Related Sites

Other Sources of Information About Powell Family History and Genealogy

Papers of assorted Powells, Gwathmeys, and Ruckers can be found at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture. Genealogists will want to consult the vital records held at the Library of Virginia. An ever increasing amount of the library's holdings is available on-line.

Other Sources of Powell Photos

The Powell Archives holds many photographs of Justice Powell and his family. Many more remain with family members. Almost certainly, however, the best selection of photos of Justice Powell is held by the Office of the Curator of the U.S. Supreme Court. Indeed, the office has endeavored to collect the widest possible range of photos for all of the Supreme Court Justices. The office is located in the Supreme Court Building. There is a contact form available on the Supreme Court website.

Other Supreme Court and lower Federal Court primary sources

Library of Congress Manuscripts Division

LC has by far the largest holdings of Justices' papers. Several of Powell's contemporaries, including Justices Brennan, Douglas, Marshall, and White, have donated their papers here.

National Archives and Records Administration

Federal Court administrative records are here as are the audio recordings of Supreme Court oral arguments. Selected arguments can be heard on the Supreme Court Oral Argument web site. Full text Supreme Court decisions can be found at several web locations including Cornell Law School's excellent site.

The Federal Judicial Center's Federal Judicial History Office

This is "the" source for locating federal court records and the papers of federal judges. No link to the History Office is apparent from this page. There are, however, several publications of the Federal Judicial History Office available in PDF format (you must have reader software such as Adobe Acrobat), including A Directory of Oral History Interviews Related to the Federal Courts, A Guide to the Preservation of Federal Judges' Papers, and its newsletter The Court Historian.

The College of William and Mary

In 1996, the estate of former Chief Justice Warren E. Burger chose William & Mary's Swem Library as the repository for the Burger papers. They are closed to researchers until 2026.

Selected printed sources

Jeffries, John C. Jr., Justice Lewis F. Powell, Jr.: A Biography. New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons: 1994.

An erudite yet highly accessible biography of Powell by one of his Supreme Court clerks, now an Associate Dean at the University of Virginia Law School.

Wigdor, Alexandra K., The Personal Papers of Supreme Court Justices. New York, NY: Garland Publishing, Inc.; 1986.

Though somewhat dated, this remains the authoritative source concerning the existence and location of the papers of the Justices up to 1985.