Virtual exhibitions can provide an excellent first impression of a subject in legal history. The institutions creating such exhibitions often display really special objects, in particular books, from their collections. Not only museums and archives but also law libraries create virtual exhibitions. The order in which virtual exhibitions are presented here depends to a large extent on the subjects of the exhibitions, not on a preconceived plan. Sometimes an exhibit could figure under more than one heading, and thus it is worthwhile to scroll down. Instead of an exhaustive overview you will find here at least the sheer variety of exhibitions. Where sensible some thematic digital collections have been added. A number of national libraries and law schools create regularly online exhibitions.
Searching online exhibitions
- Library and Archival Exhibitions on the Web, Smithsonian Institution Libraries – a database for searching online exhibitions on historical subjects worldwide; search functions for exhibition title, institution and subject, and in the advanced search mode for country, state and browsing for titles in alphabetical order
- Clio Online: Exhibitions – this German history portal offers a good starting point for searching online exhibitions concerning law and history
General subjects
- The Nomos of Law. Manifestations of the Law in Picture Atlases and Photo Archives, Kunsthistorisches Institut, Florence
- Utopia: The search for the ideal society in the Western world, New York Public Library
- Utopie. La quête de la société idéale en Occident, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris
- Cartoons on War and Peace, Peace Palace Library, The Hague – 25 cartoons concerning the Lausanne conference (1922-1923)
- Most Horrible and Shocking Murders, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD – an online exhibition with a number of pamphlets
- Rituale und die Ordnung der Welt, Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg – an exhibition about rituals and order from the twelfth to the eighteenth century; section 4, Rituale und Recht, deals with law
- The Art of the Ketubah: A Study in Jewish Diversity. Decorated Jewish Marriage Contracts 17th-21st Centuries, Yale University Library, New Haven, CT
- Transitional Justice in Historical Perspective, University of Minnesota Law Library, Minneapolis – an exhibit focusing on the aftermath of wars
- Crime and Punishment at 150. Global contexts, University of Toronto Libraries – with Dostoevsky’s 1866 novel as a focus
- Incarceration & imagination, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale University
Asia
- Chinese Torture / Supplices chinois, approche iconographique, historique et littéraire d’une représentation exotique – an exhibition of the Institut des Sciences de l’Homme, Lyon; interface in French and English
- Western Depictions of Chinese Crime and Punishment in Late Imperial China, Peabody Library, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD – Flickr – some 50 images from 19th-century Western travelogues
- Ukiyoe-Karikaturen, 1842-1905, Universität Wien – Japanese caricatures from an important period in Japan’s history; interface in English, German and Japanese
- George S. Bonn Collection of Ukiyo-e in the Meiji Period, Keio Universoty Libraries – 860 items
- Japan-Netherlands exchange in the Edo period, National Diet Library, Tokyo, and Royal Library, The Hague
- Birth of the Constitution of Japan, The National Diet Library, Tokyo
- Alfred Hussey Collection: Japan’s Constitution Slides, University of Michigan – seventeen rare Japanese slides illustrating (the creation of) the 1945 constitution
- Law of the Land: Highlights of Singapore’s constitutional documents, BrasBagahBugis, National Heritage Board, Singapore
Europe
- The European Political Print Collection, Library of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, MA – some 200 political prints; the general AAS database for its digital collections contains some 98,000 items
- Political Cartoons, John Carter Brown Library, Brown University, Providence, RI – some 500 eighteenth-century items, mainly from England and France, but also for example the South Sea Bubble and the American Revolution
- The Nuremberg Trials at 70, Harvard Law School Library – with an overview of other resources
- Emblemata Politica in Context, The Newberry Library, Chicago
- The Inquisition, The Newberry Library, Chicago – an educational collection focusing on the various Early Modern inquisitions
- El Corpus Iuris Canonici: la consolidación del sistema legal de la Iglesia, Biblioteca Universidad de Navarra and Facultad de Derecho Canónico – an exhibit on the role of medieval canon law within the Catholic church
- Borderlands. Ukraine in historical maps, Leiden University Library / interface English and Ukrainian
Latin America
- América Latina 1810-2010. 200 años de história, Biblioteca Nacional de España, Madrid
- Modern Latin America, Brown University, Providence, RI – a companion to the textbook with the same title
- Spanish American Independence, British Library
- La lucha por la justicia: la primera legislación de Castilla para las Indias como precedente jurídico de los derechos humanos, Biblioteca Universida de Navarra – an exhibit about the first Spanish legislation for its territories in Latin America
- Caribbean Histories Revealed, The National Archives, Kew
Ancient law
- The Virtual Cuneiform Tablet Reconstruction Project, University of Birmhngham, University of Nottingham and Keele University
- Cuneiform Tablets from the Reign of Gudea of Lagash to Shalmanassar III, Library of Congress
- Cuneiform Tablets at Bridwell Library, Southern Methodist University, Dallas
- Cuneiform Tablets, Clark Collection of Ancient Art, Ripon College, Ripon, WI
- Cuneiform Collection, Science Museum, Saint Paul, MN
- From Traces to text: Highlights ftom the University of Michigan Papyrus Collection
- Diversity in the Desert. Daily Life in Greek & Roman Egypt (322 BCE-641 CE), University of Michigan Library
- Oxyrhynchus: A City and its Texts, Oxford University – an exhibition about the famous papyri found in Egypt
- Papyri at Bridwell Library, Southern Methodist University, Dallas
Medieval law
- Illuminating the Law – an exhibition with medieval juridical manuscripts at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
- Inquisitio. Manuscript and print sohttps://inquisition.library.nd.edu/urces for the study of Inquisition history, Rare Books and Special Collections, Hesburgh Libraries, University of Notre Dame
- Medieval Scrolls at Harvard, Houghton, Library, Harvard University – it started as an exhibition with a selection of scrolls, with Glanvill and an indulgence, but now there is a database and a very detailed bibliography
- El Sello Medieval, Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid – medieval seals and their functions
- Small Objects of Power: An exhibition about medieval seals, Berkshire Record Office, Reading
- Siegelgeschichte Kreis Güterloh, Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek – yet antoher exhibit about seals, their use and history
- Siegel, mittelalterliche Kleinodien, Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart
- Maimonides Exhibit, Yale University Library – the Jewish scholar Maimonides (1138-1204) acted also as a lawyer by giving legal responsa
- The Great Eagle at the JNUL: The Works of Moses Maimonides, Jewish National and University Library – replaced by a webpage giving links to digitized resources
- Rashi “Teacher of Israel”, Jewish National and University Library – the versatile Jewish scholar Rashi (circa 1040-1105), too, gave legal responsa – the exhibit no longer exists, but this web page gives an impression, with links to digitized sources
- The Pope’s Other Jobs: Judge and Lawgiver, Yale Law School Library – an exhibit about medieval and later canon law
- Women’s Bodies Women’s Property: Limited Ownership Under the Law. German customary law books illustrated in the fourteenth century, Tufts University – an exhibit around the illustrated manuscripts of the Sachsenspiegel
- Power, justice, and tyranny in the Middle Ages, J. Paul Getty Museum – Google Arts & Culture
Witchcraft
- Witchcraft, Demonology, Inquisition, University of Sydney Library
- The Damned Art: The History of Witchcraft and Demonology, University of Glasgow – with a fine selection of books from several countries
- Denken over duivels. Vroegmoderne demonologie [Thinking about devils. Early Modern demonology], Leiden University Library
- Magic and Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe, Newberry Library, Chicago – an educational collection
- The Salem Witch Trials: Legal Resources, The University of Chicago Library – these trials took place in the seventeenth century
- Witchcraft in Groningen? The Nauta Collection, University Library Groningen
- Hexenglaube und Hexenverfolgung in Hessen, Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek and Staatsarchiv Marburg
- Quellen zur Hexenverfolgun im Staatsarchiv Wertheim, Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg
- Tinctor’s Foul Treatise. Imagining “Witchcraft”: A Book of Horrors, Bruce Peel Special Collections, University of Alberta Libraries, Edmonton – with a fifteenth-century French treatise against the Waldensians as its focus
- Famous trials and their legacies, Robbins Collection, Berkeley law School
Here below a selection for a number of countries:
Australia
- Andrew Inglis Clark, University of Tasmania – about the founder of the Australian constitution
- Advance Australia: Southern Australia and Federation, State Library of South Australia, Adelaide – a virtual exhibition with rich bibliographies and further references
- Western Australia and Federation, State Library of Western Australia, Perth
Austria
- www.staatsvertrag.at: Eine akustische Ausstellung, Technisches Museum Wien and Österreichische Mediathek – an exhibition with primarily sound recordings concerning the 50th anniversary of the Austrian constitution (1945)
Belgium
- Marie-Thérèse et les Pays-Bas autrichiens: la souveraineté à distance, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Académie Royale de Belgique and Université de Namur – a virtual exhibition and bibliography about the eighteenth-century Southern Low Countries
Brazil
- Brazil: Five Centuries of Change, Brown University – a companion website to the 2010 edition of the textbook on Brazilian history by Thomas Skidmore
- The Código Brasiliense at the John Carter Brown Library, Brown University – an exhibit about the rare digitized three-volume edition of Brazilian legislation, printed between 1811 and 1822
- Brasil: o Império nos Trópicos, Arquivo Nacional, Rio de Janeiro
- Nação Brasílica: 180 anos de Independência, Arquivo Nacional
- 190 anos do Ministério da Justiça, Arquivo Nacional
- O mundo luso-brasileiro, Arquivo Nacional – with also attention to the Dutch period in the seventeenth century
- Os Primeiros Brasileiros, Museu Nacional, Rio de Janeiro – a virtual exhibit created from the traveling exhibition which escaped the disastrous 2018 fire
Canada
- Virtual Museum Canada – a portal to some 500 virtual exhibits; interface English and French
- The Anti-Slavery Movement in Canada, Collections Canada
- Canada’s Constitutional Evolution, Library and Archives Canada
- Canadian Confederation, Collections Canada – including maps and cartoons
- Posters and Broadsides in Canada, Collections Canada
- Treaty 8, Collections Canada – the treaty from 1899 is the first settlement with the native peoples of Canada
- Nouvelle-France, horizons nouveaux – an exhibition on the 400 years of French presence and influence in North America
- Aboriginal Documentary Heritage, Collections Canada – for example treaties
- Silk Robes and Sou’westers: History of Law and the Courts in Newfoundland and Labrador
- Pirates or corsairs? Boarding on the St. Lawrence, Musée maritime de Québec and Naval Museum of Québec
- History of the Wolseley Courthouse and Champions of Justice, Community Stories, Digital Museums Canada
- I Do: Love and Marriage in 19th Century Canada, Libraries and Archives Canada
- Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History, Canadian Heritage and University of Victoria – an educational project around crimes
- Canada’s oldest profession: Sex work and bawdy house legislation, University of Toronto Libraries
Colombia
- Impresiones de la Independencia: proclamas, bandos y hojas volantes, Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia – proclamations, ordinances and pamphlets
- Independencias de Hispanoamérica, Biblioteca Nacional – in cooperation with the British Library
Egypt
- Egyptian Caricatures Archive, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria – some 12,000 drawings made between 1970 and 2010; interface Arabic
France
- Musée de l’histoire de justice, Criminocorpus – some thirty virtual exhibitions on this portal for the history of criminal law in France and the French colonial empire
- Daumier et ses héritiers, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris – on Honoré Daumier (1808-1879) and his drawings
- Digitized lithographs of Honoré Daumier, Brandeis University – nearly 4000 works
- The Daumier Register, Dieter and Lilian Noack – a database with an overview of Daumier’s work
- Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution – a few hundred images in this exhibition of the Georg Mason University and City of New York University
- Lexikon der Revolutions-Ikonographie in der europäischen Druckgraphik 1789-1889, Universität Giessen – a digital version of this work with nearly 11,000 images
- French Revolution Digital Archives /Archives numériques de la Révolution française, Stanford University Library and Bibliothèque nationale de France – a project with digitized parliamentary records (1787-1794) in the series Archives parlementaires, including cahiers de doléance, and thousands of images
- Napoleonic Satires, John Hay Library, Brown University – nearly 500 satirical prints, also available at this link
- Napoleonic Period Collection, University of Washington, Seattle- fifty French and thirty English caricatures, satirical prints
- 1906 Dreyfus réhabilité – an extensive online exhibition, with in the Mediathèque many sources and further links; interface French and English
- Lorraine Beitler Collection of the Dreyfus Affair, Schoenberg Centre for Electronic Text and Image, University of Pennsylvania Libraries, Philadelphia
- A Mockery of Justice: Caricature and the Dreyfus Affair, Duke University Libraries – with as a separate collection the famous 52 prints of the Musée des Horreurs series
- Le capitaine Alfred Dreyfus à Rennes, “un reportage oublié de l’été 1899” – rare photographs taken in Rennes during the 1899 trial
- L’histoire par l’image, 1789-1939 – a rich online presentation of pictural and other sources for French history
- Ulysse, Archives nationales d’outre-mer, Aix-en-Provence – a collection with images concerning French colonial history
- Bicentenaire du Code civil, 1804-2004, Bibliothèque Cujas, Université Paris-Sorbonne – not just the Code civil of 1804 but also medieval law and the Ancien Régime
- Bicentenaire du Code civil, Bibliothèque et Archives du Sénat
- Journaux satiriques de la guerre franco-prussienne (1870-1871), Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg – a digital collection with cartoons from several French journals
- Französische Karikaturen, Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg – some 11,000 digitized caricatures from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
- Caricatures of the Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune (1870-71), Cambridge Digital Library – some 1,100 caricatures
- Projet Bertillon: Alphonse Bertillon and the identification of persons, 1880-1914, Pierre Piazza – a project with a virtual exhibition; interface in French and English – there are many more online exhibitions at the Criminocorpus portal
- Les factums. Justice des villes et des champs: le mémoire judiciaire du 17e au 19e sècle, Bibliothèque du Patrimoine de Clermont Communauté, Clermont-Ferrand – a factum was a plea published by barristers to influence public opinion – and judges – in favor of his clients
- Alexis de Tocqueville – a virtual exhibition created in 2005 for the bicentennial of his birth; interface French and English
- Napoleon Period Collection of Political Caricatures, Washington University, Seattle – some 80 English and French cartoons
- Prints from the Curzon collection: Images of Napoleon and British fear of invasion, 1789-1815, Oxford Digital Library – 1,400 images
- The Many Faces of Marie Antoinette, The Newberry Library, Chicago
- Politics, Piety and Poison: French Political Pamphlets, 1600-1800, The Newberry Library, Chicago – an online exhibition of a library with rich French and Dutch pamphlet collections
- Life of Geofroi Jacques Flach, University of Missouri – an influential Alsatian lawyer (1846-1919); his library came to this American university in 1920
- Paul Viollet (1840-1914): “Un grand savant assoiffé de justice”, Université Paris-I – Viollet was trained as an archivist, but worked as a librarian and law professor; he published a number of manuals on legal history, and pronounced his views in public debates and questions
- Mazarinades (1648-1653) : la Fronde, les mots, les presses, Bibliothèque Mazarine, Paris – an exhibit concerning a particular type of pamphlets
- Des facultés sur le front du droit: Paris et Toulouse dans la Grande Guerre, Bibliothèque Cujas, Paris and Université Capitole-Toulouse 1 – two law faculties and the First World War
- Franco-Prussian War and Paris Commune Caricatures, University of Houston Libraries – some 600 items
- Jacques Cujas 1522-1590. La fabrique d’un «grand juriste», Bibliothèque interuniversitaire Cujas, Paris
- Vive la différence: Sterotypes of France and England, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge – with carixcarures published around 1800
Germany
- Das Reichskammergericht. Heiliges Römisches Reich (1495-1806), Bundesarchiv, Koblenz – an exhibit about the history of this German supreme court
- Bildsammlung der Deutschen Kolonialgesellschaft, Universitätsbibliothek Frankfurt am Main – images concerning Germany’s colonial history
- 4x 1848: Geschichten aus der Berliner Märzrevolution, Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin
- Der Mordfall Lackum. Justiz und Alltag im “Ruhrgebiet” um 1590 – a project at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum and the Universität Duisburg-Essen about a murder case which led to an appeal trial for the Reichskammergericht
- In Namen der Freiheit! Verfassung und Verfassungswirklichkeit in Deutschland, Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin – on German constitutions since 1849
- Die Verfassung des Königreichs Bayern 1818-1918, Bavarikon – the constitution of the former kingdom Bavaria, interface German and English
- Deutsche Karikaturen, Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg – some 70 images
- A witness to barbarism: Horace R. Hansen and the Dachau War Crimes Trials, University of Minnesota Law Library
- “Zur Handhabung der Disziplin”: Der Marburger Karzer, Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek and Staatsarchiv Marburg – an exhibit about the old university prison
- “Der ame Konrad” vor Gericht, Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg – an exhibition about the Peasants’ War of 1514
- Beschlagnahmte Briefschaften. Der Kriminalprozess gegen Joseph Süß Oppenheimer 1737/38, Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart – on a infamous political trial in the eighteenth century
- Fritz Bauer. Der Staatsanwalt / District Attorney, Fritz-Bauer-Institut and Jüdisches Museum, Frankfurt am Main – an exhibition about this lawyer (103-1968) who led trials against Nazis after the Second World War
- Das Heilige Römische Reich in Regensburg – a virtual exhibition on the Holy Roman Empire and the role in it and impact of it on the Bavarian town Regensburg
Haiti
- Revolutionary France and Haiti, 1787-1804, The Newberry Library, Chicago
- The Other Revolution: Haiti, 1789-1804, John Carter Brown Library, Brown University. Providence, RI
- Haiti, An Island Luminous / Haiti, une île lumineuse, Florida International University en Digital Library of the Caribbean – a general exhibition on the history of Haiti
Indonesia
- Images of the Indonesian War of Indepenece 1945-1949, Leiden University Library – also in Bahasa Indonesia and Dutch
- De wraak van Diponegro [Diponegro’s revenge], Leiden University Library – an exhibition about the Java War (1825-1830) and its afterlife
Ireland
- The 1641 Depositions, Trinity College, Dublin – a database with much dditional information
- The Treaty Exhibition, National Archives of Ireland, Dublin – this exhibit in three parts concerns the Anglo-irish Treaty of 1921
- Enemies of the State: Irish Rebels in Reading Gaol, Berkshire Record Office, Reading
Italy
- I libri antichi di Angelo Sraffa, Università Bocconi, Milan – an online exhibition – with a bibliography and full catalogue – on Benvenuto Stracca and his treatise De mercatura and other early works on commercial law
- Il Consolato e il Portolano del Mare, Università Bocconi, Milan – an online exhibition on Italian editions since 1576 of the Llibre del Consolat del Mar, an important source of medieval maritime law
- Fondo Antico – Immagini della Giustizia, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia – an online exhibition with a bibliography
- Costruire l’Italia: Momenti del processo di unificazione nei documenti della Biblioteca di Scienze sociali, 1861-1896, Università degli Studi Firenze
- Il Codice Civile: The first translation of Napoleon’s Code civil, The Law Library of Louisiana, New Orleans – in 1806 this Italian translation came into force
- Representing the Law in the Most Serene Republic: Images of Authority from Renaissance Venice, Lillian Goldman Law Library and Beinecke Library, Yale University
- MondoMorelli: La biblioteca di un intelletuale tra Ottocento e Novecento, Biblioteca Universitaria di Padova – an exhibit about and around the lawyer Albero Morelli (1854-1914)
- 1946: L’anno della svolta. Le donne al voto, Camera dei Deputati – on voting rights for women since 1946
- Cine Censura – an exhibit about film censorship
Mexico
- ¡Viva México!, Marriott Library, The University of Utah – an exhibition from 2010 about the bicentennial of Mexican independance and the centennial of the Mexican revolution
- Approaching the Mexican Revolution: Books, Maps, Documents, The Newberry Library, Chicago – also in Spanish
- Mexico: From Empire to Revolution, The Getty Center, Malibu, CA – only an archived version
- Bureaucracy on the ground in colonial Mexico. A window on the Visita of 1765, University of Texas at Austin – an exhibit about a period of administrative reform
Netherlands
- Historical Prints, Frederik Muller, Print Room, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam – The Memory of the Netherlands – nearly 5,000 images from the rich collection brought together by Frederik Muller on the subject of Dutch history
- Digital HIstorical Atlas, Rijksmuseum – The Memory of the Netherlands – nearly 800 objects from pivotal years for the Dutch Republic in the seventeenth century: 1618/1619, 1648, 1672 and 1695
- Engravings by Franz and Abraham Hogenberg, Princeton University Library – a graphic view of the Dutch Revolt and the Eighty Years War
- Censorship!, Persmuseum, Amsterdam
- 200 jaar Grondwet [200 years of the Dutch constitution], Nationaal Archief, The Hague – Google Arts & Culture – an exhibition about the constitution of 1814 after the fall of the Napoleonic empire
- Handelaar in slaven [Slave merchant], Zeeuws Archief, Middelburg – Google Arts & Culture – an exhibit about the company founded in Middeluvrg for trading slaves
- Grotius: A life between freedom and oppression, Leiden University Library – created in 2021
- Rembrandt and Leiden University, Leiden University Library
New Zealand
- Treaty of Waitangi – Te Tiriti o Waitangi, Archives New Zealand – on display are not only this treaty from 1840, but also the subsequent treaties
Portugal
- Materials for the History of Elections and Parliament in Portugal, 1820-1926 / Materiais para a História Eleitoral e Parlamentar Portuguesa, 1820-1926, Biblioteca Nacional, Lissabon
South-Korea
- Judicial History Materials, Supreme Court of South Korea
- Korean War by Era, National Library of South Korea, Seoul
Spain
- La Constitución de 1812 en sus textos, Biblioteca de la Universidad de Sevilla
- La constitución de Cádiz: una España reformada, Biblioteca Universidad de Navarra
- Miradas sobre la Guerra de la Independencia, Biblioteca Nacional de España, Madrid
- Los Indices de libros prohibidos siglos XVI-XX, Biblioteca Universidad de Sevilla
- Prohibidos y expurgados, Biblioteca Universidad de Sevilla
- Libros censurados en la Real Biblioteca, Patrimonio Nacional – censored books from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century
- Antonio Agustí y Albanell, Universitat de Barcelona – a small exhibit about this great canon lawyer from the sixteenth century
- Espías: servicios secretos y escritura cifrada en la monarquía hispánica, Archivo General de Simancas – an exhibit on spies and secret agents in the Early Modern Spanish empire
- La Escuela de Salamanca y su entorno intelectual, Biblioteca Universidad de Navarra – a virtual exhibit created in 2008
- Francisco Suárez (1548-1617), Biblioteca Universidad de Navarra – this philosopher and theologian wrote also about legal matters
- Malheridos: La huella del tiempo en las bibliotecas REBIUN [Badly wounded: The imprint of time in university libraries], Red de Bibliotecas Universitarias – on damage to books caused by censors, abuse, violence and disasters
Sweden
- “Böcker har sina öden” (Books have their destinies). Treasures of the Swedish Law Collection, University of Minnesota Law Library
- Frittord 250 [The free word 250], Swedish Academy of Sciences – an exhibit about the law of 1766 on the freedom of press; see also the PDF of the essay volume Fritt ord 250 år (2016)
Syria
- Return to Palmyra, Getty Research Institute, Malibu, CA
United Kingdom
- Gillray Collection, Princeton University Library – James Gillray made between 1770 and 1815 famous caricatures of British life and society
- James Gillray, New York Public Library
- Prints from the Curzon collection: Images of Napoleon and British fear of invasion, 1789-1815, Oxford Digital Library – 1400 images
- George Cruikshank Exhibit, Princeton University Library – 50 drawings and engravings by George Cruikshank (1792-1878)
- British Cartoon Archive, University of Kent – a catalogue to some 150,000 cartoons
- British Cartoon Prints, Library of Congress – 8,500 digitized printed British cartoons, with much for the period 1780-1830
- Political and Satirical Prints, John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera. Bodleian Library, Oxford – some 1,500 digitized caricatures from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
- Sin & The City: William Hogarth’s London, Princeton Unicversity Library
- Medieval English Land Grants, Georgetown Law Library
- Early Modern Scottish Trials, Georgetown Law Library
- Scottish Thought and Letters in the Eighteenth Century, University Library Glasgow – with a small section on Scottish law
- The Charles Peirce Collection of Social and Political Caricatures and Ballads, Library of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass. – the collection contains both British and American prints and ballads
- Slavery and Portraiture in 18th-century Atlantic Great Britain, Yale Center for British Art en Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University
- Vivat Rex! Prince Henry, King Henry, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C – the king in question is Henry VIII
- Henry VIII: 500th anniversary of Henry VIII’s accession to the throne, National Archives, Kew
- Henry VIII: Man and Monarch, British Library
- Elizabeth I: Ruler and Legend, The Newberry Library, Chicago
- The Plague Book, University of Virginia – an exhibit on the legislation and policies against the plague during the reign of Elizabeth I
- The Bawdy Court, University of Nottingham – about ecclesiastical courts in the seventeenth century, with sources from the archdeaconry of Nottingham
- Dickens, Scrooge and the Victorian Poor, King’s College, London
- Charles Dickens’ Legal World, Middle Temple Library, London – a 2021 virtual exhibition
- Wives, Widows and Wimples. University of Nottingham – medieval women and landholding, marriage, behavior and mistreatment
- The Drawn Sword: Engravings and Woodcuts from the MacBean Jacobite and Stuart Collection, Special Collections, University of Aberdeen – 1,300 loose engravings and woodcuts; you can search for portraits, locations and historical events
- Parliament and the British Slave Trade, 1600-1807, Parliamentary Archives, London
- The history of crime and punishment in Britain, 1790-1870, University of Glasgow, Special Collections – a small exhibit featuring broadsides
- British Black History and the Law, Inner Temple Library, London – an exhibit showing more than the history of slavery, but also its aftermath well into the present
- Inner Temple History, Inner Temple, London – an exhibition created by Sir John Baker on the history of this inn of courts
- An inquisition for blood. Tales of murder and justice in John Reynolds’ The Triumphs of God’s Revenge, Northwestern University, Chicago – an exhibit around this book from 1726 and the English popular fascination with murder
- Women in Law, Middle Temple Library, London – a 2019 exhibit on the centenary of the admission of women to legal professions
- Trial by media: The Queen Caroline affair, Lillian Goldman Law Library and Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University
United States of America
- Remembering the Triangle Factory Fire 100 Years Later, 1911-2011, International Labor Relations School and the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library
- Online Exhibits, Cornell University Library – with for example the Lafayette Collection, the Maurepas Collection, Abolitionism and 25 Years of Political Influence: The Records of the Human Rights Campaign, and Lincoln’s Unfinished Work: The Thirteenth Amendment
- Birth of the Nation: The First Federal Congress 1789-1791, George Washington University
- Exploring the Early Americas, Jay L. Kislak Collection, Library of Congress
- Liberty and the American Revolution, Princeton University Library
- Colonists Citizens’ Constitution, Dorothy Tapper Goldman Foundation – a virtual exhibit accompanying a book and a selection of documents
- On the Water, Smithsonian Institution
- Spoils of War. Privateering in Nova Scotia, Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management – with three log-books of buccaneers
- Pirates in print. Seafaring treasures from Special Collections & Archives, University of California at San Diego
- Written on Water. Literature of the Sea in the Age of Sail, Lilly Library, Indiana University
- The Duel, Jacob Burns Law Library, George Washington University
- Chaos in the Streets: The Philadelphia Riots of 1844, University Library, Villanova University, PA
- La Louisiaine Française 1682-1803, Ministère de la Culture – an exposition in French and English
- The Louisiana Purchase, Louisiana Digital Library – a virtual exhibition and digital collection concerning the bicentenary of this momentious purchase in 1803, see also the Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial Collection
- The Sid Lapidus Collection on Liberty and the American Revolution, Princeton University Library – with an online exhibition
- The Thomas Nast Collection, Princeton University Library – 600 cartoons by Thomas Nast (1840-1902)
- Women Wielding Power: Pioneer Female State Legislators, National Women’s History Museum, Alexandria, VA
- Legislating History: 100 years of women in Congress, National Women’s History Museum – an exhibit launched in 2017
- Murder Pamphlets, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD – showing pamphlets – alas only title pages – about murders and trials with a medical aspect
- Fighting Words: American Revolutionary War Pamphlets, Marriot Library, The University of Utah
- FBI History: A Centennial History, 1908-2008, Federal Bureau of Investigation
- Perspectives on the Boston Massacre, Massachusetts Historical Society – about the events in 1770 leading to the American independence in 1776
- Age of Lawyers: The Roots of American Law in Shakespeare’s Britain, Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.
- Thomas Paine: The Radical Founding Father, Smithsonian Institution and National Portrait Gallery
- Everett Massacre Collection, University of Washington, Seattle – documents and records about an event in 1916
- Centralia Massacre and Industrial Workers of the World Collection, University of Washington, Seattle – a collection about the events in 1919, including the trial and its background
- Shadows at Dawn, Brown University – a collection concerning the Camp Grant Massacre in 1871
- To See Justice Done: Letters from the Scottsboro Boys Trials, University of Alabama – the case of nine black young men falsely accused of rape
- Pointing Fingers: Women, Sin, Crime and Guilt, Bryn Mawr College Library – suspicion, public opinion and imagination around American women and crimes
- America in Cartoons 1765-1865, Lilly Library, Indiana University
- The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record, Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and University of Virginia Library
- Trial of a century: La Amistad, National Archives and Records Administration – Google Arts & Culture
- Good Deeds in Pennsylvania, American Philosophical Society – a remarkable series of legal documents from Cheshire County
- Eastern Apps: Visualizing HIstoric Prison Data, American Philosophical Society
- Letters from Prison, The University of Chicago Library
- United States Supreme Court: Portaits and Autographs, The University of Chicago Library
- Carson Collection on Common Law, Free Library of Philadelphia – a small exhibit with some 70 items about the trials of King Charles I, William Penn, Daniel O’Connell, and Queen Caroline
- Remembering Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, University of Virginia Law School
- British and colonial antecedents of American liberties, Wolf Law Library, William & Mary Law School. Williamsburg, VA
- Law and the struggle for racial justice, University of Minnesota Law Library
- Justice Now; 1960s Protest Drawings by Ashley Bryan, PennLibraries, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
- United States Supreme Court: Portraits and Autographs, The University of Chicago Library
- A Voice for Justice: The Life and Legacy of Ida B. Wells, The University of Chicago Library – an Afro-American journalist standing up against racism
- Pierson v. Post Judgment Roll, University of Toronto Libraries – a document about a famous case in property law in New York from the early nineteenth century
- The State of the Union: Reconstructing a Thomas Jefferson Family Library, Washington University, St. Louis – in this collection surfaced in 2010 some eighty books that once belonged to Thomas Jefferson
- All about the count: the U.S. census, Yale University
The following institutions do regularly present new online exhibitions:
- American National Archives
- Library of Congress
- The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
- National Archives, Kew
- British Library, Online Exhibitions
- Bibliothèque nationale de France: Exhibitions
Mike Widener pointed to a number of online exhibitions by five American law libraries:
- Exhibitions, Harvard Law School Library, Cambridge, MA – these exhibitions cover a wide variety of subjects
- Exhibits, Tarlton Law Library, University of Texas at Austin – for example on old juridical dictionaries
- Daniel R. Coquillette Rare Book Room, Boston College Law Library, Boston, MA
- Exhibitions, Rare Book Room, Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale University, New Haven, CT – see also a number of catalogues for exhibits curated by Mike Widene
- Exhibitions, Robbins Collection, School of Law, Boalt Hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA – for example on the Roman-Dutch law; some of the exhibits contain also videos