Fred Rodell papers
Scope and Contents
The papers of law professor and author, Fred Rodell. Correspondence includes letters to/from Thurman Arnold, Hugo Black, Henry Clark, William Douglas, Abe Fortas, John Harlan, Alfred Knopf, Potter Stewart, Earl Warren, Charles Alan Wright, and various law professors, attorneys, and publishers. Also includes a collection of historical letters, largely to/from Secretary of State Leo S. Rowe and other prominant American political figures, such as Henry Clay, Calvin Coolidge, Curtis Glass, Warren G. Harding, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, John Greenleaf Whittier, and Woodrow Wilson. Written material includes published and unpublished articles, manuscripts of books, reviews of others' books, newspaper clippings about Rodell, material from legal cases, lectures, and verses. Scrapbooks are compiled of articles and stories by and about Rodell, and albums contain personal photographs, primarily of Rodell on vacations with family and friends.
Dates
- Creation: 1927 - 1980
Creator
- Coolidge, Calvin (Person)
- Douglas, William O. (William Orville) (Person)
- Fortas, Abe (Person)
- Goldberg, Arthur J. (Person)
- Green, Leon (Person)
- Hand, Learned (Person)
- Harding, Warren G. (Warren Gamaleil) (Person)
- Black, Hugo LaFayette, 1886-1971 (Person)
- Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924 (Person)
- Knopf, Alfred A. (Person)
- Huston, Luther A. (Person)
- Harlan, John M. (John Marshall) (Person)
- Brennan, William J. (William Joseph) (Person)
- Blackmun, Henry A. (Henry Andrew) (Person)
- Clark, Charles Edward (Person)
- Clay, Henry (Person)
- Arnold, Thurman Wesley (Person)
- Wright, Charles Alan (Person)
- Rodell, Fred (Person)
- Korzybski, Alfred (Person)
- Lewis, Anthony (Person)
- Lipez, Kermit (Person)
- Morley, Christopher (Person)
- Richette, Lisa Aversa, 1928- (Person)
- Roosevelt, Theodore, 1858-1919 (Person)
- Stewart, Potter (Person)
- Warren, Earl (Person)
- White, Byron R. (Person)
- Whittier, John Greenleaf, 1807-1892 (Person)
Language of Materials
Most material in English, with a couple items in French.
Limitations on Accessing the Collection
This collection is open for research use.
Copyright and Rights Information
Standard Federal Copyright Law apply (U.S. Title 17).
Biographical / Historical
Fred Rodell (1907-1980) was a law professor born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Haverford College in 1926 and received his law degree from Yale University in 1931. After attending law school, Rodell worked as a special legal advisor to Governor Gifford Pinchot of Pennsylvania until 1933, when he joined the faculty of the Yale Law School. He became a full professor in 1939 and remained at Yale until 1973, when he retired and received an honorary LL.D. from Haverford. During his career, Rodell maintained a large number of other activities, such as a feature writer for the Chicago Times (1940), Director of Cooperative Consumers, Inc. in New Haven, Connecticut (1941-1945), contributing editor for Progressive magazine (1943-?), working at the American Civil Liberties Union, and writing a great deal of legal journalism. Rodell was the author of Fifty-five Men: the Story of the Constitution (1936); Woe Unto You Lawyers (1939); Nine Men: a Political History of the Supreme Court from 1870 to 1955 (1955); as well as many articles.
Biographical information from Directory of American Scholars, sixth edition, vol. IV (New York: Bowker Co., 1974) and Charles Alan Wright, “Goodbye to Fred Rodell,” 89 Yale L.J. 1455 (New Haven: Yale Law Journal Co., Inc., 1980).
Extent
6 Linear Feet (23 boxes)
Overview
The papers of Fred Rodell (1907-1980), a 1926 graduate of Haverford College and long-time professor of law at Yale University. The papers consist of correspondence, published and unpublished writing, scrapbooks of Rodell's written work, and albums of personal photographs.
Physical Location
This material is stored off-site. All requests for materials from this collection must be made at least one week in advance. Contact hc-special@haverford.edu to arrange access.
Other Finding Aids
See also HC.MC.827.1 and HC.MC.827.2 for more papers of Fred Rodell.
Acquisition
The Fred Rodell papers were donated to Special Collections, Haverford College in 1976 by Fred Rodell.
Dimensions
All extents (items, pages, etc.) are estimates, not guaranteed to be accurate.
Processing Information
Processed by Diana Peterson and Janela Harris; Completed December, 2012. Edited by Allison Hall; Completed in May 2020.
Subject
- Yale University (Organization)
- Haverford College -- History (Organization)
- United States. Supreme Court (Organization)
- United States. Supreme Court -- History (Organization)
- Rodell, Fred (Person)
Source
- Rodell, Fred (Person)
- Title
- Fred Rodell papers, 1927-1980
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Diana Peterson and Janela Harris
- Date
- December, 2012
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- English
Revision Statements
- May 2020: Revised by Allison Hall.
Find It at the Library
Most of the materials in this catalog are not digitized and can only be accessed in person. Please see our website for more information about visiting or requesting reproductions from Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections Library
