Notes from the ALI Archives

by C. Jordon Steele, Archivist
Biddle Law Library
University of Pennsylvania

I appreciate this opportunity to introduce myself. Last spring, I was appointed Archivist of Biddle Law Library at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. As many of you know, one of the Archives’ signature collections—and by far its largest—is the Archives of The American Law Institute. The ALI Archives contains correspondence, meeting minutes, Council Drafts, and other materials that led to the creation of ALI’s influential Restatements of the Law. In the early days of ALI, William Draper Lewis, ALI’s founding Director, ran the Institute out of his office at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Thus, Penn Law is a fitting location for the records of ALI today.

I come to the Archives from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, where I did my graduate work in Library Science with a concentration in Archives. The archives track at UNC is well regarded among information-science professionals, and I feel fortunate to have studied and worked under many experts in archives. While at UNC, I worked in the Department of Rare Books and the Photographic Archives. I grew up in Roanoke, Virginia, and I received my B.A. in English from Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina. This is my first extended venture into northern climes; I await the winter with a mixture of enthusiasm and dread!

When deciding on which area of librarianship to study, I was drawn to the archives profession because I could make an immediate impact in the way materials are used by the public. As is the case with most collections, the ALI Archives entered our department in need of a major reorganization. Recordkeeping practices in the 1930s were not what they are today. My predecessor, Melissa Backes, and I both believe that a simple organization of the materials, coupled with a description of the Archives’ contents, leads to increased use of the materials by researchers. A case in point is a recent request I received from a retired law-school professor who had previously written about Arthur Corbin’s commentary on the Restatement Second of Contracts. The professor explained that a few years ago he wished to obtain copies of Corbin’s analysis for an article he was writing, but was unsuccessful because the Institute’s Archives remained disorganized. Thanks to Melissa’s efforts, the Archives are now organized to the point where I could consult a finding aid, identify a folder called "Corbin’s comments," retrieve that folder, and photocopy for the professor original correspondence between Corbin and members of the committee involved in drafting the Restatement Second of Contracts. I anticipate that the professor’s analysis of these documents will make a substantial contribution to legal scholarship.

Making archives "accessible" (that is, both obtainable and intelligible to the researcher) is an evolving process. I am currently involved in fine-tuning Melissa’s prodigious work. Once this project is completed, I intend to begin organizing some 60 boxes of new materials that ALI sent to the Archives last October. I look forward to a long and successful relationship with the Archives and the Institute. I will continue to employ a mixture of traditional archival techniques as well as technological innovation to ensure that the history of ALI remains relevant and accessible to the larger research community for years to come.

Questions about ALI’s Archives may be directed to C. Jordon Steele, Archivist, via e-mail at steelej@law.upenn.edu or by telephone at 215-898-5011.