The Collections
In keeping with the Library’s mission to support the teaching and research programs of the Harvard Law School, Historical & Special Collections collects, catalogs, and provides access to printed materials, manuscripts, and visual materials that document the history of the law in general and that of the Harvard Law School in particular. The collections are broken down into four primary collecting areas: rare books and early manuscripts, modern manuscripts, the Red Set, and art and visual materials. Begin your research by searching HOLLIS, the Harvard Library catalog.
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Rare Books & Early Manuscripts
Rare Books & Early Manuscripts
The Rare Books & Early Manuscripts collection contains over 100,000 printed books, pamphlets, broadsides and other material, with imprints between the fifteenth and twentieth centuries.
Modern Manuscripts
Modern Manuscripts
The Modern Manuscripts collection contains more than 250 individual collections that include papers of members of the bar, bench, and legal teaching profession. In addition, it maintains papers relating to specific U.S. court cases and individually bound and loose English and American manuscripts written after 1701.
The Red Set
The Red Set
The Red Set contains faculty publications created during their years at HLS; student papers including prize essays, theses, and dissertations; publications created by Law School offices, departments, and programs; and publications of law reviews and other student organizations.
Art & Visual Material
Art & Visual Material
The Art and Visual Materials collection, one of the world’s largest collections of visual materials relating to the law, documents the history of legal systems in general and the common law in particular through prints, photographs, paintings, sculpture, and three-dimensional artifacts.
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Image Credits: Photograph of Harvard Law School yearbooks by George Taoultsides. All other photographs by Brooks Kraft, 2014.