• Source: Marriage license

A marriage license (or marriage licence in Commonwealth spelling) is a document issued, either by a religious organization or state authority, authorizing a couple to marry. The procedure for obtaining a license varies between jurisdictions, and has changed over time. Marriage licenses began to be issued in the Middle Ages, to permit a marriage which would otherwise be illegal (for instance, if the necessary period of notice for the marriage had not been given).
Today, they are a legal requirement in some jurisdictions and may also serve as the record of the marriage itself, if signed by the couple and witnessed. In other jurisdictions, a license is not required. In some jurisdictions, a "pardon" can be obtained for marrying without a license, and in some jurisdictions, common-law marriages and marriage by cohabitation and representation are also recognized. These do not require a marriage license. There are also some jurisdictions where marriage licenses do not exist at all and a marriage certificate is given to the couple after the marriage ceremony has taken place.




History


For most of Western history, marriage was a private contract between two families. Until the 16th century, Christian churches accepted the validity of a marriage on the basis of a couple's declarations. If two people claimed that they had exchanged marital vows, even without witnesses, the Catholic Church accepted that they were validly married.
Some states in the US hold that public cohabitation can be sufficient evidence of a valid marriage. Marriage license application records from government authorities are widely available starting from the mid-19th century. Some are available dating from the 17th century in colonial America. Marriage licenses have been required since 1639 in Massachusetts, with their use gradually expanding to other jurisdictions.




Australia



In Australia, there is no requirement to obtain a marriage license. However, a person under the age of 18 requires the authorisation of a judge to marry. Couples must provide their marriage celebrant with a Notice of Intended Marriage at least one month and up to 18 months before a wedding.




United Kingdom






= England and Wales

=

A requirement for banns of marriage was introduced to England and Wales by the Church in 1215. This required a public announcement of a forthcoming marriage, in the couple's parish church, for three Sundays prior to the wedding and gave an opportunity for any objections to the marriage to be voiced (for example, that one of the parties was already married or that the couple was related within a prohibited degree), but a failure to call banns did not affect the validity of the marriage.
Marriage licences were introduced in the 14th century, to allow the usual notice period under banns to be waived, on payment of a fee (see Droit du seigneur and merchet) and accompanied by a sworn declaration, that there was no canonical impediment to the marriage . Licences were usually granted by an archbishop, bishop or archdeacon. There could be a number of reasons for a couple to obtain a licence: they might wish to marry quickly (and avoid the three weeks' delay by the calling of banns); they might wish to marry in a parish away from their home parish; or, because a licence required a higher payment than banns, they might choose to obtain one as a status symbol.
There were two kinds of marriage licences that could be issued: the usual was known as a "common licence" and named one or two parishes where the wedding could take place, within the jurisdiction of the person who issued the licence. The other was the special licence, which could only be granted by the Archbishop of Canterbury or his officials and allowed the marriage to take place in any church.
Hardwicke's Marriage Act 1753 affirmed this existing ecclesiastical law and built it into statutory law. From this date, a marriage was only legally valid, if it followed the calling of banns in church or the obtaining of a licence—the only exceptions being Jewish and Quaker marriages, whose legality was also recognised. From the date of Lord Hardwicke's Marriage Act up to 1837, the ceremony was required to be performed in a consecrated building.
Since 1 July 1837, civil marriages have been a legal alternative to church marriages under the Marriage Act 1836, which provided the statutory basis for regulating and recording marriages. So, today, a couple has a choice between being married in the Anglican Church, after the calling of banns or obtaining a common or special licence or else, they can give "Notice of Marriage" to a civil registrar. In this latter case, the notice is publicly posted for 15 days, after which a civil marriage can take place. Marriages may take place in churches other than Anglican churches, but these are governed by civil marriage law and notice must be given to the civil registrar in the same way. The marriage may then take place without a registrar being present if the church itself is registered for marriages and the minister or priest is an Authorised Person for marriages.
The licence does not record the marriage itself, only the permission for a marriage to take place. Since 1837, the proof of a marriage has been by a marriage certificate, issued at the ceremony; before then, it was by the recording of the marriage in a parish register.
The provisions on civil marriage in the 1836 Act were repealed by the Marriage Act 1949. The Marriage Act 1949 re-enacted and re-stated the law on marriage in England and Wales.




= Scotland

=
Marriage law and practice in Scotland differs from that in England and Wales. Historically, it was always considered legal and binding for a couple to marry by making public promises, without a formal ceremony but this form has not been available since 1940. More recently "marriage by cohabitation with repute" has also been abolished for any relationship commenced since 2006. Church marriages "without proclamation" are somewhat analogous to the English "marriages by licence", although the permission to perform them is not a church matter. Religious marriages in Scotland have never had a restriction on the place in which they are performed.
Marriages in Scotland normally require between 2 and 6 weeks' notice to the district registrar depending on the previous marital status and other procedural matters usually involving the country of residence and the nationality of the parties. Marriages with less than the normal amount of notice require the permission of the Registrar General.




United States



In the United States, until the mid-19th century, common-law marriages were recognized as valid, but thereafter some states began to invalidate common-law marriages. Common-law marriages, if recognized by law, are valid, notwithstanding the absence of a marriage license; this becomes an issue in the settlement of decedents' estates. North Carolina and Tennessee (which was originally western North Carolina) never recognized marriage at the common law as valid without a license unless entered into in other states. They have always recognized otherwise valid marriages (except bigamous, polygamous, interracial, or same-sex) entered into in conformity with the law of other states, territories and nations.
The specifications for obtaining a marriage license vary between states. In general, however, both parties must appear in person at the time the license is obtained; be of marriageable age (i.e., over 18 years; lower in some states with the consent of a parent); present proper identification (typically a driver's license, state ID card, birth certificate or passport; more documentation may be required for those born outside of the United States); and neither must be married to anyone else (proof of spouse's death or divorce may be required for someone who had been previously married in some states).
The US states of Louisiana, Florida, Connecticut, Wisconsin, Indiana, Oklahoma, Massachusetts, Mississippi, California, New York, and the District of Columbia once required blood tests before issuing a marriage license, but such requirements have since been abolished. The tests were mainly used to check for previous or current bouts of syphilis and rubella (German measles); other diseases that have been screened for before marriage in some cases have included tuberculosis, gonorrhea, and HIV, the last of which is the only one of those three that is detectable using a blood test.
Many states require 1 to 6 days to pass between the granting of the license and the marriage ceremony. After the marriage ceremony, both spouses and the officiant sign the marriage license (some states also require one or two witnesses). The officiant or couple then files for a certified copy of the marriage license and a marriage certificate with the appropriate authority. Some states also have a requirement that a license be filed within a certain time after its issuance, typically 30 or 60 days, following which a new license must be obtained.
Marriage licenses in the United States fall under the jurisdiction of the state in which the ceremony is performed; however, the marriage is generally recognized across the country. The state in which they are married holds the record of that marriage. Traditionally, working with law enforcement was the only means of searching and accessing marriage license information across state lines.
In Alabama, a law was passed in 2019 which abolished the issuance of marriage licenses and repealed a requirement for solemnization. Instead, couples of legal age are allowed to jointly fill out a marriage certificate, have their certificate notarized by two notaries public, and submit their certificate to an Alabama judge, who is required to accept their certificate.




= Controversy in the U.S.

=
Some groups and individuals believe that the requirement to obtain a marriage license is unnecessary or immoral. The Libertarian Party, for instance, believes that marriage should be a matter of personal liberty, not requiring permission from the state.
Individuals who align with this libertarian stance argue that marriage is a right, and that by allowing the state to exercise control over marriage, it falsely presupposes that we merely have the privilege, not the right, to marry. As an example of a right (as opposed to a privilege), those that are born in the US receive a birth certificate (certifying that they have been born), not a birth license (which would give them license so they could be born). Some Christian groups also argue that a marriage is a contract between a man and a woman presided over by God, so no authorization from the state is required. Some US states have started citing the state specifically as a party in the marriage contract which is seen by some as an infringement.
Marriage licenses have also been the subject of controversy for affected minority groups. California's Proposition 8 has been the subject of heavy criticism by advocates of same-sex marriage, including the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community whose ability to marry is often limited by the aforementioned state intervention. This changed on June 26, 2015, with the Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges. However, the state and federal intervention still continues to limit the ability of members of other minority religious groups from marrying according to the dictates of their religious tenets, as is the case with Islamic polygamy, for example. Polyamorous and polyandrous marriages are, likewise, still prohibited.
In October 2009, Keith Bardwell, a Louisiana justice of the peace, refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple, prompting civil liberties groups, such as the NAACP and ACLU, to call for his resignation or firing. Bardwell resigned his office on November 3.
In the state of Pennsylvania, self-uniting marriage licenses are available which require only the signatures of the bride and groom and witnesses. Although this is an accommodation for a Quaker wedding, any couple is able to apply for it.




The Netherlands


In the Netherlands, couples intending to marry are required to register their intention beforehand, a process called "ondertrouw".




Mexico


In Mexico, only civil marriage is recognized as legal. Persons wishing to do so may also have a religious ceremony, but it has no legal effect and does not replace in any way the legal binding civil marriage. A civil wedding in Mexico is fully valid for legal purpose in the U.S. The Mexican civil registry issues marriage certificates rather than marriage licenses because under Roman law, marriage is a legal right, which does not require a permit. Marriages are performed without charge at the premises of the "Registro Civil" at the municipal hall of most counties and state houses in Mexico.




See also


Banns of marriage
Birth certificate
Death certificate
Marriage certificate
People

Robert Stewart Sparks, in charge of Los Angeles, California, marriage-license division, 20th century




Notes






References






Sources


Mark D. Herber, Ancestral Trails: The complete guide to British genealogy and family history, Sutton Publishing, 1997, ISBN 0-7509-1418-1
C. R. Chapman & P. M. Litton, Marriage laws, rites, records and customs, Lochin Publishing, 1996
National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, American Uniform Marriage and Marriage License Act, Railway Printing Company, 1911 (Note, this is a "model act", not an actual law passed by Congress or individual states.) (Nor was this ever adopted by the Commission.)
http://www.mexicolaw.com/Marriage%20in%20Mexico.htm Archived August 14, 2020, at the Wayback Machine




External links


"Complete guide to getting copies of marriage licenses by US State". vitalrecordsguide.com.
"Information on blood tests, waiting periods, and length of time for which the license is valid in the United States". FindLaw.
"Marriage license information by city and county in the US". marriagelicensenow.org.
• Source: Marriage License

Marriage License is an oil painting by American illustrator Norman Rockwell created for the cover of the June 11, 1955, edition of The Saturday Evening Post. It depicts a young man and woman filling out a marriage license application at a government building in front of a bored-looking clerk. The man is dressed in a tan suit and has his arm around his partner, who is wearing a yellow dress and standing on tiptoe to sign her name. Although the room and its furnishings are dark, the couple are illuminated by the window beside them. The contrast between the couple and the clerk highlights two reoccurring themes in Rockwell's works: young love and ordinary life.
Rockwell had a long history of using people who lived near him as models. He used photographs of local shopkeeper Jason Braman; Stockbridge, Massachusetts, native Joan Lahart; and her fiancé Francis Mahoney as a reference while creating the painting. Lahart was suggested for the role by her sister Peggy, a nurse at the Austen Riggs Center where Mary Rockwell was receiving treatment. During the photo shoot, Braman was captured in a more natural and uninterested pose compared to the one envisioned by the artist. Rockwell liked it and used it for his painting instead.
Since its appearance in The Saturday Evening Post, the painting has been praised by critics and is considered one of Rockwell's best works. Commentators have compared it to the works of Johannes Vermeer due to Rockwell's use of light and dark. The 45.5 by 42.5 inches (116 cm × 108 cm) painting is in the collection of the Norman Rockwell Museum and has been a part of major exhibitions in 1955, 1972, and 1999. In 2004 Mad magazine published a parody of Marriage License by Richard William that used the original work to explore how same-sex marriage challenges the meaning of marriage and government role.




Description



Marriage License is an oil painting on canvas measuring 45.5 by 42.5 inches (116 cm × 108 cm). It is set in a dark city hall office filled with bookshelves. The floor is strewn with used cigarettes and a brass spittoon. In the middle of the painting stand a young couple in front of a rolltop desk filling out their application for a marriage license. The man is wearing a tan suit and has his arm protectively around his fiancée. The woman wears a yellow dress with high heels but has to stand on her tiptoes to sign the document. Light from the open window beams down on the couple's faces.
A bored looking older man in a bow tie and waistcoat sits behind the desk, with a cat resting beside his chair. Rubber galoshes have been placed over his shoes. The wearied look on the clerk's face starkly contrasts with the excited couple. Behind the clerk, in the window, sits a single red geranium. On top of the bookshelf is an unfolded United States flag, thought by the Norman Rockwell Museum to be a sign that the couple has come in at the very end of the day. In the background a calendar gives the date as June 11, 1955, the date the painting appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post.




= Themes

=
Marriage License highlights two reoccurring themes in Norman Rockwell's works: the drab of ordinary life and the excitement of young love. The subject choice of a couple signing a marriage license, in private, rather than a public wedding was a deliberate one. Throughout his career, Rockwell consistently opted to show small moments of American life. Love is a topic that Rockwell explored extensively in paintings such as The Letterman (1938), Little Girl Observing Lovers on a Train (1944), Before the Date (1949), and The University Club (1960). Marriage License is one of the few times he directly addressed the theme post-World War II. The subject is amplified by the juxtaposition of the excited young couple next to the uninterested clerk. Depending on the side of the desk the painting is being viewed from, the day depicted in the painting is either run-of-the-mill or monumental.




Creation






= Commission and models

=

Rockwell moved from Arlington, Vermont, to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, in 1953 to be close to his wife Mary, who was receiving psychiatric treatment at the Austen Riggs Center, and to receive therapy from Erik Erikson. He set up a studio and continued to paint illustrations for magazine covers and yearly Boy Scout calendars.
Starting in the 1930s Rockwell created his paintings from 50 to 100 reference photographs. The models for these were often drawn from the local community. Marriage License's three main figures – the young couple and the older man – are drawn from around Stockbridge. The office and surrounding buildings draw from both Johannes Vermeer's The Little Street and photographs of Stockbridge's town clerk's office.
In 1954 Rockwell approached Peggy Lahart, a nurse at the Riggs center, to pose for a painting depicting a bride-to-be. Peggy passed the opportunity to her younger sister Joan, who was engaged to Francis "Moe" Mahoney, a retired NBA player, in January 1955. After some prodding, Mahoney agreed to pose with his fiancée. For their photo shoot, Rockwell told the couple what to wear: a specific yellow summer dress with puffed sleeves for Lahart and a "light blue shirt and wingtips" for Mahoney. The dress had to be custom made as summerwear was impossible to buy in Stockbridge during winter. The couple were each paid $25 (equivalent to $280 in 2023) and received an oil sketch of the painting as a wedding gift.
The older man was modeled by Jason Braman, a shopkeeper in Stockbridge. Braman was chosen as the model because his wife had recently died. Rockwell originally positioned him sitting nearer the couple. During the photo shoot Braman relaxed and "slumped down" in the chair, a more natural pose Rockwell took a liking to and used for the final painting.




= Process

=
Using his collection of reference photographs, Rockwell composed a series of full-size sketches which were used to create a smaller final color study. A filing cabinet from the clerk's office made its way into a study but was removed in the final painting in favor of a potbelly stove to make the room look older. The final painting was created by transferring the sketch onto the canvas and painting over it. It took Rockwell just over a month to finish the painting, which was framed and then sent to The Saturday Evening Post. The Post had the painting color photographed. It was used to create four plates (blue, red, yellow, and black) which would be used to print a color reproduction.




Provenance


Marriage License was first published as the cover of The Saturday Evening Post in 1955. That same year the painting was included in an exhibition of Rockwell's work at the Corcoran Gallery of Art organized and paid for by the magazine. After the show, the work returned to Rockwell's collection until 1969 when it and thirty-four other paintings – including the Four Freedoms (1943) and Shuffleton's Barbershop (1950) – were permanently loaned to the Old Corner House in Stockbridge. In 1972 the painting was included in Norman Rockwell: A Sixty Year Retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum on the condition that it was not part of the national tour of the same name.
Rockwell donated the entirety of his personal collection of paintings, including Marriage License, to the Norman Rockwell Art Collection Trust in 1973. The trust became the core of the Norman Rockwell Museum's permanent collection after the artist died in 1979. Marriage License has been displayed elsewhere only once since joining the collection, for the November 1999 – February 2002 tour, Norman Rockwell: Pictures for the American People, which visited the High Museum of Art, Chicago History Museum, Corcoran Gallery of Art, San Diego Museum of Art, Phoenix Art Museum, Norman Rockwell Museum, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.




Reception



The painting has been generally well received. In the catalog for the 1972 retrospective exhibition of Rockwell's works, museum director Thomas Buechner described the painting, along with Breaking Home Ties (1954), as the artist's two best works. Art critic Deborah Solomon found the painting to be a "peak of [Rockwell's] talents as a realist painter", and novelist John Updike praised the painting's small and "unnecessary" details. Popular culture historian Christopher Finch considered Marriage License to be iconic, one of Rockwell's "most successful canvases", and belonging "with the very finest examples of Rockwell's art". Writing in 1955 for The Washington Post, critic Leslie Judd Portner described the painting as boring and "pedestrian" in her scathing review of the Rockwell exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
Philosopher of art Marcia Muelder Eaton uses Marriage License and Vermeer's The Milkmaid as foils in Art and Nonart: Reflections on an Orange Crate and a Moose Call to explore the boundaries of "aesthetic value" by testing a series of assertions about what makes "good art". She tries to test the idea that only one of the two paintings draws from earlier works of art, but fails. Much like Deborah Solomon and Dave Ferman of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Eaton notes that Marriage License is influenced by Dutch old masters, based on its use of light and dark interiors. When analyzing the technical skill needed to produce the works, she finds that both artists have a high degree of craftsmanship. Where Eaton finds the paintings differ is on the subject matter and presentation. She describes Rockwell's work as "cheaply achieved" and "childish" due to the shallow symbolism and compares it to a mass-market cartoon. Eaton later writes that she has "very little, if any, drive to hear what others have to say about it [Marriage License]" due to the lack of interpretation a viewer performs.




= Legacy

=

As a well-known Rockwell painting, Marriage License has been used as inspiration for other works. There were plans for a Christmas-themed film based on the painting and several other Rockwells in 1979. The production company filmed exterior shots, but production stopped in January because Stockbridge's Board of Selectmen was not properly notified of the project. Despite several attempts the producers could not receive permission to film largely because the Selectmen wanted the best possible deal for the town.
As a response to Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, the first state supreme court decision in favor of same-sex marriage, in 2004, artist Richard Williams created a parody of Marriage License for Mad magazine titled If Norman Rockwell Depicted the 21st Century. The parody stays close to the source material but with the cast iron stove replaced by a photocopier, the spittoon becoming a trash can, and a pair of gay men signing their marriage license. The woman's yellow dress in the original is paralleled by the shirt of the man closer to the viewer.
Gender studies scholar Katie Oliviero interpreted If Norman Rockwell ... as a commentary on the "competing frameworks of civil marriage's competing public and private meanings". Psychologists Earl Ginter, Gargi Roysircar and Lawrence Gerstein saw it instead as a commentary on the role of government in deciding which marriages are valid and which ones are not. The parody was re-posted in 2012 on Mad's website in celebration of the Second Circuit striking down the Defense of Marriage Act in United States v. Windsor.




References






= Notes

=




= Citations

=




= Bibliography

=
• Source: Marriage License?

Marriage License? is a 1926 American silent drama film directed by Frank Borzage and written by Bradley King and Elizabeth Pickett Chevalier. It is based on the 1925 play The Pelican by F. Tennyson Jesse and H. M. Harwood. The film stars Alma Rubens, Walter McGrail, Richard Walling, Walter Pidgeon, Charles Lane, and Emily Fitzroy. The film was released on September 5, 1926, by Fox Film Corporation.




Cast


Alma Rubens as Wanda Heriot
Walter McGrail as Marcus Heriot
Richard Walling as Robin
Walter Pidgeon as Paul
Charles Lane as Sir John
Emily Fitzroy as Lady Heriot
Langhorn Burton as Cheriton
Edgar Norton as Beadon
George Cowl as Amercrombie
Lon Poff as Footman




Preservation


A print of Marriage License? is listed as being held by a foreign film archive.




References






External links



Marriage License? at IMDb

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Courtney Stodden
• Lyle Talbot
• N'dambi
• Lady Randolph Churchill
• Peter Buol
• Thomas G. Lingham
• Arthur Edmund Carewe
• Wild Bill Elliott
• Kim Davis
• Billy Quirk
• Marriage license
• Marriage License
• Kim Davis
• Same-sex marriage
• Marriage License?
• Same-sex marriage in the United States
• Obergefell v. Hodges
• License
• Marriage
• Marriage of Charlie Johns and Eunice Winstead