AUSTIN, Texas — The Tarlton Law Library at The University of Texas at
Austin has released an online guide to the archives of U.S. Supreme Justice
Tom C. Clark, viewable at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utlaw/00021/law-00021p1.html.
This web-accessible guide is a major step forward in providing access to the
Tom C. Clark Papers. The guide will provide researchers an opportunity to better
prepare themselves before they make the trip to the archives.
The Tarlton Law Library has rich archives and manuscripts holdings in legal
history. Its largest collection, the Tom C. Clark Papers, draws researchers
from across the United States.
Tom Clark was a 1922 graduate of The University of Texas School of Law and,
so far, the only Texan to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. He was appointed
to the court in 1949, and retired in 1967 when his son Ramsey Clark became U.S.
Attorney General. The collection contains a comprehensive record of Justice
Clark's activities as a Supreme Court Justice, public servant, and advocate
for improved judicial administration. Experts regard the Tom C. Clark Papers
as one of the two most complete collections of Warren Court papers.
A comprehensive guide to the Tom C. Clark Papers was prepared in 1988. The guide
is an essential tool that presents a detailed listing of the contents, biographical
information on Clark, and references to related resources. At over 200 pages
long, it has been available only in print format in the Tarlton Law Library
Rare Books Reading Room.
The release is a multi-phase project. This initial phase provides guides to
all the Supreme Court materials (320 boxes of documents and 490 volumes of bound
appellate briefs). Guides to the remaining series will be released in subsequent
phases. Future phases of the project will also incorporate digital copies of
important documents, sound recordings, and photographs from the collection.
The finding aid is encoded using the Encoded Archival Description (EAD) markup
language, and is part of the Texas Archival Resources Online repository of EAD
finding aids.
In connection with this project, the Law Library's archivists developed a database
which automates the EAD markup, significantly reducing the time it takes to
prepare large EAD finding aids. Assistant Archivist Addy Sonder designed and
built the database tool, based on a concept by Mike Widener, Head of Special
Collections.
Related Link:
The Tarlton Law Library, Rare Books & Special Collections: http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/rare/