The current exhibit in the Biddle Law Library’s Rare Book Room features material from the personal papers of two federal judges and highlights the history of women in the legal profession.
The Archives and Special Collections Department has recently processed the Judge Norma L. Shapiro Papers and the Judge Dolores K. Sloviter Papers.
The Honorable Norma L. Shapiro was the first woman to serve on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania upon her induction in 1978. The Honorable Dolores K. Sloviter was the first woman appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in 1979. Both judges were alumnae of the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. Judge Shapiro graduated as the only woman in her class in 1951. Judge Sloviter followed five years later.
Materials from the two collections are featured in the exhibit “Beacons of Hope,” currently on display in the Biddle Law Library’s Rare Book Room (T-253). Included are resources each judge collected on the history of women in the legal profession and the work of the Third Circuit Task Force on Equal Treatment in the Courts.
For questions, please email the Archives and Special Collections Department.