Library Exhibit on Founders of Yale Law School

A new exhibit at Yale Law School’s Lillian Goldman Law Library examines the role of slavery in the lives, work, and law instruction of the founders of the Yale Law School. Comprising historical letters, court records, sketches, and other material, “Race, Slavery, & the Founders of Yale Law School” is open to the Yale community through Dec. 21, 2022.

“The research at the center of this exhibit takes a comprehensive view of our past so that we can be clear-eyed in how we shape our future,” explained Heather K. Gerken, Dean and Sol & Lillian Goldman Professor of Law, in a note that accompanies the exhibit.

Co-curated by Rare Book Librarian Kathryn James and Associate Director for Collections and Special Projects Fred Shapiro, the exhibit reflects years of archival research. Shortly after she was named Dean in 2017, Gerken tasked researchers at the Law Library with investigating the role of slavery and race in the lives and work of Yale Law School’s founders. The exhibit supports the broader research of the Yale and Slavery Working Group, which Yale Law School joined upon its inception in 2020.

The exhibit documents the ways in which white abolitionist and pro-slavery advocates collaborated to create the private legal academy that would become Yale Law School, specifically examining the roles of the Law School’s three most prominent founders — Seth Perkins Staples, B.A. 1797, and his later partners David Daggett, B.A. 1783, and Samuel J. Hitchcock, B.A. 1809. Materials included in the exhibit trace the three men’s participation in litigation that both challenged and bolstered the legal basis of slavery.

For more information and for events related to the exhibit, visit the library’s website.