Harvard Libraries: Law School Library-Special Collections

Law School Library-Special Collections

Website:	http://www.law.harvard.edu/library/collections/special/
Hours:	Mon., Wed. through Fri., 9-5 Tues., 9-4:15

Phone Numbers:

General reference queries	(617) 495-4689
Special Collections Reading Room	(617) 495-4550
Fax	(617) 495-8588

Email Addresses:

specialc@law.harvard.edu

Address:

Harvard Law School Library
Langdell Hall
1545 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge MA 02138

Access Policy:

Materials in Special Collections are open to all researchers regardless of academic affiliation. A picture ID is required to register. Most of our collections of papers and records are housed off-site and require two business days notice for retrieval.

Dates:

Rare Books: 1465 to the present, mostly pre-1900
Bound Manuscripts, Deeds, and Scrolls: 11th century to the present
Modern Manuscripts (papers and records): 19th century to the present
Art & Visual Materials: Mid-18th century to the present

Holdings Description:

Collection Highlights

More than 200,000 printed books, pamphlets, and broadsides ca. 1465 to 1920, including treatises on Roman, canon, common law, international and comparative law
Collections of American and British popular press accounts of trials and executions; French customary law and royal administrative acts; Japanese manuscripts and early printed books; extensive pre-Soviet law holdings
Prints, photographs, paintings, sculpture and 3-D items documenting the history of the law and the history of Harvard Law School, its students, and faculty
More than 1,100 European and Anglo-American legal manuscripts, and an extensive collections of English deeds, manor rolls, and chancery writs, ca. 1100-1900
Papers of distinguished lawyers, judges, and law professors (e.g., Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Felix Frankfurter, Archibald Cox) and important U.S. trials (e.g., Sacco-Vanzetti)

For additional information on the Collection:
Rare Books
Manuscripts
The Red Set
Art and Visual Materials
Online Collections

History:

Please see History of Special Collections

Online Guides & Catalogs:

Records for most of the rare book and manuscript collections are searchable on HOLLIS, Harvard’s s online catalog.

Over 165 finding aids for the Modern Manuscript Collection can be found on OASIS (Online Archival Search Information System), Harvard’s online union catalog of finding aids for archival and manuscript collections.

Nearly 3,500 items from the Art and Visuals Collection are digitized, cataloged, and available online through VIA, Harvard’s union catalog of visual resources. New items are added to VIA on an ongoing basis. Unpublished finding aids exist for many collections within the Art and Visuals Collection. Please contact the Curator for access and assistance.

Contact for permission to publish requests:

Curator of Rare Books and Early Manuscripts
Curator of Modern Manuscripts and Archives
Curator of Digital and Visual Resources
Please contact via specialc@law.harvard.edu

Reproduction services:

Please see Special Collections Duplication Services

Items allowed in Reading Room:

Please see Reading Room Rules

Please address comments and updates to archinfo@hulmail.harvard.edu.