1828 Catalogue Project Digital Image Collection
Scope and Contents
This collection contains high-resolution digital images of rare legal texts. The University of Virginia Law Library created these images for its "1828 Catalogue Project."
Dates
- Creation: circa 2012-2019
Creator
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on access to the images in this collection.
Conditions Governing Use
The images in this collection are in the public domain and there are no restrictions on their use.
Biographical / Historical
Thomas Jefferson’s vision for the University of Virginia called for a library at its center—both architecturally and intellectually. That library—the Rotunda—would be the focal point of Jefferson’s Academical Village, and it would feature titles personally selected by Jefferson. When the books that lined the Rotunda’s Dome Room were officially catalogued in 1828, just three years after the university opened, U.Va’s library boasted roughly 8,000 titles—a remarkable number that placed its collections among the largest in the nation. Among these thousands of volumes were 375 titles that Jefferson himself deemed integral to the legal training of UVA students.
In the 2010s, with the "1828 Catalogue Project", the University of Virginia Law Library attempted to reconstruct the original collection of legal texts, providing researchers a firsthand look into the canonical works of early American law and legal education. Staff digitized hundreds of titles listed in the 1828 library catalogue, and they made the resulting digital copies available online.
Full Extent
4602 Gigabytes
Language of Materials
English
French
Latin
Immediate Source of Acquisition
In 2025, the Law Library transferred the images in this collection from its working server to its digital archive.
Existence and Location of Originals
The original paper copies of the books scanned for this collection are housed at the University of Virginia Law Library.
Processing Information
During the processing of this collection, sets of digital images were packaged together into directories to facilitate their storage and retrieval. Each directory was assigned a number (e.g., 031 or 051), and each directory was assigned to a book description in the finding aid inventory.
For example, in the finding aid inventory, if a researcher goes to the record for "Principes du Droit Naturel, 1747," they will find in the scope and contents note the "Digital Scan Identifier Number" 012. That number is the name of the directory that contains scanned images of "Principes du Droit Naturel, 1747."
Groups of directories have been further packaged into digital objects that can be retrieved from storage. For example, directory 012 is located within a digital object package titled "1828 Scans 006-018."
Finally, the scans of some items are grouped into multiple directories and have several "Digital Scan Identifier Numbers."
- Status
- Completed
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Arthur J. Morris Law Library Special Collections Repository
Arthur J. Morris Law Library
580 Massie Road
University of Virginia
Charlottesville Virginia 22903 United States
archives@law.virginia.edu