Ask the Archivist
Law school archivist William Benemann answers questions about law school history. Got a question? Ask the Archivist at benemann@law.berkeley.edu.
- Law School Utopian (12/13/2012)
Q. What is your favorite book written by a Boalt Hall faculty member? I don’t mean a casebook or a textbook, but maybe a good novel? Are there any? --EW, Berkeley - Boalt's Money (11/16/2012)
Q. How did the Boalts make their money? Were they like robber barons or something? - JPM, Berkeley - Guns in the Classroom (10/18/2012)
Q. I'm always taken aback when I hear about violence on college campuses these days. Everyone seems to be waving guns around. Am I kidding myself in remembering that things were more peaceful in the 1950s when I was at Boalt? --TW, Century City - First Asian Woman (9/18/2012)
Q. Who was the first Asian woman to graduate from Boalt Hall? — M.B., Oakland - Thanks to Boalt (8/30/2012)
Q. While cleaning out a storage space in the law school we ran across a heavy metal plaque dedicated to Elizabeth Josselyn Boalt. What can you tell us about it? --L.F., Berkeley - Suing for the Pious (4/26/2012)
Q: O.K., so I’m sitting in the reading room trying to study and this huge painting of an old dude is staring down at me. I’m assuming this is Garrett McEnerney, the guy the library is named for. Was he a famous alum? Professor? - T.S., Berkeley - When the Great Communicator Communicated (3/21/2012)
Q. A buddy bets me that Ronald Reagan spoke at Boalt Hall when he was governor of California. I was at Boalt in the Sixties and there is no way he would have ever showed his face on campus. Please confirm. --DCC, San Jose - Two Cheers for Boalt Hall (2/28/2012)
- Professorial Hi-jinx (1/25/2012)
Q. Boalt students love to pull pranks on fellow student—has a professor ever pulled a good one? - GC, Berkeley - Every Table Tells a Story (11/22/2011)
Q. The new library is awesome! Totally awesome! I particularly like the study tables in the reading rooms. Someone said that they were really old. Where did they come from? – LL, Oakland - Peeving POTUS (9/8/2011)
Q: I collect old law books, though I don’t have any that are tremendously valuable. I’m really more interested in stories connected with the books than with the contents. Do you have any rare books in the Archives that have great stories to tell? - WRH - Cupid Laughs at Law Books (4/20/2011)
Q. Do Boalt Hall professors ever marry their law students? (I’m just asking.) - C.E., Berkeley - Women at Boalt (3/24/2011)
Q: Who are the women in the class photos in the Donor Lobby? Were they students, and if so, what did they do with their careers? TC, Berkeley - School Spirit? (2/10/2011)
Q: When the excavation for the new building started, a bunch of us joked that they would probably unearth an ancient Indian burial ground and the whole project would be scuttled. Did they find anything interesting during the dig? - DR, Berkeley - Decking Boalt's Halls (12/17/2010)
Q: Your column about Boalt Christmas carols reminded me of another old tradition. Does the law school still put on the annual Christmas Show? - Legal Wassailing (11/16/2010)
- Can We Handle the Truth? (10/27/2010)
- Tables (Re)Turned (8/20/2010)
Q. Thanks for your column on the former law libraries. Has anything historic survived from those buildings (other than the books, I mean)? DNJ, Danville - The Birth of the Law Library (7/19/2010)
Q. Just saw the drawings for the new law library. Very cool. Got me thinking about the first law library, the one that’s now Durant Hall. How did Boalt’s library get started? - What happened to the old houses on the Boalt parking lot? (6/28/2010)
Q. There used to be two cute little Victorian houses on the Boalt Hall parking lot. When I was over there the other day, they were both gone. What happened to them? - WCJ, Oakland - Memorable Graduation Speakers (5/20/2010)
Q: Now that it’s graduation season, I was wondering, who would be considered the most unusual speaker ever invited to a Boalt Hall graduation? - B.B., San Francisco - Women at Boalt (4/14/2010)
Q: When did Boalt Hall first start admitting women to the law school? - Was Boalt Hall Rotated? (3/30/2010)
Q: I’ve heard that Boalt Hall was originally designed so that the Reading Room windows faced the bay, but that the building had to be rotated on its axis in order to fit on a smaller lot. Is that true?