Henry Plauche Dart

Background

Henry P. Dart was born on February 5, 1858, in Fort Saint Phillip, Louisiana, the son of Henry Dart and Mary Plauche. His father, an engineer, was an Englishman from Cornwall, who settled in New Orleans about 1837.

Education

Family poverty, resulting from the Civil War, forced Dart to support himself after one term in a New Orleans high school, but he became a broadly educated man through diligent private study.

Career

From 1873 to 1879 Dart served his apprenticeship as law clerk and student in the office of Cotton & Levy, a New Orleans law firm, and also did newspaper work, court-reporting, and special articles.

After admission to the bar on February 11, 1879, he severed his connection with Cotton & Levy and established his own law office.

In 1893 Dart was admitted to practise before the United States Supreme Court, and in 1895 he and his brother-in-law, Benjamin Wall Kernan, organized the firm of Dart & Kernan, specializing in corporation law. With changes from time to time in the membership, the firm enjoyed a large practice in all phases of civil and commercial law.

An active member of the American Bar Association after 1888, Dart organized the Louisiana Bar Association in 1898 and was its president until 1901; he was also a charter member of the American Law Institute. He was chairman of the Louisiana supreme court committee on admission and disbarment, 1898 - 1908, and was a member, 1906 - 1921, and president, 1916 - 1921, of the New Orleans courthouse commission, organized to provide adequate housing facilities for the courts domiciled in that city. During the First World War Dart was chairman of the legal advisory board of New Orleans, appointed to pass upon questions concerning the draft.

From 1920 to 1922 he lectured on the history of Louisiana law before the Loyola University Law School. On December 17, 1921, Dart delivered one of the principal addresses before the Supreme Court of the United States at the memorial exercises for his intimate friend, Chief Justice White.

In early life, Dart became a student of Louisiana history, particularly the history of Louisana law, and he studied French, Latin, and Spanish as necessary preparation for this work. When the Louisiana Historical Quarterly was established in 1917 by the Louisiana Historical Society he led the movement for the preservation, translation, calendaring, and publication of the French and Spanish archives of Louisiana. In 1920 the society elected him to the newly created position of archivist, and in 1922 he became editor of the Quarterly. In these positions he promoted the publication of the "Records of the Superior Council of Louisiana" and the "Index to the Spanish Judicial Records of Louisiana", as well as writing several articles, mainly dealing with the history of Louisiana law.

Appointed a curator of the Louisiana State Museum in 1924, Dart became president of the board of curators in 1926, and he worked diligently for adequate legislative appropriations for the Museum, secured gifts, and made its collections better known. These literary and other duties consumed much of his time during the last decade of his life. Henry P. Dart died on September 27, 1934, at his home in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Achievements

• Henry Plauche Dart was one of the leading trial lawyers of his day, who tried approximately three hundred cases before the Louisiana supreme court during fifty-five years of legal practice.

Works

More photos

• book

  • John Blackstone Cotton, 1824-1881: A Sketch Of His Life And Times Prepared In Connection With The Presentation Of His Portrait To The Supreme Court Of Louisiana, Saturday, March 13, 1915

    (This work has been selected by scholars as being cultural...)

  • The Sources Of The Civil Code Of Louisiana: Address Delivered At The Annual Meeting Of The Louisiana Bar Association ......

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

Personality

Henry P. Dart was a robust man physically, and he worked incessantly. He hated sham, pretense, and ostentation. He was frugal in his personal habits, his only extravagance being his library, which he made one of the best private law libraries in the South.

Connections

On September 23, 1882, Henry P. Dart married Mary Lytle Kernan of Clinton, Louisiana.  Four sons and three daughters were born to them.

Father:

Henry Dart

Mother:

Mary Dart (Plauche)

brother-in-law:

Benjamin Wall Kernan

Wife:

Mary Lytle Dart (Kernan)

Daughter:

May Dart

Daughter:

Edith Dart

Daughter:

Sally Dart

Son:

William Dart

Son:

Benjamin Dart

Son:

Henry Dart

Son:

John Dart