The Riesenfeld Center has an exceptionally strong collection of colonial American law and early state laws. These materials include an extensive set of colonial session laws, which forms the basis of these treasures. In addition, pamphlets and political works from the Revolutionary era, state constitutions (on which the Constitution is based), and early law reports and practice guides substantially chart the development of the American legal system from the colonial period through the early republic. Early US state material is also a historically valuable and interesting area in the collection. Considered as falling within a state's territorial period, and up through about 1875 or at least within ten years of statehood (if statehood was achieved later), these texts are represented in the Center's collections by foundational constitutional documents and legislative debates, the earliest session laws, rules of order, procedural manuals, addresses and reports by the government, as well as case reports.
This important collection has been cataloged over many years, a project that has recently been completed. Cataloging librarian and rare books cataloger Sarah Yates, along with (now retired) cataloger Claire Stuckey, have heroically cataloged these materials to accurately describe the Library's collection and make it more discoverable, sometimes with notes about the material reflecting the uniqueness of our volumes.
Much of the material has strong interest for state and national history. As an example, a volume of Rhode Island session laws from 1779 provides extensive details about state militia forces, payments, and mobilization during the Revolutionary War. Another volume of laws from Vermont in 1789, contemporary with the first American Congress, features handwritten descriptions of a boy's work in the fields along with hand-drawn images.
Pictured here is also an interesting volume of city ordinances from New York (1799), regulating a host of activities, from selling meat and bread to keeping animals off the streets (on the latter of which, see a notable article by Henrik Hartog). The signature on the title page of the volume is "Jacob de la Montaigne," an alderman of the city who with other council members passed the ordinances. De la Montaigne was also an alderman in 1804, when the city council among other provisions suspended the law prohibiting the ringing of bells at funerals, in order to mourn the death of famous New Yorker Alexander Hamilton. Taken together, the state volumes with their unique associations and annotations form a rich collection.
- Ryan Greenwood, Curator of Rare Books and Special Collections
