In June 1895, the Board of Regents voted to set aside annual fees paid by law students for the creation and maintenance of a law library. A portion of that sum went to the position of law librarian. The earliest law librarians were recent Bachelor of Laws graduates who held the position of Fellow and Law Librarian while they completed their studies for a Master of Laws.
The holdings of the law library were contained in a room adjoining the lecture room used for law classes in the basement of Old Main. The collection contained the Texas Reports, United States Reports, American Decisions, American Reports, American State Reports, New York Reports, Federal Reporter, and Revised English Reports, as well as works on civil law, American and English constitutional law and history.
In addition to purchases made with the annual fees, donations came from former students and friends of the department. In 1896, the law library consisted of approximately 3,000 books and was open from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day except Sunday.
By 1899, the position was included in the university catalogue. The law librarian and assistant librarian were chosen from "the most worthy members of the Senior class who are desirous of prosecuting their studies further in the Graduate class." Compensation for each position was $200.
Initially a joint library position and fellowship for a graduate student, in 1902 the practice of appointing both a day and night librarian, typically members of the senior class, began. Student law librarian appointments continued until 1911, when Department of Law graduate and former student librarian Wilbur Cleaves took the position.
Three student law librarians were appointed for the 1908-1909 academic year. The same year, the Law Department moved from its original location in Old Main to its own building, later named Pearce Hall. The library was located on the second floor.
The following list includes the students who held the positions of law librarian and assistant librarian at the University of Texas.
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Henry Clay Struve, 1895-1896 John McQuesne Patterson, 1896-1897 John Crawford Saner, 1897-1898 Lamar Bethea, 1898-1899 Ira Polk Hildebrand, 1899-1900 Elmer Palmer Stockwell, 1900-1901 Harry Rhodes Bondies, 1901-1902 |
Benjamin Grayson Haskell, 1895-1896 Jefferson Davis Todd, 1896-1897 Anton Norwall Moursund, 1897-1898 Bernard Boyle Hemphill, 1898-1899 William Edgar Miller, 1899-1900 Jules Henri Tallichet, 1900-1901 Samuel Fenner Leslie, 1901-1902 |
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James DuBose Walthall, 1902-1903 William Preston McGinnis, 1903-1904 George Terrell Cope, 1904-1905 Holland E. Bell, 1905-1906 Arthur Linial Meadows, 1906-1907 |
Edwin Dabney, 1902-1903 Talley DeLoach Britt, 1903-1904 Albert Duke Robertson, 1904-1905 Edmund Burke Griffin, 1905-1906 William Pharmer Leslie, 1906-1907 |
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Towne Young, 1908-1909 Wilbur Mundy Cleaves, 1908-1909 Franklin Pierce McElwrath, 1909-1910 Clifton Mott Caldwell, 1910-1911 |
Oscar O'Neil Touchstone, 1908-1909
Charles Hume Smoot, 1909-1910 Walter Grady Miller, 1910-1911 |