Category: Recent Acquisitions

• American Bar Association’s Diamond Jubilee 3¢ Stamp with Commemorative Cachet

  On August 24, 1953, the ABA stamp was unveiled at the Statler Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts. This historic event was marked with speeches, music, a radio broadcast, and a special presentation of the stamp to then ABA President, Robert Storey.

• Desk and Chair Set from the Old Alabama Senate Chamber

  The editors of Litera Scripta would like to announce a unique new addition to our collections. As part of a recent donation, we have installed an exhibit that features a desk and chair set from Alabama’s old senate chamber. The Alabama senate desk and chair exhibit is located at the entrance to our John C.…

• Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., The Common Law

  Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) is one of our most famous Supreme Court justices. Long-lived, handsome, and quotable by the yard, Holmes was for many people the very model of a Supreme Court justice. He is much less well-known as a legal scholar, having written only one original book, The Common Law. But that one…

• The Williams Collection of Historic Law Books

  The following is the first of several posts that will explore selected titles from a collection of law and law-related books donated by the family of A.S. Williams, III. The Williams Historic Law Book Collection consists of seventy volumes that date from the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries. They are in their original bindings,…

• Recent Acquisitions: Six Ledger Sheets from the Circuit Court of Perry County, Alabama, February 11-19, 1878; Documenting Criminal Court Fees Certified by Alabama Probate Judge Porter King

  The work of Porter King, a prominent nineteenth-century lawyer, state legislator, and businessman from the State of Alabama, is featured in the latest acquisition of the John C. Payne Special Collections of the Bounds Law Library. The Judge Porter King Ledger is a six-page legal document detailing criminal court fees issued by the Court of…

• Recent Acquisitions: A Treatise Collected Out of the Statutes of this Commonwealth, and According to Common Experience of the Lawes, Concerning the Office and Authorities of Coroners and Sheriffs

  The latest addition to our collection of works dating from mid-seventeenth century England is a compilation of laws by one John Wilkinson. Its title is A Treatise Collected Out of the Statutes of this Commonwealth, and According to Common Experience of the Lawes, Concerning the Office and Authorities of Coroners and Sheriffs.

• Recent Acquisitions, the Bounds Law Library

  Today we announce some recent additions to our Special Collections holdings. In particular we’d like to call attention to some titles associated with the troubles, execution, and printed afterlife of England’s King Charles I (reigned 1625-1649).

• George Robertson and Book Consumers in Early 19th Century Kentucky

  In an interesting 1820 letter from our collection, Kentucky lawyer George Robertson illustrates some of the difficulties of a book consumer on the expanding American frontier. The letter is a nice find. It involves one of the towering figures in Kentucky legal history at an early point in his life. It also shines a light…

• Debt and Default on the Alabama Frontier: Notes on a 19th Century Justice’s Ledger

  The subject of this blog post is a ledger used by Justices of the Peace in Clarkesville, Alabama during the 1820s and 1830s. Justices of the Peace used ledgers like this one to record developments in the cases they heard. This ledger specifically deals with the complaints filed between neighbors for outstanding debts. In it,…

• Ephemera from an 1898 Congressional Campaign

  The topic of this post is a recently acquired collection that offers a glimpse into the life of a small town politician in early 20th century Alabama. The collection includes a copy of Alabama Reports Volume XXVII (the Alabama Supreme Court cases argued in the June term of 1855), and three documents that were laid…