Birth of an Institution: Horace Gray and the Lost Law Clerks

Authors

Todd C. Peppers, Washington and Lee University School of LawFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Journal of Supreme Court History

Publication Date

2007

Abstract

In a vault hidden away in a downtown Boston bank rests a large silver loving cup. The cup was presented to Associate Justice Horace Gray on March 22, 1902 by his law clerks, and engraved on its tarnished surface are the names of the nineteen Harvard Law School graduates who served as Justice Gray’s law clerks. While the details surrounding the presentation of the cup have been lost to history, the gift was likely prompted by the failing health of Justice Gray and his future departure from the Supreme Court. The loving cup is still held by the Gray family, passing to the heirs of Professor John Chipman Gray, the famous Harvard Law School professor and half-brother of Horace Gray, upon the death of the childless Horace Gray.

Recommended Citation

Todd C. Peppers, Birth of an Institution: Horace Gray and the Lost Law Clerks, 32 J. Sup. Ct. Hist. 229 (2007).