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Alumnus holds key to inauguration Bible

By Kari VanDerVeen
January 18, 2013

Mark Dimunation '74 shows CNN reporter Lisa Sylvester the Lincoln Bible that President Barack Obama will use at his public inauguration Monday.

"These are objects that seem to store the energy of a moment," Mark Dimunation '74 tells a CNN reporter as he shows her the small Bible that President Barack Obama used at his public inauguration, more than 150 years after Abraham Lincoln put his hand on the same Bible and swore to uphold the Constitution.

Dimunation, who stewards some of the nation's most precious documents in his role as the chief of the Rare Book and Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress, also gave ABC News and the Associated Press a sneak peek of the Bible.

"It's always been an object that’s heavily identified with Lincoln," Dimunation tells ABC News. "But now, [it] certainly has the electricity of two centuries worth of presidencies."

Read a St. Olaf Magazine profile on Dimunation to learn more about his work.

Contact Kari VanDerVeen at 507-786-3970 or vanderve@stolaf.edu.