One Hundred Years of AALL History
1926–1935
Prepared by Frank G. Houdek
Spring 2006
1926 | 1927 | 1928 | 1929 | 1930 | 1931 | 1932 | 1933 | 1934 | 1935
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1926
June 14 . . . Grace W. (Betty) Taylor, who will enjoy a remarkable career at the University of Florida Law Library, including serving as its director from 1962 to 2003, is born. A leader in library technology, Taylor will serve as program chair of the 1981 Annual Meeting, serve on the AALL Executive Board (1981–84), and receive the Marian Gould Gallagher Distinguished Service Award in 1997. The ever-active Taylor also will cochair the local advisory committee for the 2002 Annual Meeting in Orlando.
Oct. 4 . . . In her report as secretary and treasurer, Lucile Vernon of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, notes that AALL membership now stands at 141, of which 118 are regular members and 23 are associate members. The current bank balance is $1080.27. (19 LLJ 47, 49)
1927
June 21–23 . . . For the first time in fifteen years—and only the second time in its history—AALL meets in Canada. Fifty-seven are listed in attendance (22 LLJ 59–60) at the 22nd Annual Meeting, held in Toronto and headquartered at the Queens Hotel (reopened as the Royal York in 1929).
June 21 . . . In his president's address, John T. Fitzpatrick, New York State Law Library, offers the following: “Mr. Small has been re-elected law librarian for the sixth term, this in spite of the fact that he is a democrat and the Iowa Legislature is rarely, if ever, democratic. So Mr. Small must be indispensable to Iowa as he is to us.” (20 LLJ 24) The indispensable Mr. A.J. Small, AALL's founding president who is now serving as chair of the Committee on Membership, will report later in the day that the Association has added 34 new members since the last meeting. (One is Hobart R. Coffey, University of Michigan Law Library, who, more than twenty years later, in 1948–49, will serve as AALL president himself.)
June 21 . . . Considered the “leading authority” on the subject, Frederick C. Hicks, librarian, Columbia University Law Library, presents a provocative paper on “The Future of Legal Bibliography” at the Annual Meeting in Toronto. It is subsequently published in Law Library Journal (20 LLJ 30).
Nov. 2 . . . Morris L. Cohen, who will direct the law school libraries at Buffalo (1961–63), Pennsylvania (1963–71), Harvard (1971–81), and Yale (1981–91), is born. Cohen will be the guiding force behind AALL's rotating educational institutes (1964–75) and serve as Association president in 1970–71. Cohen will receive the Marian Gould Gallagher Distinguished Service Award in 1991, and become the only individual twice honored by AALL with the Joseph L. Andrews Bibliographical Award, in 1996 and again in 1999.
1928
May 29–June 1 . . . AALL holds its 23rd Annual Meeting in French Lick, Indiana, at the French Lick Springs Hotel. For one person, a room without bath, but with hot and cold running water and private lavatory, is $7 (court room) or $8 (outside room) per day; a room with bath is $10. (21 LLJ 3)
May 29 . . . Twenty-two years after reigning as AALL's first president and still “an example of perennial youth” according to current president John T. Fitzpatrick (21 LLJ 23), A.J. Small describes the environment from which AALL emerged in 1906, as well as the first and subsequent early Annual Meetings, in an address titled “Is There an Excuse for the Association's Existence or the Spirit of Yesterday Contrasted with the Spirit of Today” (21 LLJ 56).
May 31 . . . The day's “agenda” consists of an excursion to Marengo Cave (discovered in 1883), conducted by Rowena U. Compton, law librarian, Indiana University School of Law.
August 17 . . . Jane L. Hammond, who will serve as AALL secretary (1965–70) and president (1975–76), is born. She also will twice serve as program cochair of Annual Meetings, in 1971 and 1980, and will head the search committee that helps to hire AALL's first executive director, William Jepson, in 1981. In recognition of her service, Hammond, library director at both Villanova and Cornell, will receive the Marian Gould Gallagher Distinguished Service Award in 1993.
1929
Jan. 21 . . . Marie Wallace, who will become one of the prime movers behind the development of the Private Law Libraries Special Interest Section, and serve as its chair in 1979–80, is born. Wallace will receive the Marian Gould Gallagher Distinguished Service Award in 1997.
May 13–17 . . . After an absence of fifteen years, the Association returns to the nation's capital for its 24th Annual Meeting. Presiding is Frederick W. Schenk, librarian of the University of Chicago Law Library, remarkable considering his presence at the very first annual meeting at Narragansett Pier, Rhode Island in 1906, and his subsequent service to AALL as vice-president (1911–13), Executive Board member (1907–09, 1914–15) and editor of Law Library Journal (1908, 1912–14). Sixty-nine members and guests are listed (23 LLJ 71–72) as attending the meeting conducted at the Washington Hotel.
May 17 . . . A resolution is unanimously passed at the fifth session of the Annual Meeting recognizing that “for the first time in twenty-three years, the kind and cheerful face of our first President, Mr. Small has not been amongst those gathered here [because of illness], and . . . that this meeting send to Mr. Small its heartfelt, earnest wish that his recovery be rapid and complete and that another unbroken record of twenty-three years be again attained by him. . . .” (23 LLJ 46) Small will, in fact, return in 1930 and remain active in AALL until his death in 1937.
Nov. 29 . . . Leah Chanin, who will become AALL president in 1981–82 after serving a stint on the Executive Board (1975–78), is born. Chanin, who will direct the Mercer University School of Law Library for nearly thirty years (1964–92), also will serve as program chair of the 1974 Annual Meeting, and chair several important committees, including Relations with Publishers & Dealers and Legislation and Legal Developments. She will be honored with the Marian Gould Gallagher Distinguished Service Award in 2003.
1930
June 24–27 . . . AALL celebrates its 25th anniversary at the Annual Meeting held in Los Angeles, California, at the Biltmore Hotel. In addition to the host of letters from past presidents that are read into the proceedings (24 LLJ 2–7), a highlight is the presentation of A.J. Small's paper titled “Reflections” (24 LLJ 12), an eyewitness account of AALL's founding by the man about whom it is said, “It is really due to him that this association came into existence” (24 LLJ 1). As described in the proceedings, the first session of the historic meeting
was called to order by President Frederick W. Schenk promptly at 8:30 p.m. After a few introductory remarks, he called upon Mr. Robert Owens, Librarian of the San Francisco Law Library for an address of welcome. The cordial greeting of Mr. Owens was followed by a felicitous and urbane welcome by Mr. Thomas W. Robinson, Librarian of the Los Angeles County Law Library and the ceremony of hanging out the latchstring was completed by Mr. William R. Roalfe, then Librarian of the University of Southern California. . . . To properly acknowledge these hospitable addresses, President Schenk called upon Mr. Klapp, Librarian of the Minneapolis Bar Association, who responded to the graciousness of the greetings with an eloquent appreciation of California's charm. [23 LLJ 117–18]
June 24 . . . The Constitution is amended to add a new “life membership” class, to which an individual who has been a member of the Association but is now retired from active library may be elected by a vote of two-thirds of those present at any regular meeting. (23 LLJ 119) On the following day, ten individuals will be elected as AALL's first life members; among them are two of the twenty-five founding members, Dr. George E. Wire, Worcester County (Mass.) Law Library, and John E. King, Minnesota State Library. (24 LLJ 4)
June 25 . . . During the evening, an informal reception in honor of the president and past presidents of the Association, is held at the Chateau la Martine. The “delightful affair” includes “music . . . for dancing and refreshments;” the “atmosphere of sociability and fellowship . . . made the occasion one long to be remembered by those present” (24 LLJ 8–9).
June 26 . . . Having previously served as a member of the Executive Board in 1926–27, Rosamond Parma, the first librarian of the University of California, Berkeley Law Library, is elected AALL president. She becomes the first woman to hold this position, and will serve a second term in 1931–32.
September 11 . . . The “Roalfe Plan” (later published at 24 LLJ 60–63) first appears in the form of a letter written by William R. Roalfe, newly appointed as librarian of Duke University Law School, to President Parma. The plan, which will have significant and lasting impact on AALL's development, includes suggestions such as establishing full-time staff at a permanent headquarters, enlarging Law Library Journal, and seeking financial assistance from a foundation.
Also during the year, Joseph L. Andrews begins a thirty-five year career (1930–65) as reference librarian for the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. Two years after his death in 1965, AALL will establish one of its highest honors in his name, the Joseph L. Andrews Bibliographical Award.
1931
January 19 . . . Margaret C. Klingelsmith, librarian of the University of Pennsylvania's Biddle Law Library for thirty-two years (1899–1931) and a former AALL vice-president (1912–13), dies at the age of 79. She earned an LL.B. from Pennsylvania in 1898, and was either the second or the third woman in the city of Philadelphia to be admitted to the Bar. Though not in attendance at the first Annual Meeting in Narragansett Pier, R.I., in 1906, she is one of the twenty-five charter members of AALL, and the only woman. An anonymous memorial calls her “one of the best known and best loved of [AALL's] members,” and notes that “her charming personality added greatly to the enjoyment of the meetings she attended” (24 LLJ 64).
June 15 . . . With a total of 202, AALL's membership surpasses the two-hundred mark for the first time, according to the report of Secretary-Treasurer Arthur S. McDaniel. There is 1 honorary member, 10 life members, 162 regular members, and 29 associate members.
June 22–26 . . . The 26th Annual Meeting is held in New Haven, Connecticut, at the Sterling Law Buildings into which the Yale Law School has just moved within the previous month.
June 23 . . . A spirited roundtable discussion (24 LLJ 151–63) is held to consider the implications for the Association of the proposal contained in a September 1930 letter (24 LLJ 60) from William R. Roalfe to President Rosamond Parma that has already become known as the Roalfe Plan. At its conclusion, a committee is formed, with Roalfe as chair, to determine how best to carry out the recommendations of the Plan. (24 LLJ 161)
June 26 . . . Lotus Mitchell Mills, librarian of the Sullivan & Cromwell law firm, New York City, becomes the first private law librarian elected to national AALL office. She will hold the position of secretary-treasurer from 1931 to 1934.
1932
February 8 . . . Elias J. Lien, who has served AALL as an Executive Board member (1912–13) and president (1914–16), passes away at his home in St. Paul, Minnesota. The former Minnesota State Librarian is the first of the Association's past presidents to die.
April 25–29 . . . The 27th Annual Meeting is held at the St. Charles and Monteleone hotels in New Orleans, with thirty-three in attendance (25 LLJ 277).
April 27 . . . A roundtable discussion considers the formal report of the Committee on the Roalfe Expansion Plan (25 LLJ 177–92), chaired by William R. Roalfe and including Gilson Glasier, Frederick Hicks, and John T. Vance. Among the report's specific proposals for expanding the Association are recommendations to establish a permanent national headquarters, to employ at least one full-time staff member as the Association's executive secretary, to incorporate, and to establish an institutional membership category.
1933
October 16–20 . . . AALL holds its 28th Annual Meeting in Chicago. The published attendance register lists sixty-one individuals (26 LLJ 134–35).
October 20 . . . Lotus Mitchell Mills, librarian of Sullivan & Cromwell, New York City, and AALL secretary and treasurer, presents a paper titled “Law Librarianship in Private Offices.” She points out that “[m]any law offices do not realize that there are private law office librarians or how useful they can be. It seems it should be the work of the Association to let it be known that people of training and experience are available. [AALL] can act as a clearing house for the benefit of both librarians and employers.” (26 LLJ 128)
December 1 . . . Connie E. Bolden, who will serve as an AALL Executive Board member (1971–74) and president (1979–80), is born. Bolden, who will spend most of his career as Washington State law librarian, will also serve as editor of Law Library Journal from 1967 to 1976, about which he will write: “Probably my most satisfying experience [in AALL] was the ten years I served as editor of the Law Library Journal, even more than my term as president. . .” (98 LLJ 312). Bolden will receive the Marian Gould Gallagher Distinguished Service Award in 1991.
Also during the year, Allen Mercer Daniel, the acting law librarian of Howard University Law School, becomes the first African American member of AALL. A business (1906) and law (1909) graduate of Howard, he worked as an attorney in the War Department for a number of years before returning to Howard; he served as assistant librarian from 1924–31, then acting librarian and, eventually, librarian. An active AALL member, Daniel will attend every single Annual Meeting from 1934 until 1975, nineteen years after his retirement. (AALL Spectrum, Feb. 2000, at 12) Marian Gallagher will say of him, “The dignity with which he endured indignity and his proud, dedicated service to AALL and its members won him innumerable friends” (75 LLJ 272).
1934
June 26 . . . Secretary-Treasurer Lotus Mitchell Mills reports that for fiscal year 1933–34, the Association had $890.78 in receipts, $704.64 in disbursements, leaving a balance of $186.14. Responding to this report, President John T. Vance of the Law Library of Congress notes: “We are skimming pretty close to the sails, but at least we have a balance, and that is more than many organizations can say these days” (27 LLJ 63).
June 29 . . . The membership of AALL unanimously adopts a resolution directing the officers to go forward with the Roalfe Plan, taking the first official step toward implementing its proposals to reorganize and expand the operations and services of the Association.
December 29 . . . The Association of American Law Schools gives its formal endorsement of AALL's expansion program, embodied in the Roalfe Plan, by a unanimously adopted resolution at its business meeting in Chicago.
1935
June 24–29 . . . Forty individuals (listed at 28 LLJ 287–88) attend the 30th Annual Meeting, held in Denver, Colorado, at the Brown Palace Hotel.
June 27 . . . After approving many of its suggestions, the Association now looks to the author of the Roalfe Plan, Duke Law Librarian William R. Roalfe, to bring it to fruition, electing him president for 1935–36. At the same time, Helen C. Newman, law librarian at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., is elected executive secretary, a new position called for by the Roalfe Plan. She will serve in that capacity until 1945. During much of the same time (1934–42), she is also editor of Law Library Journal.
September 23 . . . The Association is incorporated in the District of Columbia, with Richard C. DeWolf (Assistant Register of Copyrights, Library of Congress), Mary Alice Matthews (Librarian, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace), and AALL Executive Secretary Helen Newman serving as incorporators.
November 1 . . . Ballots cast on the location of the next Annual Meeting are counted, with an overwhelming number (116 to 30) in favor of holding the meeting at the same time and place as the annual American Bar Association meeting, while only a slight majority (69 to 66) prefer to continue the traditional practice of holding the Annual Meeting in conjunction with ALA's conference. In accordance with the vote, it is announced that the 1936 Annual Meeting will be held in Boston, in August, along with the ABA meeting.