1828 Catalogue Project digital image collection

Online content

Some materials from this collection are available online.
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Access and use

Location of collection:
University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
University of Virginia
P.O. Box 400110
160 McCormick Rd
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4110
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Brenda Gunn
Phone: (434) 924-1037
Phone: (434) 243-1776
Fax: (434) 924-4968
Restrictions:

There are no restrictions on access to the images in this collection.

Terms of access:

The images in this collection are in the public domain and there are no restrictions on their use.

Summary

Extent:
4602 Gigabytes
Creator:
University of Virginia. School of Law. Arthur J. Morris Law Library
Language:
English French Latin

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains high-resolution digital images of rare legal texts. The Arthur J. Morris Law Library created these images for its "1828 Catalogue Project."

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.

Acquisition information:
In 2025, the Arthur J. Morris Law Library transferred the images in this collection from its working server to its digital archive.
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."

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard