Other Rare Book Collections

Founders’ Collection. Once owned by the founders of the Law School, David Daggett, Seth P. Staples and Samuel J. Hitchcock, the Founders’ Collection was the Law School’s original teaching collection. 

The Lewis Morris Collection. The Morris collection comprises the law library of Lewis Morris (1726-1798), signer of the Declaration of Independence, judge and prominent New Yorker. The volumes, in contemporary bindings, are important for any study of Morris and offer excellent insights into colonial American law and practice.

The Walter L. Pforzheimer Collection. The Pforzheimer Collection of books and manuscripts on the history of copyright law contains legislation, cases, treatises and manuscripts, including a manuscript letter from William Wordsworth on US copyright legislation. 

German Law. The collection of over 700 works of German law from the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, like the Bar’s collection of Roman and canon law, is a source for law in early modern and Enlightenment Europe.

Foreign and International Law. The rare book collection has significant holdings in historical foreign and international law. Included are over 50 editions of works by Grotius, strong holdings in other authors of early international law, and numerous volumes of French, Dutch, Spanish, Latin American, and other foreign law.

The Juvenile Jurisprudence Collection.  This unique collection of over 200 law-related children’s books was donated by former Law Librarian Morris L. Cohen. 

Finally, and unique to the Law Library, is a colorful collection of judicial bobblehead dolls produced by the Green Bag, for which the Library is the official repository.