Legal History
General Legal History
- Commercial databases (accessible only from university sites)
- ABA-CLIO America: History and Life (standard bibliographic source for the study of American history)
- JSTOR (full-text history journals database)
- HeinOnline (legal periodicals dating back to early 1800s)
- Making of Modern Law (full-text of over 21,000 19th and early 20th century legal treatises & pamplets)
- APS Online (American Periodical Series; full-text popular magazines and journals 1740-1900)
- Newsbank (Access to current Kentucky and US newspapers, as well American historical papers, 1690-1876, and African American Newspapers, 1827-1998).
- Free databases:
- American Memory: Historical Collections for the National Digital Library
- Documents from the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention
- James Madison Papers
- Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation, 1774-1875 (Journals of Congress (House Journal, Senate Journal, etc.), debates (Annals of Congress, 1789-1824; Register of Debates, 1824-1837; Congressional Globe, 1833-1873, Congressional Record, 1873-) and statutes and selected documents (Statutes at Large, American State Papers, U.S. Serial Set).
- Thomas Jefferson Papers
- Slaves and the Courts, 1740-1860
- Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress
- Google Books (full-text of public domain texts, including many major treatises)
- Browse subject "law" full-text only. Feel free to add terms to this search. For example, basic search plus "Blackstone."
- New York Times Free Archive 1851-1922 (New York Times articles in public domain; indexes later articles available for-pay. May need to establish free account).
- Constitution of the United States: Analysis & Interpretation - Comprehensively comments on and annotates the Constitution
- Political Graveyard: A Historic Database of American Cemeteries
- The Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (Official biographies of persons who served in the United States Congress. Additional information can be found at historical pages maintained by the House (http://clerk.house.gov/art_history/mem_bio/index.html) and Senate (http://www.senate.gov/learning/learn_history.html ).
- Cornell University's Making of America (Full-text of major 19th century American periodicals)
- American Memory: Historical Collections for the National Digital Library
Kentucky Legal History
- Attorney Generals of Kentucky: 1792-present
- Judges of Kentucky's Highest Court: 1792-present
- Kentucky History Journals
- Register of the Kentucky State Historical Society: Indexes -- This page has links to (1) Index for the Register, volumes 72-108 (1974-2010) and (2) Table of Contents for the full run of The Register. Except for very recent articles available on Project Muse (2010-), there is no online resource for the Register.
- Filson Club History Society, 1926-2002 -- This free resource has the full-text of the Filson Club History Quarterly from 1926-2002. Note: The Print/download function is currently broken,
- Filson Club History Quarterly Index -- PDF
- Ohio Valley History, 2003-present. -- FCHQ merged with Cincinnati Historical Society's Queen City Heritage to create this journal. This full-text collection of articles is hosted by Cincinnati History Musuem.
- Louisville Free Public Library
- With a library card (free to all Jefferson County residents) one can access The Louisville Courier-Journal (1830-1922), the Cincinnati Enquirer (1841-1922), and the Nashville Tennessean (1812-1922).
- Google Books on Kentucky Legal History
- Lewis D. Dembitz, Kentucky Jurisprudence -- This scholarly treatise, by Justice Louis Dembitz Brandeis' beloved uncle, is an excellent snapshot of Kentucky law just before the changes of the 20th century. Dembitz, the author of the leading American law treatise on land titles, was recognized in his time as a leading legal scholar.
- J.F. Johnson, Famous Kentucky Tragedies and Trials: A Collection of Important and Interesting Tragedies and Criminal Trials Which Have Taken Place in Kentucky (1916)
- George Robertson, Scrap Book on Law and Politics
- University of Louisville Catalogue, Law Department Alumni List, 1847-1912 (PDF)
Kentuckians on the U.S. Supreme Court
- Federal Judicial Center http://www.fjc.gov/
- Federal Judges Biographical Database -- biographical information for all judges who have served on the U.S. District Courts, U.S. Circuit Courts, U.S. Courts of Appeals, and the Supreme Court since 1789.
- See Also: Directory of Manuscript Collections Related to Federal Judges and the Directory of Oral History Interviews Related to the Federal Courts .
- Guide to Papers of Louis Dembitz Brandeis http://www.law.louisville.edu/library/collections/brandeis/
- Guide to Papers of John Marshall Harlan http://www.law.louisville.edu/library/collections/harlan
General Kentucky History
- Kentucky Encyclopedia
- KYVL: Kentuckiana Digital Library
- University of Louisville Digital Collections
- Louisville Free Public Library
- Databases and a Kentucky Room with historical newspapers on microfilm.
- Lexington Public Library Kentucky Resources
Southern Legal History
- University of North Carolina Center for the Study of the American South
- University of Maryland Freedmen and Southern Society Project
- Jacksonian Miscellanies
- University of Mississippi Center for the Study of Southern Culture
- Stanford University's Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project
- Louisville Free Public Library
- With a library card (free to all Jefferson County residents) one can access The Louisville Courier-Journal (1830-1922), the Cincinnati Enquirer (1841-1922), and the Nashville Tennessean (1812-1922).
- The Library of Virginia
- LSU U.S. Civil War Center
del.icio.us This page has been created by Kurt Metzmeier, kurt.metzmeier@louisville.edu , as a convenience to legal history researchers, but is not meant to be definitive. Please send any suggestions directly to Professor Metzmeier.
Last updated: January 7, 2013
