Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) noted jurist and Harvard Law School graduate (HLS 1866) celebrates his 168th birthday today, March 8. What better way to say “Happy Birthday, Wendie” than to announce the completion of the first phase of the Library’s Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Digital Collections project.
A multi-year project to digitize items from the Library’s holdings associated with Justice Holmes, phase one includes:
• Manuscript items related to Holmes’ service in the 20th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment of the Union Army from 1861-1864, including correspondence, telegrams, a diary, and scrapbook.
• Justice Holmes’ annotated copy of The Common Law, his seminal work published in 1881.
• All items in the Oliver Wendell Holmes Visual Materials Collection including photographs, etchings, drawings, and paintings of Holmes, his parents Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes and Amelia Jackson Holmes, and his wife Fanny Dixwell Holmes.
• Images of the unique and varied items contained in the Oliver Wendell Holmes object collection including Civil War uniform relics, family and personal effects, and a death mask.
Funding for this project comes from a generous gift of HLS alumnus Norman B. Tomlinson (J.D. 1951). Conservation services were provided by the Weissman Preservation Center and contract conservator Paula Artal-Isbrand. Digitization and object photography was provided by Widener Library’s Digital Imaging Group.
Phase two of the project will include the digitization of additional manuscript materials and the creation of an interpretive web presentation designed to bring all of the digitized material into one place.