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.
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