Spotlight on the Exhibit: Heavily Annotated Burn's Justice

Do you write in your books? Over 250 years ago, the owner of this copy of Richard Burn’s Justice of the Peace and Parish Officer (London, 1755) wrote in the margins—and bound in over 70 extra pages in the back for making more notes! Check out the annotations on the topic of "Burglary."

New Exhibit in the Rare Book Room: Recent Additions to the Collection

We have a new exhibit on display in the Rare Book Room for the fall semester featuring additions to the collection over the past three years or so. Some highlights include: heavily annotated copies of important legal texts like Edward Coke's Reports and Richard Burn's Justice of the Peace and Parish Officer; a trial pamphlet for an 1859 Boston trial regarding the alleged assault and battery by a teacher upon a Roman Catholic pupil for his refusal to recite the Protestant version of the Ten Commandments; a statement of account from Daniel Webster's legal practice before he entered the world of politics; a writ from a lawsuit filed by James Otis Sr.; and perhaps most fascinatingly, a 1796 statement of account between a Sturbridge blacksmith and another individual in which a debit is listed for "one black man," against a credit for a sorrel horse--this would provide a unique lens through which a student could examine the legal status of people of color in the Commonwealth, even after the effective legal abolition of slavery in Massachusetts.

If you don't have a chance to visit the Rare Book Room (generally open weekdays from 9-5), please take a look at the exhibit webpage. This exhibit will remain on display into early 2019.