Other Law Schools

The history of Yale has been neared (summarily) in the "Education" section of this bibliography. But there are two short survey histories of the Law School both by Frederick C. Hicks. One is a three-part series in Yale Law Library Publications Nos. 3, 4, and 5 (1936, 1937, 1938); the other is Tercentenaty pamphlet XXXIX (1935), which includes some interesting photographs. The two versions are much the same. Hide was law librarian at Yale; his assistant, Elizabeth Forgeus, who helped him write the works cited above, contributed her own "An Early Connecticut Law School: Sylvester Gilbert's School at Hebron" Connecticut Bar Journal 18(December, 1944)4:203-08. Gilbert's was one of four early private law schools in Connecticut. It existed from 1810 to 1818, when Gilbert went to Congress. He taught a total of fifty-six students, and this piece includes notes on his lectures.

The state's public law libraries are discussed by Shirley R Bysiewicz, "Facts and Figures on County Law Libraries in the Country and Especially in Connecticut" in Connecticut Bar Journal 43(March 1969)1:134-44. Ms. Bysiewicz lists eighteen county law libraries, with very brief descriptions of their holdings. Mostly she urges a set of reforms in their operation. They were transferred to the state in 1959 and are now supervised by the State Library. Robert N. Plotnick discusses their continuing difficulties--mostly financial--in "Crisis in the County Law Libraries" Connecticut Bar Journal 46(September, 1972)3:515-18. See also the editorial in the same journal by Norman K. Parsells 53(0ctober, 1979)5:387-90.