Lives and Careers of Two Alabama Booksellers and Publishers

The University of Alabama’s Bounds Law Library announces the latest book in its “Occasional Publications" series:

The Bounds Law Library has published its ninth Occasional Publication, titled Law and Miscellaneous Works: The Lives and Careers of Joel White and Amand Pfister, Booksellers and Publishers. The book features biographical essays by David I. Durham and Paul M. Pruitt, Jr. and an essay by Michael H. Hoeflich analyzing Pfister and White’s printed catalogs. In addition, the book contains facsimile images of White and Pfister’s catalogs and other documents, including White’s correspondence with publishers. Emigrants to antebellum Tuscaloosa, White and Pfister separately operated bookshops, built up clienteles, and began to publish books. When the state capital moved to Montgomery in 1846 they moved with it and soon established a partnership. Following Pfister’s death in 1857, White continued in the business of bookselling and publishing; his most notable author was Tuscaloosa lawyer and politician William R. Smith, author of The History and Debates of the Convention of the People of Alabama (1861). After secession White undertook a clandestine mission to acquire large quantities of high-grade paper for the Confederate government. Following his own personal Reconstruction, White served as publisher of the Alabama Reports (vols. 50-83), working with the clerks, lawyers, and reporters attached to that institution. All the while he continued to operate his bookstore until shortly before his death in 1896. Law and Miscellaneous Works reveals a little-known world of nineteenth-century southern booksellers and small-scale publishers and places it in the context of regional and national affairs. Law and Miscellaneous Works is free upon request. Contact Paul Pruitt (ppruitt@law.ua.edu). 

--Dan Ernst

Law Books: History & Connoisseurship

A printing press at Yale (Mitra Sharafi)

[We share the following announcement from Mike Widener, Rare Book Librarian at the Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School. Applications are due Feb.17, 2020. Here are some highlights from the 2018 course.]

Rare Book School is now accepting applications for admission to “Law Books: History & Connoisseurship,” which Ryan Greenwood and Mike Widener will teach in the Yale Law Library June 7-12, 2020. Enrollment is limited to 12 students. The course description, advance reading list, evaluations from previous students, and a link to the application site are here:

https://rarebookschool.org/courses/collections/c85/

Information on the application process, program costs, etc., is available here:

https://rarebookschool.org/admissions-awards/application/

This intensive, week-long course is about building focused, interesting, and useful collections of historical materials in Anglo-American, European, and Latin American law. It is aimed at individuals and librarians who collect historical legal materials, and the book dealers who supply them, as well as librarians developing collections from existing holdings. Lively discussion and extensive hands-on activities are hallmarks of the course.

Mike writes: This will be my seventh time teaching the course. It will the second time for my co-instructor Ryan Greenwood, Curator of Rare Books and Special Collections at the University of Minnesota Law Library. Due to my retirement from Yale in April 2021, future offerings of this course are uncertain. If you have wanted to take the course, and haven't yet attended, now is the time. I can answer questions about the content of the course. All questions about applications, registration, tuition, and housing should be directed to the Rare Book School staff, at rbsprograms@virginia.edu.

MIKE WIDENER

Rare Book Librarian

Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School

127 Wall Street, New Haven CT 06511-8918

Phone: (203) 432-4494

Email: mike.widener@yale.edu

Website: https://library.law.yale.edu/rarebooks

--Mitra Sharafi

Woods on Estee's Reports in Hawai'i, 1903-17

Roberta F. Woods, Reference & Instructional Services Librarian at the University of Hawaii School of Law, has posted on SSRN a short piece about an early case reporter in the Hawaiian territory. Here is the abstract for "History of the Four Volumes of Decisions of the United States District Court for the Territory of Hawaii 1903-1917" (2016):

The so-called "Estee's Reports," named for Judge Morris March Estee was an early case reporter in the Hawaiian Territory. Only four volumes of decisions of the United States District Court (USDC) for the Territory of Hawaiʻi were ever printed. They span the years 1903-1917. The decisions in these volumes do not appear in the Federal Reporter covering the same time frame. The Federal Supplement, a West Publishing created reporter of decisions of the federal district courts began in 1933. Prior to 1933, federal district court decisions appeared in the Federal Reporter.

Further information is available here.

--Mitra Sharafi

A week in the world of Rare Law Books

Every second summer, the Rare Book School offers a weeklong intensive course that legal

From the Special Collections of Yale's Lillian Goldman Law Library

historians should know more about. Designed for librarians, scholars, and collectors, the “Law Books: History and Connoisseurship” course took place at Yale Law School last week (June 11-15, 2018). It was taught by Mike Widener, Rare Book Librarian at the Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School, and Ryan Greenwood, Curator of Rare Books and Special Collections at the Riesenfeld Rare Books Research Center, University of Minnesota Law Library. This LHB blogger (Mitra Sharafi) took the course. I’m happy to report on its many wonders.

I was the only legal historian in the group of twelve participants. Everyone else was a librarian, whether based at a law library, special collections, or both. When I first heard about the course, I had doubts about how useful it might be for me, given my focus on research and teaching more than on managing collections. Happily, I was wrong to worry. It was fascinating and extremely useful to gain insights into the ways university special collections operate. Among other things, I gained a better sense of which law libraries in the US are actively collecting rare books in various research areas.

More after the jump.

Widener and Weiner Win AALL Andrews Award

[We have the following announcement.]

2018 Joseph L. Andrews Legal Literature Award Winners: Michael Widener & Mark S. Weiner authored Law’s Picture Books: The Yale Law Library Collection

CHICAGO - May 8, 2018 -The American Association of Law Libraries’ (AALL) today announces Michael Widener and Mark S. Weiner are the 2018 recipients of the Joseph L. Andrews Legal Literature Award. Widener, the rare book librarian at Yale Law School’s Lillian Goldman Law Library, and Weiner, a professor of law (on leave) at Rutgers Law School, together published Law’s Picture Books: The Yale Law Library Collection, a unique pictoral contribution in the area of legal literature.

The Joseph L. Andrews Legal Literature Award recognizes a significant textual contribution-a book, pamphlet, periodical, website, database, or other publication-to legal literature. Nominations are measured by their creative, evaluative elements, and the extent to which originality and judgment factored into the work’s formation.

“The winners of the 2018 Joseph L. Andrews Legal Literature Award have authored a unique and detailed assessment of the role of illustrations in legal literature,” said AALL President Greg Lambert. “A reflection of innovative collection development by an academic law library, this book is important to our profession and the work of AALL. It defines the role of illustrations or images in increasing our understanding of legal literature.”

“I am deeply honored to receive the 2018 Joseph L. Andrews Legal Literature Award for Law’s Picture Books,” Widener said. “My distinguished co-author and I examined the use of images in legal literature to teach, criticize, explain, and popularize the law, from the Middle Ages to the present. We hope to raise new questions and suggest new answers to old questions.”

“I’m delighted that AALL and our readers have recognized the important role of illustrations in legal literature by awarding us this year’s Joseph L. Andrews Legal Literature Award,” Weiner said. “We wanted to go beyond compiling a collection of law-related artwork or conducting a study in legal iconography. Instead, we provided a thorough analysis of the role of illustrations in everything from textbooks and treatises to statutes, case law, practitioner manuals, and litigation documents. I am honored to accept this award with my co-author.”

The Joseph L. Andrews Legal Literature recipients will be honored at the upcoming 111th AALL Annual Meeting & Conference, to be held in Baltimore from July 14-17, 2018.

Weekend Roundup

• From the Washington Post's "Made by History" section: Nathan Wuertenberg draws on history to argue that "gun rights are about keeping white men on top"; William D. Bryan and Christopher J. Manganiello provide historical context for the water conflict that is before the Supreme Court in Florida v. Georgia; and Judith Giesberg (Villanova) on the right historical analogy for sanctuary-city advocates.

• Junior scholars working on aspects of legal history and technology should consider applying for the 2018 Technology, Law & Society Summer Institute at UC Irvine (June 22-24, 2018). The deadline is March 15, 2018. Here is the Call.

• Yale Law Library's exhibit, Law Books Bright and Beautiful is on display Feb. 26-June 1, 2018 at the Rare Book Exhibit Gallery of the Yale Law School. Check out some highlights here.

Weekend Roundup is a weekly feature compiled by all the Legal History bloggers.