In his fifteen years as the Yale Law Library’s Rare Book Librarian, Mike Widener assembled a unique collection of more than a thousand law books featuring illustrations. In this illustrated talk, he will explain why and how he built the collection, offer a glimpse of the variety of law-related book illustrations, and suggest what we can learn from them.

This presentation is part of the San Francisco Law Library’s Lunchtime Speaker Program series, which is free and open to everyone.

Mike Widener retired from the Yale Law Library in 2021 after fifteen years as its Rare Book Librarian. Before that, he served for fifteen years as Head of Special Collections at the University of Texas Law Library. From 2010 to 2024, he taught the week-long course “Law Books: History & Connoisseurship” at the University of Virginia’s Rare Book School. He and his wife, Emma, have also worked as consultants to law libraries in the U.S., Mexico, and Australia.