Since the doors of College House Number 2 opened to the first six students in the fall of 1817, almost everything at Harvard Law School has changed. But in this collection of photos selected from the school’s Historical & Special Collections, the Harvard University Archives and the Harvard Law Bulletin, you will see threads of continuity, no matter which decade—or even which century—you arrived. A photo offers up a moment, and we hope this collection conveys something of the history of this place, its people and its ethos.
![Photos of students from the Class of 1865](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HLB-19793-f17-2.jpg)
![2016 Commencement at Harvard Law School.](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HLB-19794f17.jpg)
![1955 graduates and their families](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HLB-19795-f17.jpg)
![A group of students on the steps of Austin Hall](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/AustinHall_1902BW.jpg)
![HLS Registration, August 2007](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/2007_studentsigning-registrationbook_CHarding_HLT907_7500.jpg)
![A line of students registering](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1975_STLIFE_Registration_Yearbook_-from-Yearbook_HLFA06_6898-1.jpg)
![Student talks to staff member from the bursar's office](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1968_HLDA_HLT907_7497-copy.jpg)
![Overview shot of a long table in Langdell Hall with students lined up to register only one woman student pictured](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1954_STLIFE_Registration_HLSC_StudentRegistration1954.jpg)
![Students sign the HLS registration book in Langdell Library](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1954_STLIFE_Registration_HLSC_ss_21242651.jpg)
![Temporary housing on Jarvis Field to accommodate the influx of new students after WWII](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Temp-Housing-1.jpg)
![1902: The high-ceilinged great room served as the school’s library before becoming the Ames Courtroom in 1954.](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HLB-19805-f17.jpg)
![1957: Studying in Langdell](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HLB-19803-f17.jpg)
![2017: In a “speed mentoring” session, talking about ideas for scholarship with professors.](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HLB-19802-f17.jpg)
![2016: Gannett House, once home to the Legal Aid Bureau and now to the Harvard Law Review, was also once moved—in 1938, it was rotated 90 degrees.](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HLB-19800-f17.jpg)
![1883: The house to the right of Austin Hall was torn down in 1884. As a student, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. LL.B. 1866 had likely lived there. It’s where his father grew up.](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HLB-19799-f17.jpg)
![2007: This 200-ton Victorian moves down Massachusetts Ave. to make room for the WCC.](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HLB-19798-f17.jpg)
![2009: An archway to the WCC complex, now the center of student life at Harvard Law School.](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HLB-19797-f17.jpg)
![1940s: Aerial campus view](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HLB-19796-f17.jpg)
![Class seating](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/viewfromfrontofclassroom_HLDA_0902c_22-scaled.jpg)
![Marion Pierce at the Harvard Law School Library reception desk](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Unknown_CAMP_MarionPierceinLangdell__posters.jpg)
![1940s: Under the gaze of legal luminaries, Harvard Law men in jacket and tie fill a classroom in Langdell.](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HLB-19806-f17.jpg)
![Students studying in Austin Hall Reading Room](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HLB-19804-f17.jpg)
![1975: Exam over 11:30](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Exam_Box-2_ss_21242684.jpg)
![Student sitting in back of classroom has comic book opened on top of his textbook](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1975_CLASS_Comicsinclass_Yearbook_yearbook-1975.jpg)
![Student in bed eating a sandwich surrounded by piles of papers and books](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1963_STLIFE_Studyinginbed_Student-pre-exams.jpg)
![Two women and 4 men sitting at a seminar book casebook lined room](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1956_CLASS_Studentsinlangellseminar-room_1956_Walter-Fleischer_Libr.jpg)
![Students on two tables sit in a classroom in Dane Hall](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1882_EarlyClassPhoto_7.31.17Archives_Posters002.jpg)
![Students on the steps of Langdell in the 1940s](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/WWI-students-on-Langdell-steps-1.jpg)
![Students outside Langdell in the 1950s](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/StudentsOutsideLangdell1950s-scaled.jpg)
![Students on the way to class in Wasserstein Hall](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HLB-19812-f17.jpg)
![Students going door-to-door in Boston](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HLB-19811-f17.jpg)
![1951: Sharing a meal and a milk chaser in the Hark](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HLB-19810-f17.jpg)
![The Lech Walesa team after the Ames Moot Court argument](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HLB-19808-f17.jpg)
![Sheila Kuehl during the 1977 Ames Moot Court Competition](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HLB-19807-f17.jpg)
![Four students studying on the bench outside of the Hauser Hall](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1994_CAMP_SittingnearHause_Photographer-_September_Hauser_HAVEXT001.jpg)
![Students changing classes armed with piles of law books](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1976_CAMP_Changingclasses_Yearbook_006.jpg)
![Students and staff protested the continued use of the HLS shield](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HLB-19819-f17.jpg)
![Harvard Law School Student Organization Fair](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HLB-19818-f17.jpg)
![Students holding signs outside HLS](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HLB-19817-f17.jpg)
![Students talking about Nixon candidacy 1968](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HLB-19816-f17.jpg)
![Students at a table with signs about civil rights](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HLB-19815-f17.jpg)
![Student walks past photos in hallway](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HLB-19814-f17.jpg)
![HLS students around 1925](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HLB-19813-f17.jpg)
![Students looking at bulletin board](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Bulletin-Board.jpg)
![Students buying supplies](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/7.31.17Archives_Posters054.jpg)
![Students on the phone in individual phone booths in Lewis Center](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Unknown_STLIFE_Telephonebooth_HLB07_7637r.jpg)
![Harvard Square in 1978](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HLB-19823-f17.jpg)
![Students playing basketball](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HLB-19822-f17.jpg)
![Students getting ready for a crew race](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HLB-19821-f17.jpg)
![Students loading up for a road trip](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HLB-19820-f17.jpg)
![Students putting notices in student mailboxes](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/GET-DATE_STLIFE_Mailboxes_Yearbook.jpg)
![Individuals skating on a rink outside Harkness](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/GET-DATE_REC_Iceskatingon-Jarvis_Credit-__Jarvis_HIST07.jpg)
![People walking in front of Langdell during a winter snowstorm](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1956_CAMP_Winterinfrontof-Langdell_Bulletin_FrontCover_rev.jpg)
![Students playing a game of football](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1938_REC_football_Yearbook_HLDA-copy.jpg)
![Dean Sacks congratulates a graduate while parents on the steps of Langdell look on](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1972_STLIFE_CommencementwithSacks_HLSC_-1972_ss_21242694.jpg)
![Jarvis Field before Harkness](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Jarvis-Field_7.31.17Archives_Posters199-scaled.jpg)
![Scavenger hunt at HLS](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HLB-19824-f17.jpg)
![Samuel Williston LL.B. 1888](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HLB-19826-f17.jpg)
![Ping Pong in the Hark](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Hark-Ping-Pong.jpg)
![Between classes in the 1950s at HLS](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/ChangingClasses_Box-2_ss_21242685_HLSLibrary.jpg)
![Single student reading a text in the Harvard Law Review library](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/2013_STACT_studyingatlawreview_10_10_13_Campus_Shots_BKraft053.jpg)
![Overview photo of library tables with students studying](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1971_STLIFE_Library_Yearbook_004.jpg)
![Student asleep on his books in the library](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1965_STLIFE_Studentsleeping_Yearbook.jpg)
![Paul Freund ’31 S.J.D. ’32 in his office](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HLB-19825-f17_1.jpg)
![Students in the HLS library reading, studying, asking reference desk questions](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1955_CAMP_STLIFE_Langdell_Library_Fay-PhotoService_HLSC_-1955_2c_McCrossan_Langdell_Inte-copy.jpg)
![A graduate and guest on Holmes Field](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/1973_STLIFE_Commencement_Herzog_-1973_ss_21242695.jpg)
![Harvard Law School in Cambridge.](https://hls.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/HLB-19827-f17.jpg)