The Valedictory Book Shipment from the NY City Bar
On October 22, 2019, the Law Library received its final shipment of historical foreign/international law books from the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. In 2009, the Law Library and the Bar agreed upon the transfer to GW of this monumental collection, composed mostly of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century, along with some eighteenth-century, legal treatises, periodicals, and laws of the countries of the world. The first shipment arrived that year. The Bar’s historical/foreign law collection has been celebrated in legal and scholarly circles for its excellence and scope, and was built consistently and scrupulously since the Bar’s founding in 1870. The Law Library is honored to have been chosen by the Bar as the new home for this extraordinary collection.
The final tranche of this collection topped 735 linear feet and arrived in 176 boxes. It represents twenty-seven countries:
| China Egypt Ethiopia Greece Hong Kong Iceland India Israel Japan Korea Kuwait Latvia Lebanon Liberia Libya Lithuania Monaco Pakistan Palestine Persia Philippines Romania Russia San Marino Saudi Arabia Thailand Turkey |
 Identifying the boxes: Reference/Legal History & Rare Books Librarian Karen Wahl marks incoming boxes according to country. |
Also in this shipment were some additions to the French Collection which had strayed from earlier shipments, plus an addition to its collection of works from the library of German legal historian Konrad von Maurer (1823-1902).
The Law Library has enjoyed an exceptional relationship with the Bar, which in February, 2020, will begin a year-long celebration of its 150th anniversary, starting with a tribute to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg during the first week of February, which she plans to attend.
Since 2007, the Law Library has worked with the Bar to incorporate some of its many important works into Special Collections. In addition to the acquisition of the Bar’s historical foreign/international materials, the Law Library acquired the Bar’s rare French law book collection of 269 titles (2007), and a part of the Bar’s collection of rare early foreign law materials (2008).B