Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr.

Born March 8, 1841, in Boston, MA
Died March 6, 1935, in Washington, DC

Federal Judicial Service:
Associate Justice, Supreme Court of the United States
Nominated by Theodore Roosevelt on December 2, 1902, to a seat vacated by Horace Gray. Confirmed by the Senate on December 4, 1902, and received commission on December 4, 1902. Service terminated on January 12, 1932, due to retirement.

Supreme Court Oath:
December 8, 1902

Allotment as Circuit Justice:

First Circuit, December 8, 1902-January 12, 1932

Education:
Harvard College, A.B., 1861
Harvard Law School, LL.B., 1866

Professional Career:

U.S. Army lieutenant, 20th Massachusetts Volunteer Regiment, 1861-1864
Private practice, Boston, Massachusetts, 1867-1882
Instructor in constitutional law, Harvard College, 1870-1871
Editor, American Law Review, 1870-1873
Lecturer on common law, Lowell Institute, 1880
Weld professor of law, Harvard Law School, 1882
Justice, Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, 1882-1902; chief justice, 1899-1902

Other Nominations/Recess Appointments:

President issued recess appointment to Supreme Court of the United States, August 11, 1902, and subsequently cancelled appointment

Bibliography

Aichele, Gary J. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.: Soldier, Scholar, Judge. Boston: Twayne, 1989.

Alshuler, Albert W. Law Without Values: The Life, Work, and Legacy of Justice Holmes. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.

Baker, Liva. The Justice from Beacon Hill: The Life and Times of Oliver Wendell Holmes. New York: Harper Collins, 1991.

Bernstein, Irving. “The Conservative Mr. Justice Holmes.” New England Quarterly, vol. 23, no. 4 (Dec. 1950): 435-52.

Bowen, Catherine Drinker. Yankee from Olympus: Justice Holmes and His Family. Boston: Little Brown and Co., 1944.

Budiansky, Stephen. Oliver Wendell Holmes: A Life in War, Law, and Ideas. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2019.

Burton, David H. “The Intellectual Kinship of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Frederick E. Pollock, and Harold J. Laski.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 119, no. 2 (Apr. 16, 1975): 133-42.

________. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Boston: Twayne, 1980.

________. Taft, Homes, and the 1920s Court: An Appraisal. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1998.

Cohen, Henry. “Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.” Federal Lawyer, vol. 51 (Jan. 2004): 22-25.

Gordon, Robert W. The Legacy of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Stanford, Cal.: Stanford University Press, 1992.

Grant, Susan-Mary. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.: Civil War Solider, Supreme Court Justice. New York: Routledge, 2016.

Healy, Thomas. The Great Dissent: How Oliver Wendell Holmes Changed his Mind – and Changed the History of Free Speech in America. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2013.

Hoeflich, Michael H. and Ross E. Davies, eds. The Black Book of Justice Holmes: Text Transcript and Commentary. New Jersey: Talbot Publishing, 2021.

Howe, Mark de Wolfe. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: Volume I: The Shaping Years, 1841-1870. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 1957.

________. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: Volume II: The Proving Years, 1870-1882. Harvard University Press, 1963.

Konefsky, Samuel Joseph. “Holmes and Brandeis: Companions in Dissent.” Vanderbilt Law Review, vol. 10, no. 2 (Feb. 1957): 269-300.

________. The Legacy of Holmes and Brandeis: A Study in the Influence of Ideas. New York: Da Capo Press, 1974.

Menand, Louis. The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America. New York: Farrah, Straus, and Giroux, 2001.

Messinger, I. Scott. “The Judge as Mentor: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. and His Law Clerks.” Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities, vol. 11 (Winter 1999): 119-52.

Muller, Henry. “A Reappraisal of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.” Journal of the State Bar of California, vol. 26, no. 2 (Mar.-Apr. 1951): 94-100.

Novick, Sheldon N. Honorable Justice: The Life of Oliver Wendell Holmes. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1989.

Oppenheim, Leonard. “The Civil Liberties Doctrines of Mr. Justice Holmes and Mr. Justice Cardozo.” Tulane Law Review, vol. 20, no. 2 (Dec. 1945): 177-219.

Ragan, Fred D. “Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Zechariah Chaffee, Jr., and the Clear and Present Danger Test for Free Speech: The First Year, 1919.” Journal of American History, vol. 58, no. 1 (Jun. 1971): 24-45.

Reid, John Phillip. “Experience or Reason: The Tort Theories of Holmes and Doe.” Vanderbilt Law Review, vol. 18, no. 2 (Mar. 1965): 405-36.

Touster, Saul. “In Search of Holmes from Within.” Vanderbilt Law Review, vol. 18, no. 2 (Mar. 1965): 437-72.

Ursin, Edmund. “Holmes, Cardozo, and the Legal Realists: Early Incarnations of Legal Pragmatism and Enterprise Liability.” San Diego Law Review, vol. 50, no. 3 (Aug.-Sep. 2013): 537-88.

Wells, Catharine Pierce. Oliver Wendell Holmes: A Willing Servant to an Unknown God. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020.

White, G. Edward. The Friendship of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. and Kaneko Kentaro: A Cultural Perspective. Kyoto: Doshida University Press, 1993.

________. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: Law and the Inner Self. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

________. “Looking at Holmes Looking at Marshall.” Massachusetts Legal History: A Journal of the Supreme Judicial Court Historical Society, vol. 7 (2001): 63-81.

________. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.: Lives and Legacies. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

________. Oliver Wendell Holmes: Sage of the Supreme Court. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Wolf, Mark L. “Few are Chosen: The Judicial Appointments of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., and Charles Wyzanski, Jr.” Massachusetts Law Review, vol. 74, no. 4 (Dec. 1989): 221-33.

Manuscript Collections

Columbia University
New York, N.Y.
Stuart B. Schimmel collection of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., letters and documents, 1860-1946.
2 vols., 1 box, 1 oversize folder, books in 4 record storage cartons; correspondence, manuscripts, Civil War notebook, and other materials by and about Holmes.

Dartmouth College
Hanover, N.H.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., letters to Frances Farwell Field, 1899.
4 items; miscellaneous correspondence.

Harvard Law School
Cambridge, Mass.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., addenda, 1818-1978.
3.3 linear ft.; finding aid; correspondence, biographical material, articles, and speeches.

Edward J. Holmes collection of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., materials, 1853-1944.
1 linear ft.; finding aid; correspondence, estate matters, and various family documents.

Mark De Wolfe Howe research materials relating to life of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., 1858-1968.
13.5 linear ft.; finding aid; research material collected by Howe in his capacity as Holmes's official biographer.

Letters written by Oliver Wendell Holmes to Lady Clare Castletown, 1896-1926.
49 items; personal correspondence; available online.

John G. Palfrey collection of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., papers, 1715-1938.
38 linear ft.; finding aid; correspondence, biographical and family papers, drafts of writings, diaries, autographs, clippings, and memorabilia.

Harvard University
Harvard-Yenching Library
Cambridge, Mass.
Correspondence between Viscount Kentaro Kaneko and Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, ca. 1888-ca. 1935.
79 items; microfilm; Holmes's correspondence with a Japanese jurist.

Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, Md.
Oliver Wendell Holmes collection, 1852-1936.
0.2 linear ft.; finding aid; correspondence, recitation questions, poems, news clippings, photographs, and recollections of Holmes.

Library of Congress
Washington, D.C.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., collection, 1862-1935.
220 items; chiefly correspondence with Lewis Einstein, American diplomat.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., letters, 1921-1933.
1 microfilm reel; correspondence with Jingxiong Wu (John H. C. Wu).

Federal Judicial Center

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Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr.