ASLH Attendees Welcome at Georgetown Law Special Collections and Archives

[We have the following announcement.]

Georgetown Law Special Collections and Archives Welcomes Visitors Attending the ASLH meeting!

 If you are visiting the ASLH meeting, please come and visit Georgetown Law’s Special Collections department just across the street from the conference hotel! The Law Library is on 600 New Jersey Avenue, N.W. Just cross New Jersey Avenue, and walk through the gates leading to the green. The library entrance is on the right. We will be open on Friday, Oct. 30^th, during our regular hours, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and also on Saturday, Oct. 31^st, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. We currently feature three exhibitions:

Credit + Map/Directions

*Our exhibit Magna Carta, Sir Edward Coke, and the Rule of Law at the Dawn of American Settlement. This exhibit is located in the Special Collections exhibit case outside Room 210 in the Williams Law Library (pl. The exhibit features 5 imprints of Magna Carta cum Statutis tum antiquis tumrecentibus, the leading compilation of English statutes from the reigns of Elizabeth I and James VI & I, that were annotated in law French by their owners. It also includes images from Sir Edward Coke’s personal annotated copy of Bracton, the landmark treatise of English law written shortly after the authoritative 1225 version of Magna Carta was issued by Henry III.

* An exhibition on display in the Library Atrium highlighting the Dr. Marion Cheek Papers and Dr. Cheek’s case against the King of Siam. Dr. Marion A. Cheek was a Presbyterian missionary who worked in the mission in Siam in 1874. He resigned from the mission in 1886 and went into the teak business. In July 1893, King Chulalongkorn and the Siamese Commissioner issued a proclamation seizing all of his assets because he did not respond to repeated royal summons. Dr. Cheek sought redress in his famous legal case with the help of the American Consulate. The case found that the Siam government violated Article II of the American Treaty of 1856 as no default on the part of Dr. Cheek. His estate received an award of $200,000, but unfortunately, he died in 1895, before his case was finalized.

*Another exhibition on display in the Library Atrium on the beginnings of the Legal Services program of the Office of Economic Opportunity, featuring a vinyl record with a recording of a 1964 interview with Gary Bellow on the “Role of the Lawyer and the Problem of Poverty,” photos, and manuscripts, including Marna Tucker’s 1966 manuscript reflecting on her experiences with the Neighborhood Legal Services Program in Washington, D.C., “Justice in Sneakers.”

 Georgetown Law Library’s Special Collections department includes a notable Rare Books collection, including collections with early printed works, ranging from the fifteenth century copy of Justinian's Pandectorum to late nineteenth century American state reports and codes. The collection houses historical legal texts from Great Britain, Ireland, France, the United States, Canada, Mexico, and other nations.

The Manuscripts Collection and University Archives consist of personal papers from past deans and faculty of Georgetown Law, alumni donations, case files, and historical documents. The collection includes materials on Watergate, Criminal Justice, Early Colonial and English law, International law, development of law in the American West, and the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal.

The National Equal Justice Library includes over 100 collections documenting the history of indigent defense and legal aid in the United States and internationally.

Please contact us at: specl@law.georgetown.edu, and on the phone at: 202-662-9133.