News

May 9, 2018

Original Alexander Hamilton Documents on Display at Albany Law School

Albany Law School announced today that a collection of rare documents related to Alexander Hamilton—including a hand-signed letter giving legal advice to a client—will be displayed on campus from May 14 to 21. The display is in celebration of Hamilton’s honorary degree from Albany Law School, which will be conferred May 18 at the law school’s 167th Commencement at Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

The items, part of the corporate art collection of BNY Mellon, will be available for public viewing in the law school’s 1928 Building foyer, adjacent to the library entrance.

The collection includes:

  • A letter, signed by Hamilton and dated March 31, 1784, advising a client on the right of ferriage. The letter was dated during the time that Hamilton and others were organizing the Bank of New York (now BNY Mellon).
  • A certificate of subscription to the trust for the benefit of Hamilton’s family, issued in 1804, after his death at the hands of Vice President Aaron Burr. Certificates No. 61-62 were issued to John B. Church, husband of Angelica Schuyler and Hamilton’s brother-in-law.
  • Trust certificate No. 226, also dated 1804, issued to Washington Morton, husband of Cornelia Schuyler and Hamilton’s brother-in-law.
  • An early 19th century $5 bank note, Bank in the City of Albany.
  • An early 19th century $3 bank note, Saratoga County Bank.

Hamilton was an immigrant, a lawyer, the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, author of a large portion of the Federalist Papers, a Colonel to George Washington in the Revolutionary War, and one of the nation’s founders.

Hamilton, who studied and practiced law in Albany, is being posthumously honored by Albany Law School in acknowledgment of his impact on the Capital Region and the legal community of New York State. Douglas Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton’s fifth great-grandson, will accept the honorary degree.

Edward P. Swyer, President of the Swyer Companies and a strong advocate for the law school’s public interest work, also will receive an honorary degree at commencement.