The Wolf Law Library

"Wythe Urges Virginia to Ratify Constitution." June 24, 1788. 1988 U.S. Constitution Bicentennial Covers.

We have a late addition! "Wythe Urges Virginia to Ratify Constitution":

The infamous 1987 The Far Side comic strip featuring a reference to Jane Goodall

RIP Jane Goodall

"A Nod to the Supreme Court: Books and Bobbles," in the Wolf Law Library's Nicholas J. St. George Rare Book Room through March, 2026: https://law.wm.edu/library/collections/rarebooks/

"A Nod to the Supreme Court: Books and Bobbles," in the Wolf Law Library's Nicholas J. St. George Rare Book Room through March, 2026: https://law.wm.edu/library/collections/rarebooks/

The library's U.S. Supreme Court Justice bobblehead of John Blair (from 'The Green Bag' collection) is part of our "Nod to the Supreme Court: Books and Bobbles" exhibit, now in the library's Rare Book Room (through March, 2026).

The Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States (Artist: Ruth Koppang): https://www.oyez.org/justices/john_blair

Bobblehead for Justice John Blair (1790; 2013), part of 'The Green Bag' U.S. Supreme Court Justice bobblehead collection: https://www.greenbag.org/bobbleheads/bobbleheads.html

This handsome fellow is John Blair, Jr. (1732–1800). Blair was one of six justices appointed by George Washington to the first U.S. Supreme Court in 1789. He served alongside George Wythe as a judge for Virginia's High Court of Chancery from 1780–1788: www.oyez.org/justices/joh... #WytheWednesday

Jefferson

Oct. 1, 1775: Virginia’s youngest delegate to the Continental Congress, 32-year-old Thomas Jefferson, returns to Philadelphia for the latest session. He boards with cabinetmaker Benjamin Randolph in a house on Chestnut Street.

"Wythe's message is clear: 'the extreme danger of dissolving the Union' makes ratification of the Constitution imperative, with amendments to be added later." 1988 U.S. Constitution Covers.

"Wythe Calls for Ratification. Acknowledging a need for future changes, George Wythe urged ratification." 1988 U.S. Constitution Covers.

"'[T]he extreme danger of dissolving the Union' makes ratification of the Constitution imperative." Also new are two envelopes issued in 1988, for the bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution. Visit our Wythe Ephemera collection in the 1st floor locker lounge, in the library behind the main stairs!

"Wyeth [sic] held the first law professorship." First day cover postcard for June 20, 1985, with a cachet for George Wythe. Signed, "Marika."

New George Wythe ephemera! The library has a small collection of commemorative postcards, coins, trading cards, and even a miniature Wythe House. This postcard is from a series celebrating the 1976 bicentennial of the Declaration of Independence: wythepedia.wm.edu/index.php/Bi... #WytheWednesday

Ruin a band with law

FOIA Fighters

Title page of treatise on extraordinary legal remedies by James High.

I went to the library to get High on Extraordinary Legal Remedies.

Thomas Ball III: Counsel for defendants, Satanta and Big Tree. Subsequently member Texas Senate; Assistant Attorney General of Texas and Special Assistant to the Attorney General of the United States. Died, Los Angeles, California, May 11, 1917.

We have a second copy in our Special Collections, which belonged to Thomas Ball (1836–1917), Texas state senator, assistant Texas attorney general, and special U. S. attorney, who defended the Kiowa war chiefs, Satanta and Big Tree, in 1871. catalog.libraries.wm.edu/permalink/01...

George III to Lord North, his prime minister. September 11, 1774. In response to the petition from Congress. “The dye is now cast. The colonists must either submit or triumph. I do not wish to come to severer measures but we must not retreat…” Lent by His majesty Charles III to the Library of Congress for the “Two Georges” exhibit. Photo by Holly Brewer 9/19/2025

Strongly recommend the “Two Georges” exhibition at the Library of Congress.
It includes original material on loan from the Royal Archives. Here
George III writing in response to the act of association from Congress, September 11, 1774: “The dye is now cast.”

Cut silhouette of George Wythe, by Charles Wilson Peale and Moses Williams, c. 1803. Corcoran Gallery of Art, ''Loan Exhibition of Portraits of the Signers and Deputies to the Convention of 1787 and Signers of the Declaration of Independence'' (Washington, D.C.: Constitution Sesquicentennial Commission, 1937), 171. Original at the Colonial Williamsburg Rockefeller Library Special Collections.

Here's a profile we recognize! George Wythe, in a catalog for 'Loan Exhibition of Portraits of the Signers and Deputies to the Convention of 1787 and Signers of the Declaration of Independence' (1937). The original is owned by Colonial Williamsburg: wythepedia.wm.edu/index.php/Lo... #WytheWednesday

250 YEARS AGO: The Second Continental Congress has a quorum to restart after a short summer break. Georgia has sent a delegation for the first time. Virginia has replaced George Washington and Patrick Henry with Thomas Nelson Jr. and George Wythe (who taught law to Thomas Jefferson).

Ah-ha! But here we have a 1754 Wythe letter to Daniel Parke Custis (Martha Washington's first husband), signed fully: "George Wythe."

Randolph

Washington

Sept. 9, 1775: Gen. Washington names Virginia patriot Edmund Randolph as one of his aides-de-camp. Coincidentally this appointment comes a day after Randolph's loyalist father, John, flees Virginia for Britain. Edmund Randolph will go on to be chosen by Washington as the first U.S attorney general.

Image of Declaration of Independence taken from the engraving made by printer William J. Stone in 1823.

Is this document a clever forgery? 'The only genuine Wythe autograph recalled by the writer to have been signed "George Wythe" (instead of the usual "G. Wythe") is that on the Declaration of Independence, which would be a counterfeiter's most available source.' wythepedia.wm.edu/index.php/Ge...

Catalog listing of "Order to the Sheriff of Loudoun County, 10 September 1761," v. 1, p. 50, The History of America in Documents: Original Autograph Letters, Manuscripts and Source Materials (Philadelphia: The Rosenbach Company, 1949). Wythe was not "Sheriff," as the summary suggests.

Detail of Wythe's signature on the order. In "Rosenbach, A. S. W. (Abraham Simon Wolf), 1876-1952, collector. Signers of the Declaration of Independence," the Rosenbach Museum & Library.

#OTD in 1761: George Wythe summons witnesses to appear before him or "some other Justice" for Loudoun County, Virginia, regarding illegal gambling in a tavern. There is no other record of Wythe employed as a justice for Loudoun (established in 1757): wythepedia.wm.edu/index.php/Or... #WytheWednesday

A copy of the Association signed by Thomas Jefferson

Sept. 10, 1775: A key provision of the Continental Association, the compact among patriots to pressure Britain's government by refusing to export American goods, takes effect across the 13 colonies. 1/3

Detail from page three of the Richmond 'Enquirer' for September 9, 1806.

"[S]ome of the strongest testimony exhibited before the called court and before the grand jury, was kept back from the pettit jury. The reason is, that it was gleaned from the evidence of negroes, which is not permitted by our laws to go against a white man." Richmond 'Enquirer,' September 9, 1806:

Engraved portrait George Wythe by J.B. Longacre, from the 'William and Mary Quarterly,' 3rd ser., 12, no. 4 (October 1955), 512.

W. Edwin Hemphill, "Examinations of George Wythe Swinney for Forgery and Murder: A Documentary Essay," 'William and Mary Quarterly' 3rd ser., 12, no. 4 (October 1955), 543-574.

On Sept. 2, 1806, George Wythe Swinney was acquitted of the murders of his great-uncle, George Wythe, and Wythe's freedman protégé, Michael Brown. #OTD, Sept. 3, 1806, Swinney was charged with forgery, but was ultimately acquitted, as well: wythepedia.wm.edu/index.php/Ex... #WytheWednesday

Portrait of Bishop James Madison, artist unknown, early 19th-century; in the collection of the Virginia Historical Society. http://museumcatalog.virginiahistory.org/final/portal.aspx?lang=en-US&g_AABS=right+reverend+james+madison&d=d

Faculty Minute Book, p. 280, December 29, 1779. Faculty Assembly Records, Special Collections Research Center, William & Mary Libraries (image 285): https://digital.libraries.wm.edu/page-285-96

Born #OTD, the Right Reverend James Madison: student of George Wythe, Professor of Natural Philosophy and Mathematics at William & Mary, first Episcopal Bishop in Virginia, and President of the College from 1777 until his death in 1812. wythepedia.wm.edu/index.php/Ja... #WytheWednesday

From our first Black graduate in 1954 through the appointment of our first Black dean in 2020, "Black History at W&M Law" recognizes and celebrates the pivotal moments in Black history at William & Mary Law School. While the exhibit is not an exhaustive exploration of Black history at the Law School, it represents many of the important milestones in our School’s journey towards equity and inclusion. The online exhibit reflects and expands upon the physical exhibit "Black History at W&M Law" on display in the Law School lobby during 2021-2025. The books displayed and listed in the online exhibit are available in e-book format and may be borrowed by members of the William & Mary community.

The "Black History at W&M Law" display has been archived to make room for new exhibits. But the exhibit lives on in the law library's Scholarship Repository: scholarship.law.wm.edu/blackhistory...

Statue of George Wythe at the College of William & Mary's Marshall-Wythe School of Law, by Gordon S. Kray. Dedicated October 7, 2000.

Wythe was also an innovator as a teacher and introduced moot legislatures and moot courts to American legal education. For more about Wythe's teaching career, his methods, and his students, check out Wythe the Teacher: wythepedia.wm.edu/index.php/Wy...

Image of a desk with William Blackstone's 'Commentaries of the Laws of England' (Oxford, 1765-1769) and Matthew Bacon's 'A New Abridgment of the Law' (London, 1768).

As law students all over the country pour over assignments, we ask: what books did America's first law professor use? George Wythe assigned readings from Matthew Bacon's 'New Abridgment of the Law' and William Blackstone's 'Commentaries on the Laws of England,' among others. #WytheWednesday

9 HOLES OF MINIATURE GOLF ON A TOUR OF THE WOLF LAW LIBRARY: August 18th – 29th. A 9-hole, 66 par putt-putt golf course through 3 floors of the law library! Winner enshrined on the LIBRARY GOLF TROPHY!

Students playing miniature golf in the law library, 2023. 9 HOLES OF MINIATURE GOLF ON A TOUR OF THE WOLF LAW LIBRARY: August 18th – 29th. A 9-hole, 66 par putt-putt golf course through 3 floors of the law library! Winner enshrined on the LIBRARY GOLF TROPHY!

The Law Library is turning into a 9-hole, miniature golf course for orientation! 1Ls: take a tour of all three floors of the library, and turn in your scorecard for a chance to get your name engraved on our Library Golf trophy. Open to ALL students. Come pick up a putter at the Circulation Desk!

In commemoration of the American Revolution’s 250th anniversary, we are excited to announce AAHA’s new VA250 Database! To explore the database, click the banner at the top of AAHA’s home page or use this link www.aahafauquier.org/va250

#VA250 #aahafauquier #fauquier #history #KnowTheirNames

Podcast about how an Isle of Wight woman saved her county’s records from being burned Cardinal 250 podcast host Dutchie Jessee talks with Isle of Wight Museum Director Jennifer England about how Elizabeth Bennett Young saved those records, and why they’re so valuable.

Featuring Director Jennifer England! Podcast about how an Isle of Wight woman saved her county's records from being burned cardinalnews.org/2025/08/12/p... #VA250

"Let our countrymen know that the people alone can protect us against these evils, and that the tax which will be paid for this purpose is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests & nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance."

Jefferson continues: "Preach, my dear Sir, a crusade against ignorance; establish & improve the law for educating the common people... ."

"Thomas Jefferson to Wythe, 13 August 1786, page one." Image from the Library of Congress, The Thomas Jefferson Papers: https://www.loc.gov/resource/mtj1.006_0149_0152/

Billy Hathorn, "God who gave us life" at Jefferson Memorial. Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%22God_who_gave_us_life%22_at_Jefferson_Memorial_IMG_4728.JPG

#OTD A line from the fourth page of this 1896 letter to George Wythe, from Thomas Jefferson while in Paris, was used for the third panel of quotations in the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.: "Establish a law for educating the common people." wythepedia.wm.edu/index.php/Th... #WytheWednesday