Calling Sherlock Holmes…

My latest volunteer project, to quote Winston Churchill, was “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma." I was handed twenty-eight legal depositions, tucked in a manila folder, with a notation that simply said: “The depositions were part of a suit by multiple claimants for the $500 reward.” First, the riddle:  Who offered the $500 reward? ...

Behind the Red Tape at AAS

Dana

Although we’re not often thought of as a legal repository, we do have a few famous firsts to claim in the realm of legal research.  In our manuscript collection lives the notebook of Thomas Lechford, 1638-1641, the first lawyer in Boston.  AAS was also the first government documents repository.  In 1814, in an effort to ...