If you have not yet seen the exhibit “A Storied Legacy: Correspondence and Early Writings of Joseph Story,” take a quick study break and stop by the Library’s Caspersen Room this week. The exhibit will remain on view through Friday December 7.
Our next exhibit, about the media’s perception of true crime in America, will launch in early January 2013. We hope to see you at both exhibits!
Title page, The Recorde of Honor and Vertue ... (HLS MS 4125)
This little manuscript holds many hidden treasures in its 27 leaves. The anonymous author of the “Record of honor and virtue: the noble memorial of the right honorable Sir Edward Coke,” wrote and (we presume) illustrated this work around the time of Coke’s death in 1634. The author paid tribute to Coke in several creative and artistic ways, beginning with the title page, which features the (very long) title written in a beautiful clear hand, surrounded by a thick black hand-drawn border.
There are two full-page painted coats of arms, including this one. It features a shield containing the crests of the Coke, Paston and Cecil families – Coke’s wives were Bridget Paston and Elizabeth Cecil.
Coat of Arms (HLS MS 4125)
Opposite the coat of arms is an ornate Coke family tree, with Coke and his two wives forming the roots at the bottom of the page.
Coke Family Tree (HLS MS 4125)
Following the family tree, our anonymous author composed a long “Funerall Elegie” in iambic pentameter, cautioning against the fleeting nature of life and the ultimate triumph of death. To further drive home the point, the author included a gruesome memento mori painting with the Latin inscription, “Mors sceptra ligonibus equat,” or “Death makes scepters and hoes equal.”
Mors Sceptra Ligonibus equat (HLS MS 4215)
The author’s affection for Coke found its most unique expression in a two-page “Accrostique Epitaphe upon the name of the lord Coke.” In gilt and red letters, the words “Sir Edward Coke Knight” appear down the left sides of the two pages. The first letter in each line of the epitaph poem – also in iambic pentameter – spell out Coke’s name.
It was a pleasure to stumble upon this labor of respect and devotion in our stacks. I hope you have enjoyed looking at this treasure!
This week, the Law School will host John Jay Osborn, Jr., author of The Paper Chase, in a conversation with Dean Minow on the 40th anniversary of the novel’s publication.
To commemorate the occasion, the Library has prepared a special exhibit: The Paper Chase Turns 40, featuring items from the collections of John Jay Osborn, Jr. and the Library. On view are multiple print, DVD and TV versions of The Paper Chase, draft copies of the novel, photographs, scripts, a Contracts casebook written by “Professor Kingsfield” used a as prop in the movie, and even some gruesome models of hairy hands used by HLS Professor Clark Byse when he taught Hawkins v. McGee.
The exhibit is on view in the Caspersen Room, fourth floor of the Library, through September 30. The Caspersen Room is open 9 to 5 seven days a week.
Small gems are often hidden within large collections and this summer we were lucky enough to come across just such a gem– a slender volume bound in limp vellum with faded Spanish manuscript scrawled across the front. It surprised and delighted us and seemed to have “something for everyone.” The outer binding alone is intriguing to look at, the front covered with just barely legible manuscript in Spanish, and the covers neatly fastened with tiny beaded toggles. Upon opening it, one is immediately dazzled by the gleaming floral “Dutch gilt”paper pastedowns and endpapers.
Front cover
Toggle closure & back cover
Dutch gilt paper lining the front opening
The 52-page text, Exámen sucinto sobre los antiguos límites de la Acadia y sobre las estipulaciones del Tratado de Utrecht relativas à ellos is a Spanish translation of the 1755 French work Discussion sommaire sur les anciennes limites de l’Acadie … and the two are printed in side-by-side columns. This anonymous work is generally attributed to Mathieu François Pidanzat de Mairobert (1727-1779), a member of a French literary society who wrote on a wide variety of topics.
Title page with manuscript commentary
Following the provisions of the multi-faceted Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 France ceded Acadia (most of modern-day Nova Scotia) to Great Britain, but relations between the two nations remained uneasy –as Mairobert’s treatise attests. Under the printed title of this copy, a note in Spanish points out that the dispute over Acadia was ended in 1763 with the Treaty of Paris and also mentions the secret November 1762 Treaty of Fontainebleau in which France ceded Louisiana to Spain.
Finally, folded at the end of this slim volume, is an intriguing map of eastern North America showing historical claims to Acadia and the eastern portion of present-day New Brunswick from 1621 to 1750, referred to in Mairobert’s text. The title Mapa de una parte de la America Septentrional uses the old term “septentrional” meaning “of the north.” This term is derived from an ancient reference to the seven stars of the Big Dipper, used by navigators to find the North Star, and subsequently the name for North America that appears on many early maps.
Map at the end, unfolded, showing Acadia
Normandy (France). Summa de Legibus Normanniae, ca. 1300, fol. 26v (detail). HLS MS 220.
You are invited to visit the Library’s Caspersen Room in Langdell Hall to see some of Historical & Special Collections’ most special treasures, on view through September 23. Eight beautiful and historically significant items await you in the glass cases at the front of the room, including:
There’s much more. And while you’re there, don’t miss our exhibit on Joseph Story, on view through December 7.
The Caspersen Room is open seven days a week from 9 to 5. Please leave all food and drinks outside the room when you visit. We hope to see you soon!
You are invited to the Harvard Law School Library’s Caspersen Room to view our fall exhibit, A Storied Legacy: Correspondence and Early Writings of Joseph Story, on view through December 7, 2012. Complementing and expanding upon the exhibit is our new Joseph Story Digital Suite.
Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story (1779-1845) was uniquely important to American jurisprudence and to the Harvard Law School, where he taught as Dane Professor from 1829 until his death. With the Court (established in 1789) and the Law School (founded in 1817) still in their early years, Story was in the right place and time to exert a lasting influence on both institutions.
In the exhibit, selections of original documents from four HLS Library collections attest to Story’s scholarly and judicial abilities, and reveal glimpses of the close friendships he formed with the leaders of his day. Written when he was a young lawyer, his three-volume Digest of Various Court Decisions prefigured his approach to legal analysis which he used in his Commentaries decades later. Story’s Papers, 1796-1845 include correspondence with leading legal and social figures of Massachusetts and beyond, as well as a manuscript draft of his Commentaries on the Law of Promissory Notes. The Story-Pitman correspondence (from the John Pitman collection), spanning 1817 to 1845, sheds light on the close professional and personal association of Justice Story and judge Pitman of Rhode Island, who served together on the First Judicial Circuit. Complementing these components are images of Story from the Harvard Law Library’s Art and Visual Materials Collection.
All documents and visual images from these four collections have been fully digitized and are available in the Joseph Story Digital Suite, searchable by name, date, collection, and other criteria.
The exhibit was curated by Karen Beck and Margaret Peachy, Historical & Special Collections, Harvard Law School Library. The Suite was the product of many individuals’ talent and hard work, and we are grateful to them all. We hope you enjoy the exhibit!
Welcome back to campus! Longtime followers of Et Seq. may know that the Library’s Historical & Special Collections staff often submit posts under the heading “852 RARE.” With the start of a new academic year, we wanted to provide a quick reminder of how the name “852 RARE” came to be. The name pays homage to the MARC (Machine Readable Cataloging) holdings field designation for items in the rare book collection; in other words, on the HOLLIS catalog record, it identifies the books in the Library’s collection which are part of its Historical & Special Collections.
Watch this space for occasional 852 RARE announcements about new exhibits (one is coming soon!); stories about fascinating, unique, beautiful, and occasionally weird items or collections; and information useful to those who wish to use HSC’s collections – and we hope many of you do.
In addition to rare books, Historical & Special Collections encompasses early and modern manuscripts, prints, photographs, objects, and The Red Set—a collection of Law School faculty, organizational, and student publications.
- From the staff of HSC: Karen Beck, Ed Moloy, Margaret Peachy, Mary Person, and Lesley Schoenfeld
Historical & Special Collections, Harvard Law Library, VIA Record ID:olvwork654430
In 2004, Historical & Special Collections began a project to catalog its collection of Harvard Law School class pictures, which culminated in the conservation and digitization of the collection in 2008. The collection includes over 130 posed, professionally shot group photographs of LL.B./J.D. students, graduate students, and students from abroad, often with members of the Harvard Law School faculty and staff. For many students, this is the only photographic evidence we have of their time at the Law School. The collection spans the late nineteenth century to the early twenty-first century; the oldest class picture dates back to circa 1876.
Thanks to two recent gifts from the Harvard Law School Graduate Program we have been able to fill gaps in the collection relating to graduate students and students from abroad.
Among the recent acquisitions is a group portrait of HLS graduate students from 1975-1976. This picture is unique because seated in the front row, first chair on the left, is a small child. Who the child is and how he ended up in the picture is still a mystery.
You can explore the entire digitized collection of class photographs through VIA, Harvard’s online catalog of visual images. To search for specific class photographs in VIA, do a title search for “harvard law school class” and limit your search to the dates the student was enrolled. In limiting by date, be sure to use the year of their September enrollment and the year of their graduation.
Stay tuned – we still have more photographs awaiting digitization! If you have a class photograph for a year we don’t currently have, and would like to donate it, we would love to hear from you! Here is our contact information.
Philip Elman graduated Harvard Law School in 1939 and immediately began his legal career as a clerk for Judge Calvert Magruder in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. Elman quickly climbed the ranks and soon thereafter clerked for Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter (1941-1943). Finding his place in the Supreme Court and in the Justice Department, Elman spent the next 17 years of his career as an assistant to the Solicitor General. In this time, he worked on several briefs for landmark Civil Rights cases such as Brown v. Board of Education and Shelley v. Kraemer.
However, in a recent review of his papers, I came across a folder entitled “During Announcement of Opinions June 3, 1957,” which piqued my interest. Upon further investigation, I found a single note in the folder that I’m sure sums up many people’s feelings on the publication of Supreme Court opinions:
Note from the Philip Elman Papers on the occassion of the publication of the June 3, 1957 Supreme Court opinions. Elman Papers, folder 3-34.
Nobody can be clear which decision(s) inspired the “Oi-Wei” memo, but there were two companion cases the court issued decisions for that June both having ties to immigration laws: Mulcahey v. Catalanotte and Lehmann v. Carson. While immigration laws have been a topic brought before the Supreme Court a number of times in the intervening 55 years, the opinion just issued by the current court on Arizona v. United States surely elicited a few Oi-Weis from the supporters of the law.
John Y. Pashgian, Ut Lex Servetur
Historical & Special Collections recently received a gift of a terrific caricature drawn by John Y. Pashgian, HLS 1932. Titled “Ut Lex Servetur” (“ut lex servitur” = “the law will be saved”), it features cartoon drawings and autographs of well-known HLS faculty from the 1930s, including Samuel Williston, Felix Frankfurter, and Roscoe Pound. See if you can pick them out! In a wonderful bit of synergy, it turns out we also have the talented Mr. Pashgian’s HLS class notes. You can find details about the drawing on VIA, Harvard’s Visual Image Access database. We are most grateful to Barry S. Kramer for this addition to our collections.
Et Seq. by the Harvard Law School Library is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 United States License.
---
.jpg){kind=link}