The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1920-11-04
Had Its Beginnings lin 1888 When Coy.
ernor Chambers Went to Ohio
to Purchase Small Sup,
plies.
INVALUABLE VOLUMES
Library Now Has Collection of Rare
Legislative Books in Addition
to All of the Other Import
ant Glasses.

! DIES MONIES, Iowa, Nov. Am
1888 the congress OF the United States
appropriated the territory of Iowa
$4,000 for the establishment of Ii
brary, and Governor Chambers tray-
elled to Ohio and boughts a selection
of books which he shipped down the
Ohio river-that was the beginning
of the state library of Iowa, which
has now collection of law and leg
islatiye books surpassed by but few in
this country. This law and legisla-
tive library housed in the state capitol
and under the supervision of Arthur
J. Small, consists of approximately
100, 900 volumes, and is in many in
stances invaluable, since number of
the books are old and rare editions
centuries out of print and impossible
I to replace.
Beginning with the oldest known
t laws OF man, those promulgated by
( Hammurabi in Babylon in 2250 B. c.,
Iowa's collection of law books extends
with but few breaks, down to the pre-
sent day, and contains records of
legal proceedings of various kinds
from all corners of the globe. 1t has
books containing the parliamentary
history of England, beginning in 1866.
and now comprising more than 1000
volumes. This set is valued as eN-
ceedingly rare. 1t has also the parli-
mentary records of Canada extending
back to before the English We're in
control there. There are but few
better general collections of Roman
civil law than that in the Iowa IL
brary. Many of the volumes com
! prising it were printed in London and
Paris in the sixteenth century IL
/ has a complete set of the statutes of
England from the Magma Carta on. 1t
has one of the most complete records
of this country that exists in the
United States, and one of the best
collections of state bar proceedings.
Among it's other valuable volumes are
legal records of the Hawaiian Islands
laws of the Republic of Texas; Scotch
parliamentary proceedings back to
il124; and records of the Republic OF
ireland from 1910 on.
4 Among the separate volumes which
are held in high value and OF con-
siderable interest are four tones OF
the famous old DomeSday books and
about dozen bound volumes of the
manuscript of the lectures of David
Hume: There are also volumes OF
"the perpetual laws" of Massachusetts
! many of them adorned with cuts;
old editions of the blue laws Of Con,
necticut with their provisions against
kissing ones wife, against harboring
ouakers, and their severe penalties
for failure to attend church,; and
old volumes containing fascimiiies OF
ancient charters granted by British
monarchs to the colonizers of this
country-to William Penn in l742
and to Massachusetts, Bay i'll l72b.
There are also books containing the
original opinions of the English
courts.
The collections of Iowa laws dates
back to 1888, and the state blue laws
to 1S43.
When the proposed Temple OF JUS
tice is built, the state library, lnclud
ing the law and legislative branch
Will be housed there. This is looked
forward to by MI. Small, who asserts
that many of the states Oldest and
most valuable books are slowly de,
caying because of the intense heat OF
the present quarters during the sum
mer months, due to poor ventllatlns
facilities, he says, in the library room
in the statehouse. "