Biddleblog

For a student of public policy and the law, Thanksgiving is one of our most fascinating holidays.  Originally intended, literally, to "give thanks" to God, Thanksgiving has evolved into a secular holiday, established by the government to be celebrated by all citizens, regardless of religious affiliation.

It's interesting to be reminded, however, of the complex relationship our civil code has with religious doctrine throughout the history of our country.  One of the most potent examples of this intersection between public and religious life is the Thanksgiving Day Sermon.  Delivered on Thanksgiving Day in many Congregationalist churches in the 19th Century, the Thanksgiving Day Sermon gave a local preacher the opportunity to use Thanksgiving to comment on the perceived importance--if not the centrality--of religion in American life.

I came across one such sermon in Biddle's collection of bound pamphlets.  Delivered on Thanksgiving Day, 1853, "The Duty and Limitations of Civil Obedience" was delivered by Reverend Samuel C. Bartlett at the Franklin Street Church in Manchester, New Hampshire.  Early on, Bartlett makes the intent of his sermon plain: "...I am to show that Civil Government, or the State, is a divine institution, clothed with divine authority.  It is the 'ordinance of God.'"  This pamphlet serves as an interesting cultural artifact that reflects what was a popular theme of the era: the use of Thanksgiving to give thanks not just to one's Maker, but also to one's Country.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Biddle Law Library!

 

Happy 2009!

To ring in the new semester and the new year, the Biddle Law Library has a couple of new exhibits in our reference area and the Rare Book seminar room.

Violet Oakley's Law Triumphant

In our main exhibit case is displayed selected plates from Violet Oakley's Law Triumphant.  A native Philadelphian, Oakley studied painting at the Drexel Institute for Women (now Drexel College).  She was heavily influenced by the symbolism and optimism of the Pre-Raphelite era. 

Oakley became famous for a series of 43 murals painted in 1905 in the Pennsylvania State Capitol Building in Harrisburg.  Each mural depicted some of the major figures in the development of the law, from Moses to Blackstone to William Penn.  Oakley is arguably the finest woman muralist, and her murals for the State Capital remain her signature commission. 

In the 1930s, Oakley published Law Triumphant, which included color plates of her murals.  A limited edition, only 300 copies of Law Triumphant were published.  The Biddle Law Library is fortunate enough to own two copies, and they are on display now.

Le Petit Journal Covers the Dreyfus Affair

The remainder of our exhibit space has been devoted to images from The Dreyfus Affair, a political scandal that rocked Paris in the late 19th century and early 20th centuries.  Regarded as the major political and cultural event of the era, the Dreyfus Affair also touched on a range of legal issues, including the separation of church and state, libel and religious freedom.

Our exhibition presents the Dreyfus Affair through the lens of one particular contemporary perspective: the pages of Le Petit Journal. This newspaper was in popular circulation in Paris during the Dreyfus Affair, taking advantage of innovations in color printing to publish colorful, full-page illustrations.  Le Petit Journal was very much part of the media frenzy surrounding the Dreyfus Affair, publishing daily articles and illustrations depicting some of the main characters of the saga, including Emile Zola, Paul Deschanel, Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy, and Alfred Dreyfus himself. 

The exhibition begins in the reference area and continues in the Rare Book Seminar room.  We hope you enjoy this glimpse into the Biddle Law Library's impressive Special Collections, and we look forward to bringing you more in 2009.

 

 

I recently helped a student use an item in our Rare Books Collection to verify a citation that a professor had recorded for a forthcoming law review article.  One of the references she wanted to check was the original publication date of the volume.  When we looked on the back side of the title page, we discovered the following statement:

(You can click on the image to make it larger.)

Needless to say, my researcher was a little confused--this lengthy narrative looks almost nothing like the modern convention for declaring copyright: that ubiquitous symbol, ©.

It may be hard to believe, but the copyright symbol was not formally adopted until 1979, when copyright laws were overhauled.  Before then, owners of works had to petition the Copyright Office to copyright their works. 

 What looks to modern eyes like an arcane, roundabout way of stating something very simple was actually a necessary explanation that the author of a work had been granted copyright by the Copyright Office. 

An old professor of mine in college once quipped that Charles Darwin was a great thinker but "he needed an editor."  19th Century prose has often been described as florid and verbose.  Copyright notices of that era are no exception, suggesting that even something this routine could take on a dramatic flair.

 

 

Thanks to a grant from the ACTEC Foundation, the Biddle Law Library Archives was able to process the papers of Richard V. Wellman, the primary architect of the Uniform Probate Code.  A finding aid for the processed collection can be found here.

At 28 linear feet, the Wellman Papers comprise one of the largest collections in the Archives of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL). The NCCUSL Archives primarily consists of the papers of individuals who have worked on various projects by NCCUSL, an organization that endeavors to promote greater uniformity in the law by drafting uniform laws and model acts.  As NCCUSL Archivist (one of my many hats around the Library), I am responsible for maintaining both electronic and print records related to these NCCUSL projects.  Professor Wellman's papers represent the latter.  

Born in 1922, Wellman taught at the University of Michigan and the University of Georgia.  He is perhaps best known as the chief reporter for the Uniform Probate Code, first promulgated by NCCUSL and the American Bar Association in 1969.  Like the Uniform Commerical Code, the Uniform Probate Code sought to streamline and simplify a vast and complex area of the law: in this case, laws governing wills, estates, and intestacy.  The Wellman Papers include correspondence, meeting materials, and drafts related to Wellman's work on the Uniform Probate Code as well as other UPC-related projects.  The collection should prove to be a boon for researchers interested in the history of the law of wills and estates, as it is probably the largest known body of probate-related archival material.

When word got out that we were processing Wellman's papers, I was notified that another institution had papers related to Wellman's work for the California Law Revision Commission.  We recently accessioned these papers and they should be available soon as part of the processed collection.

Please contact me for more information about the Wellman Papers and other collections in the NCCUSL Archives.

 

Many of you in the Penn Law community might have taken a class from Professor Geoffrey C. Hazard on civil procedure.  Still others might know Professor Hazard as one of the foremost experts on legal ethics in the United States. 

 

However, Professor Hazard was also Director of the American Law Institute from the mid-1980s through the 1990s.  During his tenure, the Institute participated in a number of notable projects, including restatements of the law of property, foreign relations law, and the law governing lawyers; revisions and enhancements to the Uniform Commercial Code; and the Transnational Civil Procedure project, a joint initative with UNIDROIT.

I have spent the better part of this year organizing Professor Hazard's files in the American Law Institute Archives and am now opening them to the wider research community.  Professor Hazard's papers constitute one of the largest collections in the Archives.  He created and collected prodigiously: the collection comprises 47 linear feet of correspondence, drafts, reports, and other papers on a variety of projects.  Notably, the Geoffrey C. Hazard Director's Files include Professor Hazard's work on behalf of the American Law Institute to write rules and procedures which governed lawyers in the ethical practice of the law. 

If you are interested in learning more about Geoffrey Hazard's ALI-related work, I encourage you to browse our online finding aid or contact the Archives.  You can also learn more about the American Law Institute Archives by visiting the department's home page.

 

Have you ever wanted to read the actual appellant’s brief submitted by Thurgood Marshall in Brown v. Board of Education?   Maybe you are stuck conducting a cite checking assignment for the University of Pennsylvania Law Review and would like to examine an electronic copy of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. classic treatise The Common Law (Boston: Little Brown & Co., 1881) from the comfort of your living room.   Or perhaps you would like to read the actual transcripts of the Scopes Monkey Trial after watching Spencer Tracy in Inherit the Wind.   Fortunately, these and thousands of other historical resources are readily available to you via the Making of Modern Law databases. (More after the jump)

John Lettou introduced the printing press to London in 1480. Two years later, with the help of partner William de Machlinia, he produced the first law book typeset in England. Machlinia was succeeded by Richard Pynson who, by 1500, moved the press to Fleet Street within Temple Bar. This neighborhood became popular with those printers who specialized in law books, among them George Ferras, Thomas Petit and Richard Tottell. Here, close to the Inns of Court, a nascent legal publishing industry took hold. One of the most famous documents printed in the vicinity is Magna Charta (also spelled Magna Carta), in the sixteenth century often issued with the Antiqua Statuta. Biddle Law Library has five such editions.

Pynson first printed Magna Charta in 1508. Biddle’s earliest copy bears the date 1514. Folio primo, Magna Carta, Edward[us] dei gratia, rex Anglie includes 63 statutes and King Edward I’s 1297 confirmation of Magna Charta with thirty-seven numbered chapters. The text of the Charter is in Latin, the statutes in Law French. Pynson, like many of his peers, was educated on the continent, and presumably was comfortable with both languages. A preliminary leaf notes that Pynson was designated “Regis impressorem,” an honor bestowed by King Henry VII. The text is considered reliable for its time. Its appearance, however, is startling to the modern reader. There is no title page and the publication information is found at the end of the book.

 

One of the leading figures in the development of the consumer bankruptcy field, Henry J. Sommer, has lectured at Penn Law and currently serves on the Toll Public Interest Center Advisory Board.  The Biddle Law Library Archives recently processed Sommer's papers and the collection is now open for research.

After graduating from Harvard, Sommer worked for Community Legal Services in Philadelphia as Project Head of its Consumer Law Project until 1996. He currently serves as editor-in-chief of Collier on Bankruptcy, a leading bankruptcy treatise.

The Henry J. Sommer Papers, 1975-2005, primarily reflect the first phase of the lawyer's career.  The collection includes papers Sommer accumulated while serving for the National Bankruptcy Conference, materials from Continuing Legal Education seminars and other meetings where Sommer lectured, copies of published manuscripts and articles written by Sommer, and videotapes of Sommer and colleagues holding practitioner oriented seminars on the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978.

 

The Archives considers the Sommer papers the foundation of its growing effort to collect in the area of consumer bankruptcy. We look forward to receiving additional papers covering other phases of Sommer's distinguished career.  We also recorded an oral history interview conducted with him, which is available online here.

The finding aid for the Henry J. Sommer Papers is located here.  If you are interested in learning more about this collection, contact Jordon Steele or stop by the Archives.

In an effort to expand the National Bankruptcy Archives' holdings in rare material predating the establishment of the nation's first major bankruptcy law in 1898, the Archives has begun to acquire a selection of 18th and 19th century pamphlet and manuscript materials.  Our holdings presently date back to 1789, and document debt culture in the pre-bankruptcy era.  A common topic concerns the abolishment of debtor prisons, which existed from Colonial times to approximately the mid-1800s.

Some of this collection is currently on display in the reference area of the Biddle Law Library.  However, if you can't make it to the onsite exhibit (or, if you would like to whet your appetite), below are images of some of our featured items. 

If you are interested in learning more about this collection or any of our holdings, please contact Jordon Steele or stop by the Archives. 

 

In the wake of the economic hardship brought on by the Great Depression, the United States was compelled to revisit its system of debt relief.  Legislative efforts in the 1930s culminated in the passage of a new federal bankruptcy law, known as the Chandler Act of 1938, which established an administrative system that lasted for nearly 40 years.

Prior to the Chandler Act's passage, a young Supreme Court law clerk, Francis R. Kirkham, advised Chief Justice Evan Hughes and his associates on recommended changes to bankruptcy laws as they existed at the time.  When writing the drafts of what would eventually become published as the "General Order and Rules of Bankruptcy," Kirkham researched the existing legislation, reports from the National Bankruptcy Conference (which, at this time, was the leading bankruptcy advocacy organization), and corresponded with his superiors at the Supreme Court.  These and other materials from Kirkham's working files were recently processed as part of the National Bankruptcy Archives.  

The finding aid of the Francis R. Kirkham Papers is located here.  To find out more about this collection or to schedule a research visit, contact me or stop by the Archives.

Written by Megan Good, Archives Intern.

 

In 1953, ALI-ABA, the continuing legal education program jointly run by the American Law Institute and the American Bar Association, set out to develop a periodical that would impart knowledge to temper the day-to-day challenges of practicing law.  Unlike legal treatises and law reviews, which explored the theoretical underpinnings of the law, this journal aimed to provide articles, advice, and other newsworthy items that would help a lawyer make his way in the world.

This idea became a reality in January 1955 when ALI-ABA published the first issue of "The Practical Lawyer."  In the periodical's opening address to its readership, George Wharton Pepper (the organization's Council Chair and a past president of the American Law Institute, as well as a former Penn Law professor) characterized his ideal legal expert, one that "The Practical Lawyer" hoped to educate and cultivate as follows:

Somebody, with a flair for sarcasm, has defined a jurist as a man familiar with the laws of all countries except his own.  If there is an element of truth in this definition it is because the student of foreign law is apt to conceive of it as a field for intellectual exercise rather than as a body of principles and rules for guidance and control of every-day human life.  On the other hand, the lawyer in active practice knows that the law is something to do as well as something to know.  He is a fortunate man if he can maintain a just balance between these two aspects of his profession.

The Penn Law community was saddened to learn of the recent passing of Professor John O. Honnold, Jr., a preeminent figure in international law who taught at the Law School from 1946 until his retirement in 1984.  Given Professor Honnold's stature in the legal community, there have been many tributes accorded to him, including those found in the Philadelphia Inquirer and our own Communications Department. 

The Biddle Law Library Archives also has items of interest for those who would like to learn more about Professor Honnold.  Last year, we processed a collection of John Honnold's papers, information which can be found here.  And in conjunction with an exhibit currently on display in the Biddle Law Library's main reference area, below is an oral history recorded in 2000, where Professor Honnold was interviewed as part of the Penn Law School Legal Oral History Project.  For more information about access to these and other materials related to the life of Professor John Honnold, please contact the Archives.

Written by Jessica Lydon, Archives Intern.

 

Written by Zev Fagin, Special Collections Assistant.

 

While rummaging around in the rare books and special collections room here at Biddle one day, I came across a large, dusty, unlabeled cardboard box. Picking up the box, it felt oddly light, and upon opening the lid, I found an old Huron Copysette Manifold Carbon Paper Sets box that held 18^th century criminal court records from southeastern Pennsylvania. Despite being wrapped in brittle and faded tissue paper for what appeared to be many years, the papers were in excellent condition, although still rather fragile.  Accompanying the small collection was a letter from the President of the University Center in Virginia Inc., W. Donald Rhinesmith, dated January 7, 1969, addressed to the Curator of Manuscripts at Penn’s Law Library, donating the collection to the library.