Mary Person

New Exhibit, now open: Queering the Collection: LGBTQ+ History ca. 1600-1970

Announcements, Diversity and Inclusion, Harvard Law School Library News, Historical & Special Collections, History, Legal Research & Research Skills, Libraries, Student Channel / By

Many library collections contain rich stories of individuals across centuries who transgressed sexual and gender norms, as well as documentation of the people and systems against which they transgressed. These historical artifacts can help shape new narratives around queer history and identity, or enrich old ones. Coded language and oblique references may pose challenges to researchers, but there …

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852 RARE: When the French Revolution was a Current Event

Announcements, Constitutional Law, Cool, Faculty Channel, Harvard Law School Library News, Historical & Special Collections, History, Series: 852 RARE, Student Channel / By

A recent Harvard Law School Library project—undertaken in preparation for the renovation and re-purposing of the Lewis building—resulted in a spreadsheet of hundreds of older titles for me to sift through, verify, and (often) catalog.  While the list is daunting it has led to a trove of fascinating books and pamphlets all of them are intriguing to anyone …

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Evidence in Ink

Cool, Faculty Channel, Harvard Law School Library News, Historical & Special Collections, History, Series: 852 RARE, Student Channel / By

One of the pleasures of cataloging, especially of older books and manuscripts, is coming across unexpected traces of earlier times and lives. Scraps of an early manuscript liturgy or an almanac used in a binding; a series of former owners’ signatures vying for attention on a title page; enigmatic annotations in the margins; or even an eighteenth century …

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852 RARE: New Exhibit — Kids in the Collection: Prison, Work, and Play

Announcements, Faculty Channel, Harvard Law School Library News, Historical & Special Collections, History, Series: 852 RARE, Student Channel / By

Most of the material in Historical & Special Collections is rooted in the world of adults, but children do make appearances, sometimes in unexpected ways. There are traces of the childhood experiences in HLS faculty papers, school report cards, and letters sent home from camp. Not all is light-hearted, however, as seen in grim broadsides detailing violent crimes where …

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852 RARE: Of Elks, Magicians, and Stone Cutters

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Alexis de Tocqueville famously wrote that “Americans of all ages, all stations of life and all types of disposition are forever forming associations …” and a little known but intriguing collection here in Historical & Special Collections demonstrates just that.  It consists of constitutions and by-laws of a wide variety of American organizations, dating from the early nineteenth …

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852 RARE: David Sewall: Lawyer, Federal Judge, Weather Aficionado

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It’s spring break at Harvard, although March can bring decidedly un-springlike weather to New England. After an unusually mild winter (except for one weekend of record-breaking cold), the first weekend of spring break started off as mild and sunny as a fine day in late April, and is now, well, very March-like. Weather is a perennial topic of …

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852 RARE: MASS(achusetts) Incarceration During the Nineteenth Century

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Recently, an intriguing folder containing six broadsides came to light in Historical & Special Collections. These are very different from our largest collection of broadsides, which are English trial and execution broadsides (sometimes referred to as “dying speeches”) printed for popular consumption. These are single sheet Annual report[s] of the convicts in the Massachusetts State Prison their employment, …

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852 RARE: Of Butchers, Bakers, and Cordwainers

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Among the appeals of older books and manuscripts are the fascinating glimpses they may provide into earlier times and their inhabitants. Recently a slim volume in a plain, nondescript binding crossed my desk. The title was in typically long eighteenth century style but straight-forward: A copy of the poll, taken the eighth day of September … 1780 at …

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Early English Manor Rolls Go Online

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Historical & Special Collections is pleased to announce that we have begun a multi-year project to conserve and digitize our collection of English manor rolls. The rolls came to Harvard over a century ago, purchased in 1892 and 1893 by Harvard Professor William James Ashley (1860-1927) from London bookseller James Coleman. In 1925 the College Library transferred the …

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New Library Exhibit: Where Mis’ry Moans

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Historical & Special Collections is pleased to announce that its new exhibit “‘Where Mis’ry Moans’: Four Prison Reformers in 18th & 19th Century England” is now on view in the Caspersen Room on the fourth floor of Langdell Hall. At the dawn of the eighteenth century English prisons were often dark, filthy, and rife with disease and suffering. …

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