Legal Studies Research Guide

Archives and Special Collections

The Special Collection and Archives Department (Floor 25, W.E.B. Du Bois Library) contains manuscript collections; the records of many organizations, businesses,and community groups of the region; and a variety of materials that document the history of UMass Amherst. Its collections include the following which may be of interest to legal studies researchers:

Note: This listing is not exhaustive.

Anti-Slavery Pamphlets
Principally United States with emphasis on anti-slavery movements in New England, especially Massachusetts, 1725-1911; includes speeches, sermons, proceedings of meetings, and publications of societies, including the American Colonization Society; some pro-slavery items. Search the library catalog by title or, browse the list of titles by initiating a catalog search by the Library of Congress call number E441.A1.

F. Lauriston Bullard Sacco-Vanzette Collection
Scrapbooks of clippings on the Sacco-Vanzetti case collected and mounted by F. Lauriston Bullard (b. 1866- d. 1952), chief editorial writer (from 1919 to 1943) of the Boston Herald, winner of a 1926 Pulitzer Prize in journalism for his editorial on the case endtitled "We Submit-"; clippings from North American and European newspapers and periodicals; includes some pamphlets.

Massachusetts Pamphlets
Pamphlets, mainly by or about Massachusetts persons, dating from 1729-1902, including election, ordination, installation, dedication, fast-day, mission, farewell and funeral sermons; Fourth of July orations; and addresses to or sponsored by some 45 Massachusetts societies, etc.