Difference between revisions of "Main Page"

Latest revision as of 09:05, 10 September 2024

Welcome to the George Wythe Encyclopedia, a project of The Wolf Law Library at the College of William & Mary's Marshall-Wythe School of Law in Williamsburg, Virginia. The encyclopedia provides historical and bibliographic information for the George Wythe Collection, The Wolf Law Library's ongoing re-creation of Wythe's Library, and is a compilation of material relating to the life of George Wythe, signer of the Declaration of Independence, Chancellor for the Commonwealth of Virginia, and first professor of law in America.

The George Wythe Room

Title page from William Blackstone's Law Tracts, volume one, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1762.

Explore the George Wythe Room, the Wolf Law Library's re-creation of George Wythe's library. Pages for each title in the collection include information about the work and its author, evidence for why the library believes George Wythe owned each title, and descriptions and photos of the copy held at The Wolf Law Library.

You can also find entries for the various people who received Wythe's books after Thomas Jefferson inherited them, and learn more about the copies of Wythe books that survive to this day.

Jefferson's inventory of titles inherited from Wythe.
Surviving books which belonged to Wythe.

Shelf from the re-creation of George Wythe's library.

The George Wythe Encyclopedia

Portrait of George Wythe in the Wolf Law Library's Wythe Room.

George Wythe is preeminent in the list of Virginia's revolutionary founding fathers, and his life and careers as a teacher and judge gave him the opportunity to have a profound impact on the history of the Commonwealth and the United States.

Biographical information for George Wythe.
List of Wythe's students.
Details of Wythe's cases.
George Wythe and slavery.
Accounts of Wythe's death and the ensuing murder trial.
Wythe's letters and correspondence.
The story of Wythe's lost law lectures.
Wythe ephemera.
A bibliography of resources about Wythe.

Featured Case

Hudgins v. Wrights, 11 Va. (1 Hen. & Mun.) 134 (1806), was a case involving several slaves petitioning for their freedom and discussed who had the burden of proving whether they should be free or not. It provides an illustrative example of the attitudes towards race that the members of Virginia society, even its highly-educated members, held during that time. It also shows an instance in which a progressive decision by George Wythe was quickly diluted by Virginia's legal system.

About The Wolf Law Library

The law library at the College of William & Mary's Marshall-Wythe School of Law was rededicated in 2006 as The Wolf Law Library. The current facility was built in 1980, but the library was expanded and completely renovated in 2005-2007 to include space for over 400,000 volumes, seating for more than 500, 12 group study rooms, and the Nicholas J. St. George Rare Book Room, where some of the library's materials relating to John Marshall and George Wythe are on display. The library's mission includes providing access to law and law-related resources, as well as a wide range of services that support the law school curriculum and programs, promoting the advancement of legal scholarship, and fulfilling the information needs of students, faculty, and the local legal community.

For a detailed history of the library, see "America's First Law School Library: A History of the College of William and Mary's Marshall-Wythe Law Library, 1779-1995" by James S. Heller, in Law Librarianship: Historical Perspectives, ed. Laura N. Gasaway & Michael G. Chiorazzi (Littleton, CO: Rothman, 1996), 43-76.

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 {{DISPLAYTITLE:Wythepedia: The George Wythe Encyclopedia}}
-Welcome to the [[George Wythe]] Encyclopedia, a project of [[#About The Wolf Law Library|The Wolf Law Library]] at the [http://www.wm.edu College of William & Mary's] [http://law.wm.edu/ Marshall-Wythe School of Law] in Williamsburg, Virginia. The encyclopedia provides historical and bibliographic information for the [[George Wythe Room|George Wythe Collection]], The Wolf Law Library's ongoing re-creation of [[Wythe's Library]], and is a compilation of material relating to the life of George Wythe, signer of the [[Declaration of Independence]], chancellor for the Commonwealth of Virginia, and first professor of law in America.
+Welcome to the [[George Wythe]] Encyclopedia, a project of [[#About The Wolf Law Library|The Wolf Law Library]] at the [https://www.wm.edu College of William & Mary's] [https://law.wm.edu/ Marshall-Wythe School of Law] in Williamsburg, Virginia. The encyclopedia provides historical and bibliographic information for the [[George Wythe Room|George Wythe Collection]], The Wolf Law Library's ongoing re-creation of [[Wythe's Library]], and is a compilation of material relating to the life of George Wythe, signer of the [[Declaration of Independence]], Chancellor for the Commonwealth of Virginia, and first professor of law in America.
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 Explore the [[George Wythe Room]], the Wolf Law Library's re-creation of [[Wythe's Library|George Wythe's library]]. Pages for each title in the collection include information about the work and its author, evidence for why the library believes George Wythe owned each title, and descriptions and photos of the copy held at The Wolf Law Library.
-You can also find entries for the various people who received Wythe books after [[Thomas Jefferson]] inherited them and learn more about the copies of Wythe books that survive to this day.
+<!-- Broken RandomImage code | style="color: #000; padding: 5px 2px;" | [[File:GlanvilleTractatus1554TitlePage.jpg|thumb|left|250px]]Explore the [[George Wythe Room]], the Wolf Law Library's re-creation of [[Wythe's Library|George Wythe's library]]. Pages for each title in the collection include information about the work and its author, evidence for why the library believes George Wythe owned each title, and descriptions and photos of the copy held at The Wolf Law Library. -->
+You can also find entries for the various people who received Wythe's books after [[Thomas Jefferson]] inherited them, and learn more about the copies of Wythe books that survive to this day.
 <div style="overflow: hidden;"> <!-- This DIV fixes bullet lists in IE -->
 * Jefferson's [[Jefferson Inventory|inventory of titles inherited from Wythe]].
-* Surviving [[Known Surviving Wythe Volumes|books that belonged to Wythe]].
+* Surviving [[Known Surviving Wythe Volumes|books which belonged to Wythe]].
 </div>
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+|imagename=KamesHistoricalLawTracts1761Spine.jpg
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+| style="vertical-align: bottom; padding: 0;"|
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 | style="background: #cef2e0; font-size: 120%; font-weight: bold; border: 1px solid #a3bfb1; text-align: left; color: #000; padding: 3px;" | The George Wythe Encyclopedia
 |-
-| style="color: #000; padding: 5px 2px;" | [[File:GeorgeWythePortrait.jpg|link=Depictions of Wythe|thumb|right|300px|Portrait of [[George Wythe]] in the Wolf Law Library's [http://law.wm.edu/library/collections/rarebooks/ Nicholas J. St. George Rare Book Room].]]George Wythe is preeminent in the list of Virginia's revolutionary founding fathers, and his life and careers as a teacher and [[Wythe's Judicial Career|judge]] gave him the opportunity to have a profound impact on the history of the Commonwealth and the United States.
+| style="color: #000; padding: 5px 2px;" | [[File:GeorgeWythePortrait.jpg|link=Depictions of Wythe|thumb|right|300px|Portrait of [[George Wythe]] in the Wolf Law Library's [[George Wythe Room|Wythe Room]].]]George Wythe is preeminent in the list of Virginia's revolutionary founding fathers, and his life and careers as a teacher and [[Wythe's Judicial Career|judge]] gave him the opportunity to have a profound impact on the history of the Commonwealth and the United States.
 * Biographical information for [[George Wythe]].
 * List of [[Wythe the Teacher|Wythe's students]].
 * Details of [[Wythe's Judicial Career|Wythe's cases]].
+* [[George Wythe and Slavery|George Wythe and slavery]].
 * Accounts of Wythe's [[Death of George Wythe|death]] and the ensuing murder trial.
-* [[Wythe Monument|Memorials to Wythe]].
 * Wythe's [[Letters and Papers|letters and correspondence]].
 * The story of Wythe's [[Wythe's Lost Papers|lost law lectures]].
@@ Line 165: / Line 181: @@
 | style="background: #cef2e0; font-size: 120%; font-weight: bold; border: 1px solid #a3bfb1; text-align: left; color: #000; padding: 3px;" | Featured Case
 |-
-| style="color: #000; padding: 5px 2px;" | [[File:WytheAylettVAylett1852.jpg|link=Aylett v. Aylett|left|100px]]<p>'''''[[Aylett v. Aylett]]''''', [https://catalog.swem.wm.edu/law/Record/2099031 Wythe 219 (1793)], is an opinion from the Virginia High Court of Chancery that discussed whether a leasehold could be inherited.</p><p>[[George Wythe]] took the opportunity to write an extensive discourse on why poorly-decided cases should not be considered binding precedent, using references to literature, to contemporary legal authorities, and to ancient Greek and Roman works.</p>
+| style="color: #000; padding: 5px 2px;" | [[File:HeningHudginsVWrights1808P134.jpg|link=Hudgins v. Wrights|left|100px]]<p>'''''[[Hudgins v. Wrights]]''''', [https://catalog.libraries.wm.edu:443/01COWM_WM:01COWM_WM_ALMA:01COWM_WM_ALMA21593279330003196 11 Va. (1 Hen. & Mun.) 134 (1806)], was a case involving several slaves petitioning for their freedom and discussed who had the burden of proving whether they should be free or not. It provides an illustrative example of the attitudes towards race that the members of Virginia society, even its highly-educated members, held during that time. It also shows an instance in which a progressive decision by [[George Wythe]] was quickly diluted by Virginia's legal system.</p>
 |}
 | style="border: 1px solid transparent;" |
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 | style="background: #cedff2; font-size: 120%; font-weight: bold; border: 1px solid #a3b0bf; text-align: left; color: #000; padding: 3px;" | Featured Article
 |-
-| style="color: #000; padding: 5px 2px;" | [[File:LockeEssayConcerningHumaneUnderstanding1700ListFront.jpg|link=Essay Concerning Humane Understanding|left|99px]]George Wythe's copy of John Locke's '''''[[Essay Concerning Humane Understanding]]''''' (1700) contained a handwritten "grocery list" of [[Essay_Concerning_Humane_Understanding#Evidence_for_Inclusion_in_Wythe.27s_Library|vegetable, herb, and flower seeds]] probably intended for planting in Wythe's garden, either at his house in Williamsburg, or his residence in Richmond, Virginia.
+| style="color: #000; padding: 5px 2px;" | [[File:BenbridgeWythe.jpg|link=Wythe the Lawyer|left|205px]]'''[[Wythe the Lawyer]]:''' Before he was a Burgess, a Delegate to the Continental Congress, and Chancellor of Virginia, George Wythe spent many years as a humble country lawyer. Read about [[Wythe the Lawyer|some of his cases]].
 |}
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 | style="background: #ddcef2; font-size: 120%; font-weight: bold; border: 1px solid #afa3bf; text-align: left; color: #000; padding: 3px;" | Featured Picture
 |-
-| style="color: #000; padding: 5px 2px;" | [[File:WytheShoebuckle.jpg|border|right|150px]]<p>'''[[:File:WytheShoebuckle.jpg|A shoe buckle once owned by George Wythe]]''', with ruby-colored stones and a pin added later to turn it into a brooch. From the [http://scdb.swem.wm.edu/?p=collections/findingaid&id=6624&q=&rootcontentid=212413#id213290 Special Collections Research Center,] Earl Gregg Swem Library at the College of William &amp; Mary.</p>
+| style="color: #000; padding: 5px 2px;" | [[File:PlutarchLives1727Vol8Bookplate.jpg|border|right|200px]]<p>Recently acquired by the law library, volume 8 of ''[[Plutarch's Lives]],'' translated by M. André Dacier (London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, 1727), featuring George Wythe's personal '''[[:File:PlutarchLives1727Vol8Bookplate.jpg|bookplate]]''':</p>
 |}
 |}
 == About The Wolf Law Library ==
-The law library at the College of William & Mary's [http://law.wm.edu/ Marshall-Wythe School of Law] was rededicated in 2006 as [http://law.wm.edu/library/ The Wolf Law Library]. The current facility was built in 1980, but the library was expanded and completely renovated in 2005-2007 to include space for over 400,000 volumes, seating for more than 500, 12 group study rooms, and the [http://law.wm.edu/library/collections/rarebooks/ Nicholas J. St. George Rare Book Room], where some of the library's materials relating to [[John Marshall]] and [[George Wythe]] are on display. The library's mission includes providing access to law and law-related resources, as well as a wide range of services that support the law school curriculum and programs, promoting the advancement of legal scholarship, and fulfilling the information needs of students, faculty, and the local legal community.
+The law library at the College of William & Mary's [https://law.wm.edu/ Marshall-Wythe School of Law] was rededicated in 2006 as [https://law.wm.edu/library/ The Wolf Law Library]. The current facility was built in 1980, but the library was expanded and completely renovated in 2005-2007 to include space for over 400,000 volumes, seating for more than 500, 12 group study rooms, and the [https://law.wm.edu/library/collections/rarebooks/ Nicholas J. St. George Rare Book Room], where some of the library's materials relating to [https://law.wm.edu/about/ourhistory/John%20Marshall,%20the%20Great%20Chief%20Justice.php John Marshall] and [https://law.wm.edu/about/ourhistory/George%20Wythe,%20First%20Law%20Professor%20in%20America.php George Wythe] are on display. The library's mission includes providing access to law and law-related resources, as well as a wide range of services that support the law school curriculum and programs, promoting the advancement of legal scholarship, and fulfilling the information needs of students, faculty, and the local legal community.
-For a detailed history of the library, see [http://scholarship.law.wm.edu/libpubs/82/ "America's First Law School Library: A History of the College of William and Mary's Marshall-Wythe Law Library, 1779-1995"] by James S. Heller, in ''Law Librarianship: Historical Perspectives,'' ed. Laura N. Gasaway & Michael G. Chiorazzi (Littleton, CO: Rothman, 1996), 43-76.
+For a detailed history of the library, see [https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/libpubs/82/ "America's First Law School Library: A History of the College of William and Mary's Marshall-Wythe Law Library, 1779-1995"] by James S. Heller, in ''Law Librarianship: Historical Perspectives,'' ed. Laura N. Gasaway & Michael G. Chiorazzi (Littleton, CO: Rothman, 1996), 43-76.
 [[Category:Contents]]

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