On July 14, 1789 French revolutionaries stormed the Bastille, a prison that served as a symbol of the unjust treatment of the French citizenry by the monarchy, thus sparking the French Revolution. King Louis XVI and his wife, Marie Antoinette, were dethroned during the revolution, tried and found guilty of treason, and executed by way of the guillotine. …
Simon Greenleaf (1783-1853) was one of the first professors at Harvard Law School, serving his 15-year tenure 1833-1848, for most of those years as one third of the law school faculty, along with Josiah Quincy (1772-1864) and Joseph Story (1779-1845). Outside of the law school, Greenleaf’s two passions were education and religion. Between his professorship and involvement with …
Historical & Special Collections is pleased to announce the opening of a new Modern Manuscript collection, The Albert F. Burt Letters, 1911-1913. The Albert Burt (Harvard Law School, class of 1914) collection is relatively small by Modern Manuscript standards containing a mere 63 letters and 7 postcards. But these 70 documents provide unique and invaluable insight into the …
852 RARE : New Collection: The Albert F. Burt Letters, 1911-1913 Read More »
Since 1946 Harvard Law School students have reported all the news that’s fit to print in The Record. Now, anyone who is interested in the history of the school, as reported from students’ perspectives, can read The Record from the comfort of their home. Historical & Special Collections, which holds a nearly complete run* of the student paper …
The Harvard Law School Library is pleased to announce the digitization of its collection of student notebooks from the Litchfield Law School. The Litchfield Law School in Litchfield, Connecticut is generally considered to have been the first formal law school in the United States. Established in 1784 by Tapping Reeve (1744-1823) the school was in operation for almost …
In 1983, HLS student Evan Wolfson authored a prescient third year paper titled “Samesex Marriage and Morality: The Human Rights Vision of the Constitution.” Thirty years and countless examinations of the constitution later, two cases regarding gay marriage, Hollingsworth v. Perry (challenging California’s Proposition 8 ) and United States v. Windsor (challenging the Defense of Marriage Act) are …
In April 1962, Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote a letter to Lloyd Garrison (HLS ’22) asking him to join the board of a new organization: the Gandhi Society for Human Rights. Though the collection of Garrison’s papers, held by the library, does not provide evidence of further correspondence between the two men, it is doubtful that this was …
The Harvard Law School Library is pleased to announce the release of the Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Digital Suite. The Suite is comprised of five manuscript collections as well as three image groups. Every attempt was made to digitize as much of each collection as possible and only a small percentage of the Library’s Holmes primary material that …
852 RARE : Just Launched: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Digital Suite! Read More »
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 …
852 RARE: The Monthly Special – The Immigration Question Read More »
“My second nominee is somewhat unusual.” This was the first line written by New York University School of Law Dean, Russell Niles, in support of Rita E. Hauser’s candidacy for a clerkship with Chief Justice Earl Warren. The letter was written in October of 1958 and what was “unusual” about the recommendation was that the candidate was a …
852 Rare: The Monthly Special – The “Unusual” Supreme Court Clerk Nominee Read More »