Harvard Law School - Yearbook (Cambridge, MA)

Page 33 text:

court in Boston until two o'clock, would be in the School at three on Saturday afternoon to hear moot argumentsg and although the exercise was voluntary, every one would be on hand, and the case would be heard until late in the evening. In Story's devotion to the work of the School is perhaps the germ of the atmosphere of study in the School of today, a phenomenon, says a foreign observer, which has not its like in the most remote degree anywhere else in the world. When the United States entered the World War substantially every student applied for admission to some one of the officers' training camps. Nearly half of the student body were taken into these camps at once, and before the opening of the school year 1917-18 over two. thirds of the student body were in service. Accordingly, the faculty made special provisions for full year credit to students in good standing who entered service before the end of the year. Only the few who were physically unequal to military service and unable to hnd other public employment were left as students. But the faculty preserved the continuity of its workg and after the armistice a special session was arranged, lasting until September, 1919, for those demobilized too late to enter the regular session. llVith a view to alleviating the duficulties created by the war fWorld War I IQ for students seeking a prohssional education in law the program of instruction was re- arranged in 1942. Midyear examinations were given in 19110-41. Beginning with the summer term 0f1942 the School operated on a three-term basis. The normal course of instructions continued, so that any student was able to proceed with the study of law without regard to the plans for acceleration, stu- dents wishing to accelerate being permitted to utilize the long summer for such purpose--Ed.l The work of teachers and students in this special session was especially earnest and thorough, and thus the continuity of the School's tradition remained unbroken. When the School was organized, it spent 35681 on books. From that modest begin- ning the library grew slowly by occasional donations, until in 1826 the published catalogue Showed 587 titles. Story supplemented this inadequate list by selling the School at a nominal price his collection of 553 volumes of reports. By 1834 the collection had grown to over 3500 volumes. The same year, the bequest of Samuel Livermore, giving his entire library of Roman, Spanish, and French law, at the time the best in the country, laid the foundation of a collection of comparative law. By 1847 the library had grown to 12,000 volumes. With Greenleaf's re- tirement came retrogression. Under Parsons and Parker and Washburn 11848-70j the library was not kept upg students were employed as librarians, and many books were lost. A new era began with Langdell. He meant the library to be a laboratory. His method called for hrst-hand use of the sources by students. Hence the collection of reports must be complete, must be kept up, must be so administered as to be accessible. One of his first steps was the appointment of a permanent librarian, john Himes Arnold, to whom is chiefly due the present primacy of the library among the law libraries of the world. Arnold was appointed Librarian of the Law School in 1872 and gave himself unspar- irlgly to the upbuilding of the library until his retirement in 1913. It tells little of his achieve- ment to record the bare fact that the library grew from 15,000 volumes to 150,000. He get out to make a complete collection of the legal materials of the English-speaking world, and, buying with sure judgment and searching for the books which he required in out of the way places, at a time when there were few competitors in the field, was able to realize his ambition. What Dicey said in 1899, before Arnold's work was complete, tells something of the story: It constitutes the most perfect collection of the legal records of the English people to be found in any part of the English-speaking world. 'We possess nothing like it in England. l31l

Page 32 text:

In 1895 admission was restricted to graduates of approved colleges and persons qualified to enter the senior class of Harvard College. When the new rule took effect, eighty per cent of the student body were already college graduates. After 1897, only college graduates were admitted except as special students not candidates for a degree. After 1899, non-graduates were no longer admitted. Up to 1924, graduates of approved law schools, not college grad- uates, were admitted if not candidates for a degree. This category was cut off, and today a de- gree from a recognized college is a prerequisite of admission in any capacity. Moreover, in 1927 the applicant for admission was required to show a meritorious college record, and in case of a graduate of a second-list college, to have ranked in the first quarter of his class. Today he must meet the standards set by the Committee on Admissions in view of the necessity of limiting numbers. In spite of this increasingly high requirement for admission, always ahead, not only of requirements for admission to the bar, but of prevailing law school admission requirements, the student body increased steadily. It numbered 154 in 1870, 200 in 1877, nearly 500 in 1897, over 850 in 1917, and 1534 in 1927. In 1936-37 the enrollment was about 1500. In September 1937 the new entrance requirements went into effect and the number admitted decreased by over 100. lln September 1941 there were about 1250 men in the School. An efect ofthe emergency was to reduce the School to 828 in the autumn of 1941, and to 572 by April 1942. The attendance for the years 1932-1942 is shown in the table below: 1932- 1933- 1934- 1935- 1936- 1937- 1938- 1939- 1940- Oct. April 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1941 1942 Graduates . .. . 42 31 34 41 39 40 26 36 25 15 12 Third year .... . 402 399 374 392 404 354 376 495 399 294 225 Second year . . . . 446 408 417 446 389 422 430 426 371 264 160 First year ...... . 581 588 593 563 629 543 562 506 431 242 164 22 24 18 6 10 9 Unclassified . . . 25 26 30 15 3 Special ...... 11 13 9 10 6 11 14 13 4 8 Totals ...... . 1507 1465 1457 1498 1389 1249 In the summer term beginning july 1942, 175 students were enrolled, in the term beginning in October 1942, 199 students and in the term beginning in january 1943, 168 students. These smaller numbers shrank to 72 hr the term beginning in june 1943. In terms of percentage the decrease in numbers at the Harvard Law School was greater than that at any other law school of recognized standing in the United States QI-Iarvard Ofiicial Register, 1942-1943. Report on the Law School, E. M. Morgan, Acting Deanl -Ed.l By that time the limit of the School's physical capacity had been reached. This, and the desire to maintain a due ration of teacher to students, has compelled the turning away of many well-qualified applicants in recent years. New regulations for admission have now reduced the number admitted each year to more workable proportions. Not only has the School throughout its history been national in its teaching of law, but its student body has been increasingly representative of the country as a whole. In 1824, 18 colleges were representedg in 1849, 41g in 1892, 54g in 1903, 111, in 1927, 203. The sectional distribution in 1926-27 was as follows: 361 students from New England, 425 from the Middle States, 162 from the South, 42 from the Southwest, 304 from the Middle Westg 106 from the Rocky Mountain region and Pacihc Coast. This proportion maintains itself. ' More important is the spirit of the student body: the unique enthusiasm for study. There is a long tradition behind it. Richard Henry Dana tells howjudge Story, after holding 'The total enrollment this year is 1134. For complete statistical material on the present enrollment see Book 4, infra. 1301

Page 34 text:

In the library at Harvard you will find the works of every English and American writer on law, there stand not only all the American reports-and these include, as well as the reports of the Federal courts, reports from every one of the forty-five states of the Union-but also complete collections of our English reports of our English statutes, and of the reports and statutes of England's colonies and possessions. Neither in London not in Oxford, neither at the Privy Council nor at the Colonial office, can one find a complete collection, either of American or even, astounding as the fact sounds, of our Colonial reports. Before Arnold's retirement, a great collection of International Law had been bought, and he was at work building up a library for Comparative Law. On his retirement he was suc- ceeded by Edward Brinley Adams, under whom there was great progress in the collections of foreign legislation, treatises and periodicals, of international law, Of Latin-American law, and on the subjects related to criminal law. Mr. Adams died in 1922. His successor, Eldon R. james, has made it his policy to maintain a complete collection of the legal materials of the world. In 1937 there were over 433,000 volumes and 63,000 pamphlets in the library. For many years the school has spent 365,000 annually in the purchase of books. Since Langdell's time much attention has been paid to creating a common-law atmosphere. Through the efforts of Arnold a very complete collection of etchings, engravings, and photographs of English lawyers and judges was brought together and put on the walls of the lecture rooms. When Adams was librarian, he was at work upon a similar collection of American judges and lawyers. Since 1916 a collection of portraits of British judges and lawyers from the reign of Edward VI, by such artists as Van Somer, Kneller, Lely, Reynolds, Raeburn, Romney, and Lawrence, has been brought together, and a good beginning has been made on portraits of American. colonial judges, by artists such as Smibert, Feke, Trumbull, and Stuart, of-Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, and judges of the state courts. Until 1870 no one was officially charged with the administration of the School. Regulations were made by the Corporation, even regulations for the use of the library, and the Faculty had power only to administer discipline and recommend candidates for degrees. The office of Dean was created in 1870. Under Langdell and Ames it became one of leadership in a faculty to which the general conduct of the School was committed. Apparently there had been no Faculty meetings before 1870. After 1870 the Faculty met regularly, and Langdell's reforms were brought about through Faculty votes. From that time the Faculty was the immediate governing body, with the Dean as executive organ and educational leader. In the former func- tion the Dean was assisted by the librarian after 1872, but by 1896 the pressure of administrative work had become such as to absorb too much of the time which the Dean ought to have been giving to the educational side of his office. Moreover, the growth of the library made it im- possible for the librarian, even with a competent and efficient assistant, to go on doing the work of secretary to the Dean. Accordingly, in 1896 a Secretary of the School was appointed, and ad- ministration ofthe details of admission, the keeping of records, and Contact with students on matters other than questions of law were committed to him, This simple organization of Dean, Librarian, and Secretary ceased to be adequate when the School grew to more than one thousand students, especially when the new admission requirements and the pressure of applicants made the function of admission something more than inspection of candidates' diplomas. Once more the Dean was swamped by routine ad- ministrative work, and at a time when he needed to give thorough study to the new problems of legal education. The Faculty, too, was overwhelmed by a mass of detail. To meet this con- dition, a new organization of the School administration was put in effect in 1928. Much of what had theretofore fallen upon the Dean and Faculty was turned over to an Administrative l32l'