
Inside the Rare Book Collection: America's Written Constitution
Yale Law School's rare book librarian Mike Widener and teaching assistant Lauren Bezaki walk through primary sources tied to Akhil Reed Amar's constitutional law course. They open with a 1788 first edition of the Massachusetts ratifying convention debates, compiled from newspaper reports and intended, Widener argues, to sway states that had not yet voted. Its final pages carry the vote tally with John Hancock's name in type and statements from delegates who voted no but pledged support anyway. The tour moves to an early Connecticut printing of the Constitution bound with state session laws, where the Preamble appears in type nearly twice the size of the articles, echoing a point Amar makes in lecture. It closes on a first edition of the Federalist, published anonymously, still in its original pasteboard covers with untrimmed pages, donated by a descendant of a Revolutionary War veteran. Short but concrete, this is a hands-on look at how physical printings carry historical argument.