A newly created collection of the materials of J. Willard Hurst,
the University of Wisconsin Law School professor who has been
called the “father of modern American legal history,” has been
digitized and made available by the UW Law Library at http://library.law.wisc.edu/hurst/.
The J. Willard Hurst Collection spans the years 1932 through
Hurst’s death in 1997, although the bulk of material dates
between 1946 and 1980, when Hurst was a professor at the Law
School. The documents provide insight into the evolution of
Hurst’s view of legal history and his role in developing a
community for legal historians.
Included in the collection are Hurst’s personal outlines and
notes; course texts; publications; publication reviews; research
notes; correspondence (incoming and outgoing letters); personnel
records; photographs; audio recordings; and typewriter.
Correspondence, topical outlines and notes, and audio recordings
compose a bulk of the collection.
In anticipation of high research demand, the majority of materials
in the collection have been digitized and are freely available on
the Law Library website. Researchers may browse the collection by
series or search the detailed finding aid. The complete finding
aid is viewable in PDF form at http://library.law.wisc.edu/hurst/findingaid.pdf.
The complete collection, including those materials which have not
been digitized, is available in the Law Library. For more
information, contact the Law Library’s Head of Reference, Bonnie
Shucha, at bjshucha@wisc.edu
or (608) 265-5513.
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