Riesenfeld Rare Books

"Every muscle in the body seems doubly tense and elastic, each motion is a triumph, and the luxury of mere life, the joy of living, is never better understood, under the softest Italian sky at Florence, than it is in St. Paul, Minnesota, with the thermometer at 40 degrees below zero."

A high bar for Minnesota weather was set in this 1853 Minnesota Year Book, in which travelers are encouraged by a description of "the most salubrious and healthful" of the climates in North America. We wonder how many were disappointed by what awaited them.

Currently transcribing!

These pages come from the will of William Foster, a wealthy plantation owner in Jamaica in the 18th century. Foster's only daughter, Anna Petronella Woodart, was born into slavery but was manumitted and naturalized as a British citizen in this 1756 document. Anna eventually moved to London, married an Englishman, and inherited her father's estate, with her husband as executor. She also later inherited property in Jamaica from her uncle, Foster's brother, who had no children of his own.

A watercolor mystery!

Happy Pride Month! 

These photos come from Jack Baker's ('72) campaign for Minnesota Student Association president in 1971. He did become MSA president that year, and also in 1971, Baker and his partner, James McConnell, became the first same-sex couple to be legally married. Baker was a dedicated activist and was involved in some of the earliest pride events in the country that were held in Minneapolis in the 1970s.

It's almost the longest day of the year! We hope you're soaking in the extra daylight going into the weekend!

It certainly feels like summer here in the Twin Cities!

More Clarence Darrow items have arrived! The attorney's traveling trunk, made by J.H. McNamara Trunk Works Co. in Chicago, nicely complements the recent material we received related to Clarence and Ruby's travel. Rivets in the side form Clarence's initials, "CSD," and there is also one travel sticker listing several hotels in the White Mountains in New Hampshire that were owned by Barron, Merrill, & Barron. The donation also included a couple of handkerchiefs embroidered with Darrow's name and several new letters.

We recently received an exciting donation to our Clarence Darrow collection from a relative of Darrow's wife, Ruby. The donation includes letters to and from Ruby and an assortment of items related to the couple's travel in 1929 and 1930. Here are a few close-ups of their joint passport that was issued in 1929, which notes that Clarence is accompanied by Ruby and includes a photo of them together.

Congratulations, Class of 2026! The Law School's commencement will take place tomorrow, and we wish all the graduates the best as they celebrate their hard work and begin their careers.

Happy Mother's Day weekend!

In honor of all moms, we're highlighting Kati Sasseville, who became the Law School Council's first woman president in 1972. Her campaign posters urging students to "Vote for Mama Sass" partly referred to the fact that she was a mother of six by the time she was in law school.

Sasseville went on to become the first woman to serve on the Minnesota Public Service Commission, eventually serving as Commission Chair. She remained very active in the legal community, throughout her life running for Congress in the 7th Congressional District, the State House, and the State Senate.

Finals are here! Good luck to all, and we hope you're taking care of yourselves as you prepare!

To kick off finals, we pulled out William Fulbeck's "A Direction or Preparative to the Study of Law: Wherein is shewed, what things ought to be observed and used of them that are addicted to the study of the Law, and what on the contrary part ought to be eschewed and avoided," (1620). 

Fulbeck (1560-1603) was a bencher at Gray's Inn and published this book in 1600 to offer advice to aspiring law students. One piece of advice given is to never study in the evening, for "if a man study soon after supper, the nourishment is resolved into gross vapors which doe fill the body and are very noisome obstupatives to the senses. For the meate being destitute of heat and spirit, doth ware raw and doth putrify in the Stomach. So that the brain is offended and our study greatly hindered and impeached."

Happy National Library Week!

April Fools!

Since 2002, the law school student group "TORT" (Theatre of the Relatively Talentless) has put on an annual parody musical entirely made by law students. These photos come from TORT's second production, "Law Wars, Episode IV: Parody is Not An Infringement" (2004). The show often includes law school faculty appearances and special guests, and in this case, Walter Mondale was presented with his very own Fighting Mondales hockey jersey.

Tonight, the Fighting Mondales, the University of Minnesota Law School's hockey team, take on the University of St. Thomas Fighting Apostles to defend the Golden Gavel!

The first English woman to print books under her own name!

At our open house last week, we featured several items for Women's History Month, including this 1540 printing of Magna Carta. Elisabeth (Pickering) Redman (1510-1562) was married to Robert Redman, a printer of law books in London. This copy was printed after his death and under Elisabeth's name, "imprinted at London in Fleet Street..at the sign of the George next to Saint Dunston's church" according to the colophon.