Morris Cohen, 1971
The Harvard Law School Library offers short-term fellowships to assist scholars who must travel to consult the Library’s special collections. Fellows are expected to visit the Library during the period from July 2009 through June 2010. Applications will be evaluated on the significance of the research and the project’s potential contribution to the advancement of knowledge as well as its creativity in drawing on the library’s holdings. The fellow can apply to use any of the Library’s special collections although preference will be given to proposals in American legal history and bibliography. Grants of up to $3,000 will be given on a competitive basis to assist in covering travel expenses, living expenses, photocopying, or other incidental research expenses. A fellowship is normally not granted to scholars who live within commuting distance of the Library.
The Fellowship was established in honor of Morris L. Cohen, Librarian of the Harvard Law School Library from 1971 until 1981. One of the country’s leading authorities in legal research and bibliography, Mr. Cohen’s Bibliography of Early American Law (1998) is the definitive work on the topic. Author of more than a dozen books, he is currently Professor of Law Emeritus at the Yale Law School.
Special Collections at the Harvard Law School Library
With nearly 2,000 linear feet of manuscripts, approximately 200,000 rare books, and more than 70,000 paintings, prints, photographs, and other visual materials, the Special Collections Department of the Harvard Law School houses one of the world's most comprehensive collections of research materials for the study of the history of the law in general and of Anglo-American law in particular. Particularly noteworthy are its virtually complete collections of English and American statute books, case reporters, and legal treatises; more than 10,000 volumes, spanning the last five centuries, of the accounts of civil and criminal trials; extensive holdings of the papers of Joseph Story; Simon Greenleaf; Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.; Louis Brandeis; Felix Frankfurter; Roscoe Pound and other jurists and legal educators; and important manuscript collections relating to such organizations and events as the New England Watch and Ward Society, the Sacco-Vanzetti trial, and the Alger Hiss case. The legal art collection, by far the best anywhere of its type, has portrait and photographic images of lawyers and judges as well as of famous trials, and legal controversies. Several dozen books and scholarly articles published each year draw on these collections. The Library’s holdings are cataloged in HOLLIS, Harvard University’s online catalog; the finding aids to its manuscript collections are available in OASIS (Harvard’s Online Archival Search Information System). Both are accessible through http://lib.harvard.edu.
Applications & Deadlines
Applicants should write directly to:
Morris L. Cohen Fellowship Selection Committee
Harvard Law School Library
Cambridge, MA 02138
And provide the following materials:
- a statement of not more than three pages describing the research project and the importance of the library's collections to the applicant's work;
- a current curriculum vitae;
- two letters of recommendation; and
- a proposed budget indicating how the funds requested will be spent.
Applicants will want to contact the Department as they calculate their budgets. The appropriate curator can help applicants estimate how much time will be needed for effective use of the different collections.
Manuscripts and Archives: Edwin Moloy, emoloy@law.harvard.edu
Visual materials: Mindy Johnston, mjohnston@law.harvard.edu
Rare Books and Early Manuscripts: David Warrington, warringt@law.harvard.edu
Deadline: The deadline for submissions is April 30, 2009. Applicants will be informed of decisions by May 20, 2009.
New England Regional Fellowship Consortium
The Library is a member of the New England Regional Fellowship Consortium. Please visit the consortium's Web site for further information and to apply for its fellowships.