Leon Green (1888-1979) Papers

The series consists largely of correspondence and documents relating to the administration of the School of Law. The collection of correspondence includes letters to and from faculty, staff, students and alumni of the School of Law, University administrators and Trustees, lawyers and other members of the legal community, members of the municipal government and donors to the School of Law, among others. Other documents include budgets and financial statements, memoranda and announcements, and newspaper clippings related to the School of Law. Also included are annual reports of the School of Law, and legal documents and activity reports relating to the various agencies operating within the School of Law, such as the Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory and the Legal Aid Bureau.

These materials are contained in 37 archive boxes, one of which is half-size.

Folders are arranged in boxes by general topic, and approximately chronologically within topics, as indicated in the container list. Within each folder, material is arranged chronologically.

Of particular interest are the Northwestern University Bulletins that Green wrote as a means of attracting students to the School of Law. These Bulletins, including The College Man Weighs the Law, Who Shall Study Law, and By-Products of the Study of Law, treat various facets of the study of law. They provoked many responses and were much in demand at the time of their publication.

Also of interest are the files of the Scientific Crime Detection Lab, which was one of the first forensic investigation labs to exist. It was here that the polygraph lie detector was invented by Leonarde Keeler.

Green's personal correspondence with the members of the faculty is enjoyable because it reveals the warmth and wit of his personality. Besides the letters in the files relating to individual faculty members, the library files contain a set of letters between dean Green and Howard Lapham, a member of the library staff who saw active duty in Africa and Europe during the Second World War. These letters show that Green held his faculty and staff members in high regard and considered them his friends.

The general categories of the series are the following:

Law School Administration, Boxes 1-3

Law School Curriculum, Boxes3-6

Law School Faculty, Boxes6-11

Student Life, Boxes 11-12

Alumni, Boxes 13-15

Law School Library, Boxes15-16

Institutes, Box 16

Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory, Boxes 17-18

Law School Publications, Boxes 18-19

Law School Finances, Boxes 19-23

Donations and Foundations, Boxes 23-26

Law School Publicity, Boxes 26-28

Northwestern University Affairs, Boxes 28-32

Associations, Boxes 33-35

Bar Examinations, Boxes 35-36

City of Chicago, Boxes 36-37