New Exhibits Open House: Wednesday, September 27!

All are invited to an open house for two new Law Library exhibits:

 

"Jewels of the Collection: Treasures of the Riesenfeld Rare Books Research Center"

 

and 

 

A Celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the American Law Institute

When: Wednesday, September 27, from 12 p.m. - 3 p.m.
Where: Riesenfeld Rare Books Research Center (N30, Subplaza level).
 
Cookies, brownies, bars, bagged snacks and drinks will be available!
 

"Jewels of the Collection: Treasures of the Riesenfeld Rare Books Research Center," showcases the depth of the Arthur C. Pulling Rare Books Collection. This centerpiece of the Library's special collections features more than 35,000 volumes printed between the fifteenth century and today. The new exhibit introduces the treasures found in the Riesenfeld Center and highlights its diverse strengths. The items reflect a historical legal legacy that is both national and global in its scope.

 

The ALI traveling exhibit commemorates the 100th Anniversary of the American Law Institute (ALI) and the contributions of Law School faculty to ALI’s important work. Founded in 1923, the American Law Institute has aimed to reduce the uncertainty and complexity of American law and to improve the administration of justice through its publications, including Restatements, Principles and Model Acts and Laws. These have provided clarity and guidance for judges, lawyers, and legislators across many fields of American law. The exhibit documents a selection of contributions of Law School faculty to ALI projects.

 

The exhibit, "Jewels of the Collection: Treasures of the Riesenfeld Rare Books Research Center," was curated by Ryan Greenwood and Joy Brown. 

 

 

New Law Library Exhibits: Celebrating the American Law Institute and Treasures of the Riesenfeld Center

Two new exhibits are open in the Riesenfeld Rare Books Research Center this academic year. 

 

The first commemorates the 100th Anniversary of the American Law Institute (ALI) and the contributions of Law School faculty to ALI’s important work. Created by ALI, the exhibit has traveled to Michigan, Texas, the University of Chicago, and several other law schools. The second exhibit, "Jewels of the Collection: Treasures of the Riesenfeld Rare Books Research Center" celebrates the depth and richness of the Law Library's special collections.

Founded in 1923, the Institute has endeavored through its publications to reduce the uncertainty and complexity of American law and to improve the administration of justice. Its influential publications include the Restatements, Principles and Model Acts and Laws. These have provided useful guidance for generations of judges, lawyers, and legislators across many fields of American law.  

 

The exhibit documents a selection of contributions of Law School faculty to ALI projects, tracing back to the tenure of Dean Everett Fraser (1920–1948). Faculty involvement was particularly promoted under the deanship of Professor Robert Stein (‘61) (1979–1994). Stein himself has served on ALI's governing Council, on the Drafting Committee for the Uniform Commercial Code, and has been an Adviser on the Restatement of the Law Second, Property and Restatement of the Law Third, Trusts. The UCC, a comprehensive set of laws governing commercial transactions in the United States, has been uniformly adopted by the states and represents one of ALI’s most significant achievements. 

 

Many other Law School faculty members have also played prominent roles in creating ALI publications, serving as Reporters, Advisers, or members of Consultative Groups for Restatements of the Law, Model Codes and Principles. 

The work of the American Law Institute, a cornerstone of American jurisprudence, will remain beneficial long beyond its centenary. In the same way, Minnesota faculty will continue to make important contributions to ALI’s mission.

 

The second exhibit, "Jewels of the Collection: Treasures of the Riesenfeld Rare Books Research Center," showcases the depth of the Arthur C. Pulling Rare Books Collection. This centerpiece of the Library's special collections features more than 35,000 volumes printed between the fifteenth century and today. The new exhibit introduces the treasures found in the Riesenfeld Center and highlights its diverse strengths. Some of the exhibit treasures have been selected as important contributions to law and history, or as landmark “firsts” of legal literature. Others are notable for their associations with famous authors and owners, or as unique artifacts and works of art. The items reflect a historical legal legacy that is both national and global in its scope. 

 

The exhibit, "Jewels of the Collection: Treasures of the Riesenfeld Rare Books Research Center," was curated by Ryan Greenwood and Joy Brown.  

 

For more information about the exhibits or to schedule a tour, please contact Ryan Greenwood (rgreenwo@umn.edu; 612-625-7323).

 

 

  

Wednesday, September 20: Celebrate Constitution Day!

Come out and celebrate Constitution Day in the Law Library lobby! 

Stop by and grab donuts and coffee on September 20, and pick up a crossword puzzle about the US Constitution for prizes.

Don't forget to take a selfie with James Madison!   

When: Wednesday, September 20, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Where: Law Library Lobby
What: Donuts, Coffee, and Prizes!  

 

New Rare Acquisitions: The History of Legal Education

The Riesenfeld Center has recently acquired a series of rare and important titles connected to the history of legal education and the profession. The books were added to the collection through a  generous donation by William Lindberg ('73), who served for many years as an executive at West Publishing Company in St. Paul, on both the print and electronic sides of its product line. The Riesenfeld Center is deeply grateful for Mr. Lindberg's generous and thoughtful gift, which benefits the rare books collection in a direct way, through the acquisition of historically significant titles of permanent value.

 

Several of the newly acquired titles shed light directly on legal education as it developed in nineteenth- and twentieth-century America. Two are extensive notebooks from the collection of Byron Coleman, a prominent San Francisco attorney. The bound notebooks, underlining aspects of Coleman's legal education at Harvard in 1912 and 1913, are carefully typewritten in red and black, composed of more than 1800 pages analyzing cases and principles. Among the casebooks that Coleman studied and heard lectures on were those of famous faculty James Barr Ames (equity and trusts), John Chipman Gray (property), James Bradley Thayer (evidence), and Samuel Williston (sales). Coleman digested each case in preparation for class and exams. Notes from class discussions of the cases are recorded below the initial case summaries. The case method of instruction, pioneered in the 1870s by Christopher Columbus Langdell at Harvard and adopted generally in American law school curricula, is readily apparent in the volumes. Though not followed immediately, the case method took its place at Harvard and schools across the country by the early 20th century. Coleman also usefully recorded the dissenting and parenthetical commentary of his teachers, who included cases that were instructive but not necessarily (in their view) rightly decided. The notes offer fascinating insight into a formative period of American legal education, adding early discussions of landmark cases.

 

Other American legal titles among the acquisitions are also notable. Two in particular form a neat pair. Simon Greenleaf's Discourse Pronounced at the Inauguration of the Author as Royall Professor of Law in Harvard University (1834), signed by the author, provides Greenleaf's vision, as a newly-appointed Harvard law professor, of American legal education as it was developing within universities; and he outlines the leading role Harvard was to play in American legal education. Greenleaf was named to the Royall professorship at Harvard Law School in 1833, remaining there until 1848. An influential faculty member during the school's early days, Greenleaf penned the leading American treatise on evidence in the nineteenth century. Another title from the same period, Samuel Atkinson's Catechism of American Law: Adapted to Popular Use (1832) appears to follow the question-and-answer format of Martin Luther’s Small Catechism, dividing American law into familiar topics, including marriage, contracts, property, partnership, and insurance, which would be useful for laymen and introductory students. At a time when self-study and apprenticeship were common – and when legal literacy was important in a burgeoning mercantile society – the author Atkinson attempted to meet a public need. Each work offers a different and valuable perspective on legal education during a period of American growth in which there was enduring uncertainty over how best to learn and train in the law.

 

Among acquisitions on English legal education, volumes treat the role and value of forensic argument, the issue of religious tolerance in schools, and the reform of legal education in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century England. Two items, Tutor and Pupils (London, 1891) and Letters to John Bull on Lawyers and Law Reform (London, 1857), reflect entrenched approaches, alongside efforts to modernize legal education in nineteenth-century England, at a time when American legal education began to break its own path. Taken together, the works show an evolving tradition in both countries, whose systems remained intertwined.

 

   - Ryan Greenwood, Curator of Rare Books and Special Collections

 

Tuesday, April 18: Celebrate Clarence Darrow's Birthday!

Join us in the Law Library lobby on Tuesday, April 18, to celebrate Clarence Darrow's birthday!  

Come out and pick up cake, donuts, and coffee! In addition, take a quiz about Clarence Darrow (1857-1938), the great American trial lawyer, to learn more about his life and career. 

The celebration is due to the Law Library's preeminent national collection of more than 1,000 letters, as well as speeches, case material and writings by and related to Darrow, which are held in the Riesenfeld Center.  

Finally, don't forget to take a selfie with Clarence!  

When: Tuesday, April 18, 11 a.m - 1 p.m.
Where: Law Library Lobby
What: Donuts, cake, coffee, and a quiz!

Wednesday, April 5: Rare Books Open House!

Come out to the Riesenfeld Center's April open house, this Wednesday, from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m.!

Enjoy snacks and drinks, and see treasures from the library's rare books and special collections. 

When: Wednesday, April 5, 12 p.m - 3 p.m.
Where: Riesenfeld Rare Books Research Center*
What: Rare books, bagged snacks and treats, and refreshments!

(*The Riesenfeld Center is in N30, on the subplaza past Student Orgs. in N20.) 

West Publishing and the History of Westlaw

Some of the great achievements in the history of legal publishing have been made in St. Paul, Minnesota, and around the Twin Cities. Fundamental to common law systems is of course access to court decisions, traditionally in the form of case reports. In the Anglo-American system, case reporting goes back to nearly the beginning of English common law in the Middle Ages. In America, Zephaniah Swift (1757-1804) published the first volume of American reports in 1789. Alexander Dallas (1759-1817) produced the first Supreme Court reports not long after, and the business of nominative reports (reports identified by the name of the individuals who created them) in the United States was born.

 

It was the dynamic figure of John B. West (1852-1922), however, who produced the system of national, standardized reporters that revolutionized American law reporting. West began selling law books in the early 1870s in downtown St. Paul. In 1876, West produced a weekly circular, The Syllabi, that reported notable Minnesota federal and state court decisions. In 1877, the publication expanded to include Wisconsin cases as The North-Western Reporter. The West Publishing Company soon introduced a uniform indexing system and case headnotes for its expanding regional reporters. Before long, these covered the whole nation in the form of the National Reporter System. The benefits brought by the system were immediately clear: American law was organized and searchable in a way that it had never been before. The rest was history: West Publishing became the leading legal publisher in the country, serving generations of the bench and bar. Under the aegis of Thomson Reuters, that tradition of legal publishing continues today.

 

In the early 1970s, another revolution transformed the legal publishing industry and would have equally wide effects. In this revolution, too, West Publishing Company played a leading role. The "second revolution" centered on the more widespread introduction of computers and automated searchable databases. Minnesota itself had become a hotbed in the 1960s for computer development, and West did not fail to take notice. In 1974, West Publishing developed a computer system to search case headnotes across its reporters, entering the market with its technology in 1975. The product, familiar everywhere today as Westlaw, marked the beginning of one of the most successful commercial legal tools developed. In 1978, locked in competition with Mead Data Corp., Westlaw began to provide full-text search for cases. In 1979, dial-up access to the database was offered over phone lines to its customers. By the early to mid-1980s, Westlaw terminals and the services it offered were becoming increasingly indispensable to American legal consumers. The rest, again, was history. Today Westlaw features more than 40,000 databases of information and is available in numerous countries across the world.

 

The history of the development of Westlaw, foundational to the larger history of legal publishing, requires an understanding of the challenges the system faced, the vision it required and the success it ultimately achieved. William Voedisch, who retired in 1996 as Manager of Technical Systems Development at West, was a key early developer of Westlaw, who has chronicled its early phases and some of the extraordinary work and decisions that went into creating it. Donated to the Law Library last year, Mr. Voedisch's narrative is a very important archival document, not only for the history of legal publishing and the development of database search capabilities that it documents, but for the history of computing itself and its inroads into key commercial markets, not least of which has been law. Voedisch's document, with permission of the author, is included below on the link. It will be a valuable resource for researchers and students of this history.

 

https://z.umn.edu/westlaw      

 

   - Ryan Greenwood, Curator of Rare Books and Special Collections