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Cornell Law Library digitizes Trial Pamphlets Collection

Femi Cadmus No Responses »
Sep 122012

The Trial Pamphlets Collection is an exciting digitization project undertaken by the law library with funding of $155,700 from the  Save America’s Treasures Grant Program.  The digitized collection, drawn from our Special Collections, consists of pamphlets capturing a formative period in American history ranging in date from the late 1600s to the late 1800s.  The pamphlets contained contemporary accounts of trials that involved prominent citizens or that dealt with especially controversial or lurid topics.  We are indebted to  Law Library Associate Director for Special Collections and Administrative Services Thomas Mills and the entire project staff  for their remarkable contributions in making this project a reality.  Additional content will be added in the upcoming months.

To visit the Trial Pamphlets Collection, go to: http://ebooks.library.cornell.edu/t/trial/index.php.

 

Posted by library at 11:55 am Tagged with: , ,

Two new HeinOnline databases available to Cornell University community

Nina Scholtz No Responses »
Jun 142012

The Cornell Law School Library has purchased two additional HeinOnline databases, Congress & the Courts and the History of International Law Collection, for use by the Cornell University community.

Congress & the Courts is a collection focusing on the organization, structure, and legislative history of the federal  courts and judiciary.  It includes William H. Manz’s Congress and the Courts: A Legislative History 1787-2010, covering the U.S. Congress’s approaches since 1789 to the composition and structure of Article III Courts.  It also includes Federal Judicial Center publications and scholarly articles about the federal courts.

The History of International Law Collection includes more than 700 titles going back to 1690.  These titles include classic books by authors such as Hugo Grotius and William Douglas, serials such as Studies in Transnational Legal Policy and Judicial Settlement of International Disputes, scholarly articles, and bibliographies.

You can explore the contents of these databases here.

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Womens History Month: Our history is our strength

Amy Emerson No Responses »
Mar 112011

Woman Working In FactoryMarch is Women’s History Month.  An overview of the legal origin of this celebration is available from the Law Library of Congress.  Here, copies of the 19th Amendment, relevant Congressional Resolutions and Presidential Proclamations, and some recent public laws, are available for viewing.  The 2011 Presidential Proclamation is available from the White House here.  Other good sources of information include the National Women’s History Project and www.womenshistorymonth.gov, where the Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum “join in paying tribute to the generations of women whose commitment to nature and the planet have proved invaluable to society.”

Several databases are available through the Cornell University Library that focus on women’s issues (IP authentication required), including Genderwatch (“In-depth coverage of the subjects that are uniquely central to women’s lives, including family, childbirth, birth control, daycare, domestic abuse, work and the workplace, sexual harassment, aging, aging parents, body image, eating disorders and social and societal roles.”);  Studies on Women and Gender Abstracts (“Indexes books and journal articles on education, employment, women in the family, medicine and health, gender role socialization, social policy, the social psychology of women, female culture, media treatment of women, biography, literary criticism and historical studies.”); and Women’s Studies International (“Provides citations and some abstracts to the core areas of Women’s studies.”)

Image from the Library of Congress’ Flickr stream.

Posted by library at 2:38 pm Tagged with: ,

Morris L. Cohen Student Essay Competition

Pat Court 1 Response »
Jan 212011

The Legal History and Rare Books Section (LH&RB) of the American Association of Law Libraries, in cooperation with Cengage Learning, announces the third annual Morris L. Cohen Student Essay Competition.  Students currently enrolled in accredited graduate programs in law, library science, history, or related fields are eligible to enter the competition. Essays may be on any topic related to legal history, rare law books, or legal archives. The entry form and instructions are available at the LH&RB website: http://www.aallnet.org/sis/lhrb/.  Entries must be submitted by March 15, 2011. The winner will be announced by April 15.

The winner will receive a $500.00 prize from Cengage Learning and up to $1,000 for expenses associated with attendance at the AALL Annual Meeting in Philadelphia in July 2011.  The runner-up will have the opportunity to publish the second-place essay in LH&RB’s online scholarly journal Unbound: An Annual Review of Legal History and Rare Books.  Please direct questions to Robert Mead at libram@nmcourts.gov or Sarah Yates at yates006@tc.umn.edu.

Posted by library at 4:37 pm Tagged with: ,

This Day in History: The Gettysburg Address

Pat Court No Responses »
Nov 192010

Gettysburg AddressDuring the first three days of July 1863, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, was the site of one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War.  President Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg Address at the dedication of the Gettysburg Civil War Cemetery on this day, November 19, 1863.  Famously, Lincoln drafted his speech on the back of an envelope on the train ride to Pennsylvania.  He later wrote out five copies of the text, one of which is in the Cornell University Library archives.

Cornell’s copy of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is one of five known copies in Lincoln’s hand, and the only copy owned by a private institution. The other four copies are owned by public institutions: two at the Library of Congress, one at the Illinois State Historical Library, and one in the Lincoln Room at the White House.

May your career in law be dedicated to the proposition “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Posted by library at 9:35 am Tagged with: , ,

Writing women back into history

Pat Court No Responses »
Mar 122010

Maryland suffragette’s picketing the White HouseMarch is National Women’s History Month.  And you live in a great location to get in the spirit of the celebration, since we are so close to Seneca Falls, located at the northern end of Cayuga Lake.  Seneca Falls is considered the birthplace of women’s rights because the first women’s rights convention was held there in 1848 at the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott.  In downtown Seneca Falls, you can visit the Women’s Rights National Historic Park, as well as the Women’s Hall of Fame.

As we focus on writing women back into history this month (the 2010 theme of the National Women’s History Project), take a look at the Women’s Legal History Biography Project at Stanford Law School which provides extensive material on the lives of hundreds of early women lawyers.  Museums and libraries in Washington, D.C. are also providing exhibits and materials to help celebrate women’s achievements throughout the history of the United States.

Posted by library at 11:47 am Tagged with:

New exhibit: Famous American Trials

Elizabeth Teskey 1 Response »
Mar 012010

Lizzie BordenWhat do Lizzie Borden, a middle-aged white woman living in Fall River, Massachusetts at the turn of the nineteenth century, who inherited a small fortune after her parents were savagely murdered in their own home, and O.J. Simpson, all-American athlete turned Hollywood celebrity, who was charged with the brutal murder of his ex-wife and her boyfriend at the turn of the twentieth century, have in common?  If you knew that they were both acquitted, and that many people think they literally got away with murder, then you would be right. If you knew that both were defendants in two of the most publicized trials in U.S. history, you would also be right.  For these and more famous American trials see the display case in the center of the Reading Room.

Posted by library at 10:30 am Tagged with: ,

New Reading Room exhibit: Guess the theme

Elizabeth Teskey No Responses »
Feb 242010

What do John Marshall, Roger B. Taney, John Jay, and Salmon Portland Chase have in common?  If you know that they all served as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, then good for you.  But that’s not the answer.  What about Patrick Henry, Abe Lincoln, and Daniel Webster?  Yes, they were all prominent statesmen.  But that’s not it, either.  For the answer to both questions, which happens to be the same in each instance, see the display case in the center of the Reading Room.

Posted by library at 10:36 am Tagged with: ,

National African American History Month

Pat Court 1 Response »
Feb 222010

Book Cover–Justice Older Than the LawIn February we celebrate National African American History Month, recognizing the contributions that African Americans have made to U.S. history.  President Obama issued a proclamation on National African American History Month, “call[ing] upon public officials, educators, librarians, and all the people of the United States to observe this month with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.”  So from the library, we share with you some sources of legal information in the spirit of this special month.

The Law Library of Congress has an excellent guide to African American History Month with links to Congressional and Presidential documents.   The continuing legal struggles and achievements of African Americans are well documented by the NAACP.

And just a few of the books on this topic you will find at Cornell Law Library include:

Legacy and Legitimacy: Black Americans and the Supreme Court, by Rosalee A. Clawson and Eric N. Waltenburg. Call number KF8748 .C425x 2009

Justice Older than the Law: The Life of Dovey Johnson Roundtree, by Katie McCabe and Dovey Johnson Roundtree. Call number KF373.R686 M34x 2009

Critical Race Realism : Intersections of Psychology, Race, and Law, edited by Gregory S. Parks (Cornell Law ’08), Shayne Jones, and W. Jonathan Cardi. Call number KF4755 .C749x 2008

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