The Louis Dembitz Brandeis (1856-1941) Papers at the University of Louisville reflect the varied personal and professional interests of a Louisville native, Boston attorney, and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.

The papers generated by the Justice fall within the years, 1870-1941. They include correspondence, drafts of speeches and publications, news clipping scrapbooks, reference files, pamphlets and reports, and legal documents. Family letters, the earliest dated 1810, and biographical sketches as recent as 1976, are also found. Brandeis' pre-court years as a reform-minded Boston attorney and his active role in the Zionist movement are extensively documented in the papers. While Brandeis was on the Supreme Court, he wrote most of his letters in long-hand and kept no copies. As a result, the correspondence between the years 1916 and 1941 is primarily incoming.

The collection is divided into ten topical series. Each series, with its initialed designation and inclusive dates, is as follows:

• Series I, Nutter, McClennen, & Fish (NMF), 1881-1927
• Series II, Supreme Court (SC), 1907-1938
• Series III, Savings Bank Life Insurance (I), 1905-1906, 1929-1938
• Series IV, World War (WW), 1916-1920, 1926
• Series V, Government (G), 1916, 1924-1937
• Series VI, Zionism/Palestine (Z/P), 1905, 1913-1938
• Series VII, Miscellaneous (M), 1810, 1844-1939
• Series VIII, Clipping Scrapbooks
• Series IX, Addendum (A), 1871-1941, 1956-1976
• Series X, Warren & Brandeis/Brandeis, Dunbar & Nutter (WB), 1881-1947
  This final series is a 1978 accretion to the Brandeis papers from the Justice's former law firm.

Most printed materials that were not authored by Brandeis nor annotated by him, were not filmed. These items remain in place in the collection and are available to researchers.

Keep up with the latest research on Brandeis at the Brandeis and Harlan Watch blog.