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Law in Children's Lit Subject of Exhibition
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Business New Haven
3/3/2003
By: BNH
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NEW HAVEN - When Morris Cohen, former law librarian and professor emeritus at the Yale Law School, was asked to put together an exhibition at Yale's Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale, he says he didn't have to think long about what the subject of the show would be. Cohen collects children's books related to the law, and he knew that the Betsy Beinecke Shirley Collection of American Children's Literature had many more volumes he could work with.
The result of Cohen's work is now on display in the exhibition Juvenile Jurisprudence: Law in Children's Literature at the Beinecke through April 11. The topic may sound arcane, but Cohen insists that he "had too many good books - really interesting ones."
Among the children's literature represented here is pedagogical ("Learning the Constitution"), books about law and morality, volumes that explain the Constitution with pictures, through fables and by catechism. Two of Cohen's favorite examples are tracts written by Joseph Story, who was also a Supreme Court justice from 1811-45, a professor at Harvard Law School, and the author of fundamental treatises on the law. Story hoped to teach young people to venerate the Constitution as "the only foundation on which to rest our national union, prosperity and glory."
The education of youth could assume a moral dimension in what Cohen designates "Narratives of Law and Morality" and "Narratives of Good Behavior" - models for children to embrace or to deplore. The titles in this section include "Parliament in the Playroom; or Law and Order Made Amusing" and "A Young Gallant's Whirligigg, or Youth's Reakes." Just in the words of the titles, one sees the challenge of making good behavior seem as attractive as bad. After all, children's books must be entertaining, and mischief has the advantage over propriety in that respect. But the miscreants in these stories regularly reach bad ends, while virtue is rewarded.
While "Juvenile Jurisprudence" can teach a lot about how children are educated in the law, it's also meant to entertain. There are examples of humor sprinkled about the cases, from the bluster of the 1797 "Juvenile Trials for Robbing Orchards, Telling Fibs, and Other Heinous Offences" to the whimsy of "House Mouse, Senate Mouse," which features illustrations of the "Squeaker of the House" and the "Senate Mouse-jority Leader."
Juvenile Jurisprudence is on display at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, 121 Wall Street, until April 11. Admission is free.
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