites, see this video on the Capitol’s YouTube channel.
To see the Capitol Collection of Senate composites, you can now check them out on our digital collection. The digitized collection includes an 1885 cabinet card, a 1909 and 1911 postcard, and every Senate composite since 1979.
The collection is searchable! Was your parent or grandparent a state senator or representative? Search for their name in the online collection.
Don’t see them? Help us add to the collection! Donate a composite either physically or digitally to help us complete the collection. If you don’t have a composite, but you have an individual portrait photo of your loved one who served in the legislature, we would appreciate a copy to document their service. You can contact the Capitol's Photo Archivist at jmccormick@legislature.mi.gov.
A more complete run of House of Representatives composites will soon be added to the online collection as well, so please check back!
-Jacob McCormick, Capitol Photo Archivist
