Student Prize Contest: Morris L. Cohen Essay Competition

The Legal History and Rare Books Section (LHRB) of the American Association of Law Libraries, in cooperation with The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd., announces the annual Morris L. Cohen Student Essay Competition. The competition is named in honor of Morris L. Cohen, late Professor Emeritus of Law at Yale Law School. Professor Cohen’s scholarly work was in the fields of legal research, rare books, and historical bibliography.

The purpose of the competition is to encourage scholarship in the areas of legal history, rare law books, and legal archives, and to acquaint students with the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) and law librarianship. Essays may be on any topic related to legal history, rare law books, or legal archives. The competition is open to students currently enrolled in accredited graduate programs in library science, law, history, and related fields. Both full- and part-time students are eligible. Membership in AALL is not required.

The winner will receive a $1,000 prize from The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd., and will present the essay at an LHRB-SIS sponsored webinar. The winner and runner-up will have the opportunity to publish their essays in LHRB-SIS’s online scholarly journal Unbound: A Review of Legal History and Rare Books.

The submission deadline for the competition is 11:59 p.m., June 30, 2026 (EDT). Please see more information about the contest below, including the application package:

Cohen Essay Contest Flyer

Cohen Essay Contest: Full Contest Information

Cohen Essay Contest: Application

New Donation: The Travels of Clarence and Ruby Darrow

The Law Library and Riesenfeld Center have recently received a wonderful new donation of letters to and from Ruby Darrow, and memorabilia related to Clarence and his wife Ruby's travels together abroad, particularly during 1929 and 1930, during an important period in their lives. The new donation, generously gifted by Elva Paulson, a relative of Ruby Darrow, adds to the Law Library's extraordinary collection of material related to Clarence Darrow's life and career and sheds further light on Clarence and Ruby's lives. 

The group of letters associated with Ruby reveal family details, such as support she offered for her young nephew's writing career, and some add to a small collection of material from Ruby's life after Clarence passed away in 1938. The collection of travel memorabilia documents Ruby and Clarence's travels to Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, particularly from 1929 and early 1930, and includes hundreds of postcards picturing locales that they visited, as well as itineraries, a passport, casino tickets, menus, photographs, hotel brochures, and more. Some of the material can be correlated by location to letters written and received by Darrow at the time. 

During the period when they were travelling, the Darrows were significantly affected by the "great" American stock market crash, beginning on October 24, 1929, which ended the "Roaring Twenties" and triggered the Depression. The growing reality of the new financial environment and anxiousness surrounding it appear in some of Clarence's letters, particularly those written to his son, Paul, which are housed in the Library's Darrow Collection. In letters from abroad, Darrow instructs Paul to look after family business arrangements, and receives word from other family members on how the crash has affected them. 

The Library's Darrow Collection holds more than one thousand letters to and from the great American trial attorney, as well as publications by and about Darrow, photos, selected case material, books from Darrow's library, and a small archive of documents from Ruby's later life. The new letters and travel memorabilia are a great addition to the Darrow collection and will enrich our knowledge of Clarence and Ruby. 

   - Ryan Greenwood, Curator of Rare Books and Special Collections