04/24/2021
It was on this day in 1800 that Congress established its own legislative library: the Library of Congress. As part of a legislative measure to move the government from Philadelphia to Washington, President John Adams approved spending $5,000 “for the purchase of such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress [...] and for fitting up a suitable apartment for containing them.”
Congress ordered 740 books and three maps from London, and in just over a decade, the library had more than 3,000 items. During the War of 1812, the British attacked the Capitol and burned everything to the ground, including all the contents of the library. Former President Thomas Jefferson wrote from his home in Virginia, “I learn from the newspapers that the vandalism of our enemy has triumphed at Washington over science as well as the arts, by the destruction of the public library with the noble edifice in which it was deposited.” As a replacement, he offered to sell his personal library, which was considered the best in the country. Not everyone in Congress thought it was a good idea — Jefferson’s tastes were eclectic, and some legislators thought it was unnecessary to have books on art and science, or in foreign languages. Jefferson replied: “I do not know that it contains any branch of science which Congress would wish to exclude from their collection; there is, in fact, no subject to which a Member of Congress may not have occasion to refer.” In the end, they paid him $23,950 for 6,487 books.
Beginning in 1870, copyright law required that the Library of Congress receive copies of all new materials. After that, the library quickly outgrew its space at the Capitol, and in 1873 the government announced a contest to design plans for a new space. The resulting library, built in Italian Renaissance style, is now called the Thomas Jefferson building. Librarian of Congress (1825-1908), Ainsworth Spofford, declared it “the book palace of the American people,” and it was called “the largest, the costliest, and the safest” library in the world. Today the Library is the main research arm of the U.S. Congress and the home of the U.S. Copyright Office. It has more than 170 million items, including more than 39 million cataloged books and other print materials in 470 languages; more than 73 million manuscripts; the largest rare book collection in North America; and the world's largest collection of legal materials, films, maps, sheet music and sound recordings.
Carla Hayden is the current Librarian of Congress. In 2019 the library welcomed nearly 1.9 million onsite visitors and recorded 119.2 million visits and more than 520.8 million page views on the Library's web properties.
The Writers Almanac
The nation’s oldest cultural institution is located at 101 Independence Ave., Washington, D.C.
