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Laurence H. Eldredge Papers
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Held at: University of Pennsylvania: University Archives and Records Center [Contact Us]3401 Market Street, Suite 210, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Pennsylvania: University Archives and Records Center. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
Laurence H. Eldredge was born in Cold Springs, New Jersey, in March 1902. He graduated from Lafayette College in 1924 and earned his LL.B. degree of Law from the University of Pennsylvania in 1927.
Eldredge started teaching law in Philadelphia in the late 1920s, first at Temple University and later at the University of Pennsylvania. He retired from the Penn Law School in 1944. From 1940 to 1968 he was a lecturer on medical jurisprudence at the Penn Medical School.
He began his attorney practice in the 1930s and became a well-known lawyer in the Philadelphia area. In addition to his teaching and attorney services, Eldredge also distinguished himself through active participation in civic and cultural affairs. He was president of Episcopal Hospital from 1946 to 1953, president of the Philadelphia Art Alliance from 1946 to 1966 and president of the Better Business Bureau of Philadelphia from 1954 to 1969. He served as vice-president, and then president, of Lafayette College Alumni Association in the early 1960s. Eldredge also had several op-ed pieces published in area newspapers and made a handful of appearences on local television programs, both of which served to increase his noteriety in the Philadelphia area and beyond.
During thWorld War II, he taught as a training instructor for the Volunteer Port Security Force of the U.S. Coast Guard. His rank there was Lieutenant.
From the late 1930s to 1968, Eldredge served as State Reporter for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. From early 1960s to 1971, he assisted John C. Bell, Jr., Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court (1961-1972), in the publishing of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Journal.
Eldredge authored several books on the law, among them Trials of a Philadelphia Lawyer (1968) and The Law of Defamation (1978).
Eldredge moved to San Francisco in 1970 and taught at the Hastings College of Law at the University of California. until his retirement in 1979. He died in July 1982.
This collection documents the multifaceted career of Laurence H. Eldredge as an attorney, law faculty and civic leader.
The collection consists of the three series as follows:
1.1.The series of attorney services. Files in this series are arranged by the number of each case, in which Eldredge provided legal counseling either for the plaintiff or for the defendant. A case file generally consists of correspondence between the lawyer and his client, formal litigation documents, memorandum, notes, and other supporting material.
2.The series of General File. This series includes records of his activities in all cultural and civic affairs other than attorney services. Notably in this series are papers recording his affiliation with institutions such as the Better Business Bureau of Greater Philadelphia, Delta Upsilon Lafayette and Lafayette College Alumni Association, Episcopal Hospital, Pennsylvania Alcoholic Beverage Study, Inc., Pennsylvania Bar Association, Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia Bar Association, Philadelphia Medico-Legal Institute, Sheppard Foundation and The U.S. Coast Guard (Volunteer Port Security Force). This series also includes a file of correspondence when he served as State Reporter for the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, manuscript for the books Trials of a Philadelphia Lawyer and The Law of Defamation. There is also a significant amount of correspondence particularly between Eldredge and readers of his op-ed pieces.
3.The series of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Journal. Included in this series are issues of the Journal published from 1960 to 1971 and arranged by the year and number of their publication.
[Access note:]
Access is granted in accordance with the Protocols for the University Archives and Records Center. In particular it should be noted that, as persons involved in litigation in which Eldredge served as attorney may still be living, the files in the first series of this collection, namely that of Attorney Services, are restricted in accordance with the terms of these Protocols.
This collection has been organized in three series and arranged alphabetically or numerically.
The Laurence H. Eldredge papers were accessioned as a gift to the University Archives in 1987. An addition arrived in December 2011.
Organization
- Delta Upsilon Fraternity. Lafayette Chapter
- Hospital of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Philadelphia
- Pennsylvania Alcoholic Beverage Study
- Pennsylvania. Supreme Court
- Better Business Bureau of Greater Philadelphia
- United States. Coast Guard Auxiliary
- United States. Volunteer Port Security Force
- Philadelphia Art Alliance
- Philadelphia Medico-Legal Institute
- Philadelphia Bar Association
- Mrs. John S. Sheppard Foundation, Inc.
Subject
Occupation
- Publisher
- University of Pennsylvania: University Archives and Records Center
- Finding Aid Author
- Kaiyi Chen, revised by Timothy H. Horning
- Finding Aid Date
- June 2010, revised 2012 January