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83 Law. Libr. J. 463 (1991)
The Smith Nicholas Law Library

handle is hein.journals/llj83 and id is 475 raw text is: The Smith Nicholas Law Library* Nicholas Sellers** Mr. Sellers describes the holdings and history of the collection of law books of Judge Samuel Smith Nicholas, an eighteenth-century law office library, preserved at The Filson Club in Louisville, Kentucky. The Filson Club, the historical society in Louisville, Kentucky, has a rare literary treasure: a virtually intact eighteenth-century law library. This is the collection of Judge Samuel Smith Nicholas (1797-1869) of Louisville, which he had derived largely from his uncle, Robert Smith (1757-1842), the first Secretary of the Navy.' The Smith Nicholas law books came to The Filson Club with the donation of Judge Samuel Smith Nicholas's secretary desk, the gift of the children of George Nicholas (1866-1926) and Evelyn Thompson Nicholas (1874-1956).2 The high glass-fronted shelves of this desk contain 137 volumes, of which 112 are law books. There are very few extant eighteenth-century law libraries. Because a law library is the tool of the active practitioner, texts are usually replaced when they become outdated. When a lawyer dies, usually his or her heirs are quick to dispose of the books while they still have market value. What we know of early libraries is usually derived from contemporary book listings or early sales catalogs. Even when old law books are retained, the * @ Nicholas Sellers, 1991. ** Attorney, Wayne, Pennsylvania; Assistant Professor of Business Law, West Chester University, West Chester, Pennsylvania. 1. Information on the Smith and Nicholas families came from the following sources: 13 DiCTIONARY OF AraeUCAN BiooPApY 482-83 (1934) (George Nicholas); 17 id. at 337-38 (1935) (Robert Smith); id. at 341-42 (Samuel Smith); I THE NATIONAL CYCLOPEDIA OF AMmrcAN BioOaAPHY 73 (1891) (Samuel Smith); 3 id. at 11 (R. Smith); 5 id. at 195 (George Nicholas). More detailed information is readily found in F. CAssuL, McHAN CONGRESSMAN IN Th Yotmo REPuBLIc: SAiuE' SmrAH OF MAYL.JA D, 1752-1839 (1971); E. WARFmILD, Tan KENTCKY RESoLUTlONS OF 1798, at 43-47, 118-19, 122, 142-46 (2d ed. 1894) (George Nicholas); V. Golladay, The Nicholas Family of Virginia (June 1973) (unpublished doctoral dissertation, available at University of Virginia); H. HuDoINs, THE RicHRD HAWES FAmILY OF KENTucKY (1986) (privately published by the author, Franklin, Tenn.); Tm BiOGRPHaICAL CYCLOPEDmA OF KENTucKY 11, 66, 130, 415, 462, 680-82 (1878) (George Nicholas, Robert Wickliffe, Ishamn Talbott, Aaron Woolley, James Chew Johnston, and Samuel Smith Nicholas). 2. The desk was given in memory of Evelyn Thompson Nicholas, who served for many years on the genealogical committee of The Filson Club. Her husband was a descendant of Judge Nicholas.

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