Description: Winner, American Association of Law Libraries' 2017 Joseph L. Andrews Legal Literature Award. Elbridge T. Gerry [1837-1927], grandson of Founding Father Elbridge Gerry who signed the Declaration of Independence, was a prominent New York trial lawyer whose 30,000 volume library became the foundation of the United States Supreme Court Library.
Brief description: With this book, Shelley L. Dowling has won the Joseph L. Andrews Legal Literature Award from the American Association of Law Libraries for the second time. In 2000 she won the award for Jurisprudence of United States Constitutional Interpretation (1999, revised 2010). Ms. Dowling received a Gilder Lehrman Fellowship (2012-2013) through the New York Historical Society to complete research for this book. She served as Director of the United States Supreme Court Library and was the Associate Librarian for Georgetown University, and the University of Missouri-Kansas City. She retired to part-time work as the Senior Projects Librarian at the William and Mary School Law and has taught Legal Research and written book reviews throughout her career. She edits the annual compilation, State of the Federal Judiciary: Annual Reports of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Review Quotes:
"Shelley L. Dowling has drawn on her extensive research experience as the Librarian of the United States Supreme Court to produce an exceptional work that traces the history of one of America's most respected families through several generations. At the center of her opus is Commodore Elbridge Thomas, the grandson of the Founding Father, who was a New York City lawyer and philanthropist and the man who donated his book collection to the Supreme Court in 1928-thereby establishing its library. Dowling has ambitiously chosen to expand her scope to include the Gallatin, Goelet, and Livingston families.... Together their stories paint a compelling picture of New York in the Gilded Age." --Clare Cushman, Supreme Court Historical Society
"Part biography, part family history, part legal history, Dowling's book tells the tale of an old-line American family, the Gerrys, and their allied kin. Its central figure is Commodore Elbridge Thomas Gerry. Namesake of a Founding Father, the commodore was a highly successful New York City lawyer, humanitarian, bibliophile, and yachtsman whose book collection became the core of the library of the Supreme Court of the United States. The research is deep and its reach makes the book definitive. Dowling is to be congratulated for her splendid accomplishment."--Warren M. Billings, PhD, Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus, University of New Orleans and Bicentennial Historian of the Supreme Court of Louisiana