A hilarious blog with advice from old books...

My friend Karen Beck, Curator of Historical and Special Collections at the Harvard Law Library, recently shared a post from this fantastic blog, Ask the Past.  Editor Elizabeth Archibald has assembled a thoroughly amusing collection of advice from old books.  The accompanying visuals, sometimes from the books themselves and sometimes from other sources, never fail to add to the hilarity and to illuminate the content. 

My personal favorite post is "How to Bust a Move" (accompanying illustration shown above), which quotes Catharine E. Beecher's book Physiology and Calisthenics for Schools and Families from 1856.  There's nothing quite like reading about how to dance.  Old books are wonderful, aren't they?

Finch's Law

Sir Henry Finch (1558-1625) was an English lawyer and author.  This work represents the first English edition of a treatise first published in Latin as Nomotechnia in 1613.  It is one of the few notable original works of legal literature to come out of 17th century England. As Sir John Baker writes in his Introduction to English Legal History, this was "a bold and original essay at methodising the common law by the use of dialectical techniques learned at Cambridge." Finch's attempt to synthesize the common law undoubtedly influenced later writers such as William Blackstone. Another important edition of this work, commonly called Finch's Law, lives in our collection; it is a 1759 edition with notes by Danby Pickering of Gray's Inn. 

Day book of a 19th century Pennsylvania lawyer

Our collection focuses on the activities of working lawyers in England and America--the books they likely would have owned and any records of their day-to-day lives as legal professionals.  Thus, this little day book from a Pennsylvania attorney makes a perfect addition to our collection.  Entries cover the period from 1870-1919, when attorney Eugene Snyder was practicing in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.

As Michael von der Linn from Lawbook Exchange writes in his description of the item, Snyder "attended Dickinson College, read law with a local attorney and attended Harvard Law School, was admitted to the Dauphin County Bar in 1860 and practiced in Harrisburg. He appears to have led a rather uneventful life. According to a 1907 biography, 'Mr. Snyder is an extremely unassuming man, of mild temperament. He does not like notoriety, has never been a candidate for or held office, and prefers the quiet office practice to the more spectacular work of the court. He has a fair share of office and commercial legal business' (Maspero). His day book, which lists services rendered and fees charged over a 49-year period, concurs with this description. As such, it offers a fine perspective on the professional activity of a well-respected attorney with a solid, but routine, practice." Maspero, The Twentieth-Century Bench and Bar of Pennsylvania II:25 (online edition).

New acquisition: don't steal my fruit!

This broadside is one of my favorite recent acquisitions.  It's a reward poster created in 1874 by the selectmen of Dracut (a small town in northern Massachusetts near the New Hampshire border), offering a $25 reward to those who help arrest and conviction perpetrators of destruction of town property or for the violation of a particular Massachusetts statute.  The statute at issue, Section 83 of Chapter 161 of the General Statutes, provided for a $100 fine or 3 months in the House of Corrections for anyone convicted of stealing or otherwise absconding with fruit, flowers, trees, etc. from someone's orchard or nursery.  I suppose there must have been a problem with this type of trespass and thievery in the town at this time!

 I was curious if the specific provision is still on the books, as it would make for a nice exercise in statutory research for our students.  It is indeed!  The penalty has risen to a potential $500 fine or 6 months in the House of Corrections, but otherwise it's essentially the same. 

Digging in the Brooker Collection: A Family History

I just ran across this charming item while preparing documents for digitization in our so-called "Brooker Collection."  This is a detailed history of the Fuller family, starting with the Thomas Fuller's arrival in Salem Village in 1638.  It's a very personal family history, carefully documenting marriages, moves, and new additions to the family.  It's a lovely multi-page document, tied at the top edge with a pink ribbon.

The Robert E. Brooker III Collection of American Legal and Land Use Documents: 1716-1930 is an a collection of special documents and manuscripts donated to the Boston College Law Library by Robert E. Brooker, III, in 2004.


The collection, which Mr. Brooker painstakingly acquired over many years, features approximately 2,500 documents and manuscripts. Focused primarily on Boston and the New England area and spanning two centuries, the Brooker Collection provides abundant opportunity for the study of early American land use and transfers, law and legal systems, town governance, family matters and daily life.

Please take a look at the digital collection (scroll down to "Brooker Collection") of these documents.  New documents are being added all of the time thanks to the hard work of many folks who have worked to digitize important historical documents here at Boston College.  A special shout out to Naomi Rubin and Betsy McKelvey who have been working for years to make this content available to researchers and other interested parties. 

Intriguing Initials and a Year Book of Henry IV and V

This new acquisition is a Year Book containing cases from the reigns of Henry IV (reigned 1399-1412) and Henry V (1413-1422) and was printed in London by Thomas Wight in 1605.  It has a lovely contemporary calf binding with the initials "EC" blind-stamped onto the upper and lower covers.   Could this volume be from the library of the great English common lawyer, Sir Edward Coke?  The title is included in A Catalogue of the Library of Sir Edward Coke (Yale, 1950), and it indicates the three copies listed remain at the Holkham Library in Norfolk, England (Holkham has been home to the Coke family since 1609).  Those copies are all of earlier Richard Tottell editions of this book.  Perhaps this is a fourth? Apparently there are books in the Coke collection stamped with his initials, so I am curious if the stamps on this volume matches the others!

Regardless of its provenance, the Wight edition is a beautiful example of early 17th century English printing.  The photo above features the initials on the upper cover (zoomed in), and more photos can be viewed on our Facebook page! 

Bookplating Day in the Rare Book Room!

Graduation has passed, and the quiet of summer has descended upon the law library.  I usually use this time to catch up on some housekeeping tasks in the Rare Book Room.  Today's task: bookplating!  Every book that we are fortunate enough to acquire or to receive by gift receives a bookplate indicating its home in the Daniel R. Coquillette Rare Book Room, and, if appropriate, the name of the donor.  If our donor has his or her own bookplate, that is affixed to the book as well. 

This morning, my colleague Gaby and I made some Japanese wheat paste to use as our adhesive for the bookplates and made a day of it!  In the photo, Gaby is placing the appropriate bookplates in a book recently donated by Professor Michael H. Hoeflich.