From the Ephemeral to the Extraordinary: Announcing a New Harvard Law School Library Exhibit

Visit the Exhibit

In September, just as the Langdell Hall Reading Room re-opened, Harvard Law School Library Historical & Special Collections staff unveiled a new exhibit, From the Ephemeral to the Extraordinary: Recent Acquisitions 2019-2024. The exhibit, on view in the Caspersen Room (access with Harvard ID) weekdays from 9am to 5pm through June 2025, represents a cross-section of acquisitions by Historical & Special Collections staff over the past five years. The material on display comes from three curatorial divisions: rare books and early manuscripts, modern manuscripts, and art and visual materials, and features a variety of formats and languages.

From the Ephemeral to the Extraordinary is also a testament to the hard work and resourcefulness of the Harvard Law School Library staff. During a worldwide pandemic that resulted in a period without physical access to the materials, staff continued to expand the collection in core areas while also identifying and focusing efforts on new or underdeveloped areas of interest.

The exhibit is a wonderful opportunity for the Harvard community to learn more about Harvard Law School Library’s collections of rare and archival materials, and to experience the breadth and depth of Historical & Special Collections’s collecting over the past five years. Materials/Objects will be rotated multiple times during the exhibit to protect light-sensitive materials. Please consider visiting more than once to enjoy the full range of material!

Explore Exhibit Highlights Online

The online exhibit loosely follows the structure and themes of the physical exhibit, with curated pages based roughly on the display cases in the Caspersen Room. These curated pages include:  

1. Charles J. Ogletree, Jr. and the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute: Materials from two recently acquired collections, the Charles J. Ogletree, Jr. papers and the Lolita B. Parker, Jr. photographs and videos of Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice events—the first visuals collection created by a Black woman and the Library’s first entirely born-digital visuals collection
2. Harvard Law School History: Exhibit objects related to Harvard Law School and its esteemed alumni, including Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Cecil F. Poole, and Elizabeth Bartholet.  
3. The Law and Marginalized People: Materials, from humble printed forms to elaborately printed decrees that demonstrate how the law treats marginalized people and how it further marginalizes them. 
4. English Crime Broadsides: Crime and execution broadsides sold to audiences that gathered to witness public executions or distributed by itinerant peddlers in eighteenth and nineteenth century Britain. 
5. International Legal Materials: Legal treatises from Italy and France and the Japanese translation of Anglo-American legal material.  

Acknowledgements

From the Ephemeral to the Extraordinary was curated by members of Historical & Special Collections: Margaret Dalton, Edwin Moloy, Mary Person, Lesley Schoenfeld, Chris Spraker, and Sarah Wharton. 

Special thanks to Kai McGinn, Ogletree Project Assistant, Harvard Law School Library; Bruna Biz, Harvard College 2026; Jane Freiman, Historical & Special Collections Assistant, Harvard Law School Library; and Yasmin Morais, Foreign, Comparative, & International Collection Development Librarian, Harvard Law School Library for their assistance with research and translation. Special thanks to Terri Messina, Conservation Technician, Harvard Library for her assistance with exhibit preparation.