One Hundred Years of AALL History
1916–1925
Prepared by Frank G. Houdek
Spring 2006
1916 | 1917 | 1918 | 1919 | 1920 | 1921 | 1922 | 1923 | 1924 | 1925
Previous Decade | 100 Years Home | Next Decade 
1916
April . . . The first issue of volume 9 of Law Library Journal contains a nine-page “Alphabetical List of State Acts Cited by Popular Name,” compiled by A.M. Hendrickson, librarian of West Publishing Company. The 1999 edition of Shepard's Acts and Cases By Popular Names, Federal and State will be published in three volumes and contain 2,790 pages.
June 27–29 . . . The 11th Annual Meeting is held in Asbury Park, New Jersey.
June 28 . . . Franklin O. Poole, chair of the Committee on the Index to Legal Periodicals and Law Library Journal (a position he will hold from 1915 until his death in 1943), reports that “subscriptions have somewhat increased, the additions amounting to 22, raising the total from 168 to 190” (9 LLJ 43).
Also during the year, Harry S. Bitner, future AALL Executive Board member (1953–56) and president (1963–64), is born. While associate law librarian at Columbia (1946–54), he will coauthor (with Miles O. Price) Effective Legal Research, which soon becomes a classic in the field. Later, he will direct the Yale (1957–65) and Cornell (1965–76) law libraries. He will become one of only three individuals (the others are Morris Cohen and Thomas Reynolds) to receive both of AALL's highest awards, the Joseph L. Andrews Bibliographical Award and the Marian Gould Gallagher Distinguished Service Award.
1917
June 23–27 . . . The 12th Annual Meeting is held in Louisville, Kentucky, at the Hotel Henry Watterson. As is frequently the custom, two joint sessions are conducted by AALL and the National Association of State Libraries.
June 23 . . . In his presidential address, Luther E. Hewitt of the Law Association of Philadelphia, summarizes the work of AALL during its first ten years of existence. In addition to highlighting the Index to Legal Periodicals and Law Library Journal and the development of a tentative list of legal subject headings, he notes that “one of the most effective accomplishments is the fraternal feeling that has developed among the different law librarians of the United States” (10 LLJ 32). He also predicts that “[t]here will be in the future a greater study as to law library equipment,” predicting that “special tables will be invented on which books can be arranged in temporary classifications for special study” (10 LLJ 33).
June 25 . . . Treasurer Edward R. Redstone of the Social Law Library in Boston reports $1,957.26 in receipts for the year 1916–17, $1,775.47 in expenditures, leaving a balance of $181.79 at the end of the fiscal year.
1918
July 1–7 . . . AALL holds its 13th Annual Meeting in Saratoga Springs, New York. According to the list published in Law Library Journal (11 LLJ 67), a total of twenty-six individuals attend the various meetings.
July 3 . . . Reflecting world events, Law Library Journal publishes an article titled “The Effect of the World War on Anglo-American Legal Literature” by Frederick C. Hicks, librarian at Columbia Law School (11 LLJ 33). He reports that “one effect of the war has been to reduce the production of law books,” noting that the average annual output of law books in the United States, exclusive of serials, has dropped from 728 in the four years preceding the war (1910–13) to 313 in the four years since its beginning (1914–17).
1919
January 19 . . . One hundred-sixteen individuals are included on the list of members published in Law Library Journal (11 LLJ 85–87). Among the twelve associate members on the list are R. Carswell of Toronto, Canada, the Frank Shepard Co. of New York City, and C. Willard Smith of the West Publishing Co. in St. Paul, Minnesota. Concerned that membership has not increased in the past year, Treasurer Anna Ryan will propose in June that “a special committee on new members . . . be appointed to . . . present to law librarians who are not members of the Association the advantages of membership in our Organization” (12 LLJ 52).
June 26 . . . At the 14th Annual Meeting in Asbury Park, New Jersey, Frederick C. Hicks, librarian of Columbia University Law Library, is elected president of AALL. He becomes the first academic law librarian to serve in this capacity. After completing two terms as president (1919–20 and 1920–21), he will go on to serve two additional terms on the Executive Board (1921–24, 1930–32).
Also during the year, two future AALL presidents are born, Arthur Charpentier (1919–89) and Mary Oliver (1919–2005). Charpentier, who will serve as law librarian at Boston University, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and Yale University during his distinguished career, will become president in 1965–66 after chairing local arrangements for the 1959 and 1965 Annual Meetings and serving as LLAGNY president in 1957–58. Mary Oliver will spend almost her entire law library career at the University of North Carolina, where she will become the first woman on the law school faculty. A founding member and president (1954–55) of the Southeastern chapter of AALL, Oliver serves AALL as its president in 1972–73. Both Charpentier (in 1987) and Oliver (in 1992) will receive AALL's highest honor, the Marian Gould Gallagher Distinguished Service Award.
1920
April . . . After “so acceptably edit[ing]” the Index to Legal Periodicals and Law Library Journal for four years (1915-19), Gertrude E. Woodard feels “it necessary to give up the work and confine herself to her duties at the University of Michigan.” (13 LLJ 29) She is replaced by Elsie Basset of Columbia University Law Library, beginning with the first issue of volume 13. Basset will continue for another volume, but Woodard will return in 1922 to edit three additional volumes (15-17).
June 3 . . . The first banquet to culminate an AALL Annual Meeting is held at the Antlers Hotel in Colorado Springs, during the 15th Annual Meeting. In describing the affair, F.E. Chipman will write that “[t]he management of the hotel heartily cooperated with the committee having charge of the arrangements. A large oval table, seating twenty-four, was laid out in the main dining room early in the day and tastefully decorated, which excited considerable interest and much favorable comment. He further notes that the “suggestion that a precedent should be established and such dinners become a regular feature at the annual conferences was met with enthusiasm.” (13 LLJ 50)
Also during the year, J. Myron Jacobstein is born in Detroit, Michigan. After stints as assistant librarian at the University of Illinois and Columbia University, Jacobstein will direct the law libraries at the University of Colorado (1959-63) and, most notably, Stanford University (1963-87). He will serve on the Executive Board (1973-76) and as AALL president (1978-79). A prolific scholar, best known for his collaboration with Roy M. Mersky on Fundamentals of Legal Research, Jacobstein will receive the Marian Gould Gallagher Distinguished Service Award in 1987.
1921
June 21-24 . . . AALL holds its 16th Annual Meeting in conjunction with the annual conference of the American Library Association (as per its usual custom) at the rich resort beach town of Swampscott, Massachusetts, north of Boston. The New Ocean House, “one of the most up-to-date and exclusive hotels on the Atlantic Coast,” serves as headquarters. “During convention week, the New Ocean House will furnish music by the Meyer Davis Orchestra of Washington and Philadelphia, and opportunity for dancing on several evenings will be provided. . . . Ocean bathing for those desiring it is available, temperature of water in June about 60.” (14 LLJ 2, 3)
June 21 . . . In his president's address, Frederick C. Hicks challenges attendees “to offer something tangible to our members, and particularly . . . to make [the] Association more useful to library assistants. Would not more of them enter our membership if, in return for their dues, they received the [Law Library] Journal issued separately from the Index [to Legal Periodicals]?” (14 LLJ 29) To date, the Journal and Index are published in a combined form that is provided to subscribers only.
June 21 . . . A motion to amend the bylaws to raise the annual dues of regular and associate members from $2 to $3 is unanimously passed.
1922
June 26–July 1 . . . AALL holds its 17th Annual Meeting at the Hotel Statler in Detroit, Michigan. President Gilson G. Glasier, a charter AALL member and longtime Wisconsin state librarian, writes that “[i]t will, no doubt, prove an inspiration . . . to meet on the shores of this great prospective waterway . . . in a city noted for its progress and efficiency” (15 LLJ 31).
June 27 . . . The topic of today's “round table”—a frequent type of educational offering at early Annual Meetings—is “The Law Library as a Business Enterprise.” In his introduction, W.H. Alexander, assistant librarian, Association of the Bar of the City of New York, notes that “[t]he librarian is a business executive who must solve the problems of policy, of organization, and of efficient operation” (15 LLJ 19).
Dec. 2 . . . Earl C. Borgeson is born. He will serve on AALL's Executive Board from 1965 to 1967, and as the Association's president in 1968–69. He will also serve as president of the LLNE and SCALL chapters. In 1988, he will receive the Marian Gould Gallagher Distinguished Service Award.
1923
April . . . According to the “Law Library Notes” column of Law Library Journal, “Librarian E.A. Feazel for some years past has had the Index [to Legal Periodicals] clipped and mounted on cards and the cards inserted under the appropriate heads in the Subject Card Catalog of the Cleveland Bar Association Library” (16 LLJ 11).
April 24–28 . . . Founding president A.J. Small is among the twenty-eight included on the list of members in attendance (16 LLJ 11) at the 18th Annual Meeting held at the Hotel Marquette in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Small has attended each of the Association's eighteen meetings to date.
Also during the year, Materials and Methods of Legal Research, the authoritative masterpiece of legal research and bibliography by Columbia University Law Librarian (and former AALL president) Frederick C. Hicks, is published by Lawyers Co-operative Pub. Co. A second edition will be published in 1933, a third in 1942. About the book, William Roalfe will later write: “Had Frederick C. Hicks written but one book, . . . his claim to distinction would have been established, for this book was not only a landmark in the field of Anglo-American legal bibliography but . . . it became an indispensable tool in every law library for many years. . . .” (50 LLJ 88).
1924
June 25 . . . In reporting for the Committee on Public Documents, Dr. G.E. Wire, Worcester County (Mass.) Law Library, notes that there are “United States official publications having . . . the force of laws, which we, as law librarians, have to buy,” despite the fact that these “are supplied . . . to scores of public reference, public circulating, college, school, society, and historical libraries . . . absolutely free. And, for the most part, they only clog the shelves of these libraries, and do nobody any good. . . . I see no prospect of securing any federal legislation giving law libraries free documents.” (17 LLJ 36) It won't be until the passage of P.L. 95-261 (codified at 44 U.S.C. § 1916) in 1978 that Congress authorizes the Public Printer to designate the library of an accredited law school as a depository library. 44 U.S.C. § 1916.
June 30 . . . Treasurer Sumner Y. Wheeler, Essex County (Mass.) Law Library, reports that the total receipts of the Association for fiscal year 1923–24 were $1,810.79, disbursements $1,112.25, leaving a balance of $698.54.
July 1–3 . . . AALL's 19th Annual Meeting is held at “The Casino,” Saratoga Springs, New York, with President Andrew H. Mettee, of the Library Company of the Baltimore Bar, presiding. Thirty members attend the meeting. (17 LLJ 6)
1925
April . . . Commencing with the first issue of volume 18, Eldon R. James, librarian of the Harvard Law Library and professor of law, takes over the reins as editor of the Index to Legal Periodicals and Law Library Journal upon the resignation of Gertrude E. Woodard. James will continue in the role through 1934, editing ten volumes (18–27), when he will become AALL president.
July 7–9 . . . AALL holds its 20th Annual Meeting in Seattle, Washington, convening at The Olympic hotel, newly opened in December 1924. President Sumner Y. Wheeler of the Essex County (Mass.) Library, presides during the conference. Robert E. Jarvis, librarian of the King County (Wash.) Law Library, “extend[s] a cordial invitation to the men of the Association to avail themselves of the hospitality of the College Club. A similar invitation to the ladies of the Association [is] extended by the Women's University Club.” [18 LLJ 127]
July 8 . . . Anna M. Ryan of the Buffalo (N.Y.) Law Library, who has previously served as treasurer (1918–23), takes office as the second woman elected to serve on the AALL Executive Board. The first was Gertrude E. Woodard, University of Michigan, in 1910–11.
Sept. 1 . . . Roy M. Mersky is born to Isadore and Rose Mirsky. Mersky, whose surname will be changed by a high school registrar's spelling error, will work for eleven years at the law libraries of Yale, Washington State, and University of Colorado, before arriving at the University of Texas in 1965 to begin an illustrious tenure at the Tarlton Law Library. Chair of numerous AALL committees and tireless proponent of law librarians to the ABA and AALS, Mersky will receive the Marian Gould Gallagher Distinguished Service Award in 2005.