Rare Books & Special Collections
Web Sources for the Legal History of the American West
Prepared for the rountable session, "Boundless Opportunities:
Researching Western Legal History," at the annual meeting of the Western
History Association, Oct. 10, 2003, in Fort Worth, Texas, by Mike Widener. The listing
is preliminary; submissions are welcome.
Chair:
Bradley Williams, Ninth Judicial Circuit Historical Society
Panelists:
Peter J. Blodgett, Curator of Western Historical Manuscripts, The Huntington Library
Rachel Howell, Assistant Manager, Texas/Dallas Archives,
Dallas Public Library
Dennis Medina, Head of Special Collections,
University of Texas at San Antonio
Mike Widener, Head of Special Collections, Tarlton
Law Library, University of Texas at Austin
Federal Law & U.S. Courts
-
History of the Federal Judiciary, from the Federal Judicial History
Office, includes a searchable database of all federal judges,
1789-present, and many other useful reference sources.
- National Archives & Records
Administration: See the Guide to Federal Records in the National
Archives of the United States for information on the records of
federal courts and the U.S. Department of Justice.
- Constitution Community: A learning resource from the National
Archives; see the section on "Expansion and Reform" for materials on
westward expansion and its impact on constitutional law.
- History & Guide to the U.S. Courts: From the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; includes a brief history of
Ninth Circuit Courts, and general information on the operation of the
Ninth Circuit and federal courts in general.
State Law & State Courts
- [California] California State
Archives: general information on records of state appellate courts,
constitutional conventions, and Spanish & Mexican land grants.
- [California] Selected Oral
Histories on California Legal Issues: From the Regional Oral History
Office, Bancroft Library, University of California-Berkeley. A listing
of dozens of oral history interviews, including Chief Justice Earl
Warren, California Supreme Court justices, federal judges from the
Northern District of California, and lawyers.
- [California] California Legal History: Selected Titles from the
Hastings Law Library Collection: From the University of
California-Hastings College of Law. Includes sections on the
legislature, courts, and bench & Bar.
- [Idaho] University of
Idaho Special Collections: finding aids for several judges,
attorneys, law firms, and law-related organizations which were prominent
in the history and development of Idaho in the late 19th and 20th
centuries. An overview identifies some of the more significant collections.
- [Minnesota] Minnesota Historical
Society, Research Center: search PALS (their online catalog) for the
subject "Court records--Minnesota" to see descriptions of the archives
of the Minnesota Supreme Court.
- [Texas] Reference Sources on Texas Legal History: A thorough bibliography
containing over 120 entries, prepared by Mark Lambert, Special
Collections Librarian, South Texas College of Law Library.
- [Texas] Texas
State Archives: records of the Texas Supreme Court, Court of
Criminal Appeals, 3rd Court of Appeals, and the former Court of Appeals,
Attorney General, and the Texas Legislature.
- [Texas] Texas Archival
Resources Online: Hundreds of searchable finding aids are provided
for archival and manuscript collections from major research libraries,
including the University of Texas, Texas A&M, Rice, Texas State
Archives, University of Houston, Texas Tech University, and many others.
- [Texas] Baylor
Collections of Political Materials: From Baylor University; includes
the papers of several 20th-century Texas judges.
- [Texas] Institute
for Oral History, Baylor University: Search the "Guide to the
Collection" using the topics "Civil rights", "Judiciary", or "Law".
Their Texas Judicial Project collected interviews with nine judges.
- [Texas] Daniel Center for
Legal History, State Bar of Texas: Houses the
archives of the State Bar, and the papers of a few Texas judges and
attorneys.
- [Texas] Gammel's Laws of
Texas: A digitized copy of this essential source for Texas law;
provided by the University of North Texas.
- [Texas] Texas Constitutions
Digitization Project: Digitized versions of the historic Texas
Constitutions, including the constitution of the Mexican state of
Coahuila and Texas, the Constitution of the Republic of Texas (1836),
and the five state constitutions (1845, 1861, 1866, 1869, and 1876).
Newly available are the journals of the 1836, 1845 and 1868
constitutional conventions. From the Tarlton Law Library, University of
Texas at Austin.
- [Texas] Archives of Women of
the Southwest: DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University.
Includes papers of prominent Dallas attorney Louise Raggio and the Texas
Coalition for Juvenile Justice.
Other Sources
- Women's Legal History
Biography Project: From the Robert Crown Law Library, Stanford Law
School. Features a large collection of biographical papers by students
on early woman lawyers, including the first woman lawyer in California,
Clara Shortridge Foltz.
- "Indian
Affairs: Laws and Treaties", by Charles J. Kappler (7 vols.;
1903-04), digitized in its entirety by Oklahama State University's
Electronic Publishing Center.
- The Avalon
Project, Yale Law School: "Digital documents relevant to the fields
of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government,"
including the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, Laws for the Government of
the Territory of New Mexico (1846), and treaties between the U.S. and
Native Americans.
- Stanford
University, Records of MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense &
Education Fund): archives documenting MALDEF's advocacy of civil and
legal rights for Mexican Americans from its founding in 1967.
- University of Texas at Austin, Tarlton
Law Library Rare Books & Special Collections (your present
location): Includes descriptions of almost 80 archival
collections, such as the papers of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Tom C.
Clark, other state & federal appellate judges, deans &
professors of the University of Texas School of Law, and Law School
organizations.
-
Famous Trials: By Professor Doug Linder, U. of Missouri-Kansas City.
Includes the Dakota Conflict Trials (1962), the Bill Haywood trial
(1907), and links to other sites concerning American trials.
- Japanese
American Legal History: Greg Leitich Smith, a patent attorney and
children's book author. The site covers immigration law, alien land
laws, miscegination laws, and the internment of Japanese Americans in
World War II. "Written to be easily understood not only for lawyers and
historians but parents, teachers, and young adult students."
