The Library of Congress

Here's a paper I wrote on the Library of Congress:

Justin Cruz

August 2010

The Library of Congress

     The Library of Congress was originally founded the year 1800, when president John Adams signed the Act of Congress, thus transfering the seat of government from Philidalphia to Washington. Part of the legislation spent $5,000 on 750 books and 30 maps from london for use of the Congress. The items were originaly stored in the Capitol Building. Most of the books were in legal nature, as the Congress beleived they would only need to refer to the library for books on law.

     In 1802, president Thomas Jefferson signed the first law establishing the structure of the library of congress. The law allowed the president and vice president to borrow books from the library, and it gave the presidentially elected Librarian of Congress the power to manage and oversee all items in the library. Jefferson's participation in the formation of the library didn't stop there. In the August of 1814, attacking British troops set fire to the library, burning a majority of the 3,000 items stored there. Withing the next month, former president Jefferson offered his personal collection of books up to the Congress. They accepted, paying him $23,950 for his collection of well over 6,000 books. He had speent over 50 years collecting books of philosophy, science, literature, foreign languages, cookbooks, and a vast selection of other topics. He said that "there is, in fact, no subject to which a Member of Congress may not have occasion to refer."

     Another fire occured on December 24th, 1851. This was the largest fire in the library's history. It destroyed 35,000 of the 55,000 books. That included a majority of Jefferson's original donation. Congress quickly spent $168,700 replacing lost items. That was money that could have been spent increasing the library's collection. The library wing in the Capitol building was restored by 1853, now completely fireproof, but by 1865, it became obvious the library's gigantic supply of books needed it's own building. The construction of the Jefferson building began, and the building was made public in 1897.

     Around the mid-1800s, the Smithsonian Institution's librarion Charles Jewett was attempting to make it the United States' national library. But the secratary of the institution preferred a focus on scientific study and publication rather than storing books. He saw the Library of Congress as an ideal national library. In 1854, Jewett was relieved of his position by Henry. Henry then transfered the Smithsonian's store of 40,000 volumes to the Library of Congress, almost doubling the library's supply.

     The latter half of the 19th century marked the beginning of the growth of the Library of congress from a simple reference area for the members of Congress into the symbol of strength and indipendance it is today. It began it's expansion under Ainsworth Spafford, the Librarian of Congress from 1865 to 1897. He was the man that came up with the idea of the library having it's own seperate building. He was the man that convinced Congress to put all copyright registration management in the hands of the library. By the time the library was moved to the Jefferson building, Spafford had accumulated a total of 840,000 items in the library, 40% of which came from copyroght deposit.

     After Spafford, the library only grew. Soon it had a library for the blind and physically disabled. It soon became the first library in the US to hold 1,000,000 volumes. Librarian of Congress Putnam convinced president Roosevelt to tranfer the papers of the Founding Fathers to the library from the State Department. He extended the selection of books in foreign languages. Soon the library became so filled, the Main Building wasn't big enough. An expansion was needed.

     From Putnam on, the Library of Congress grew and grew. It is now the world's largest library. It is seconded only by the British library, which holds 62 million items, near half the number of the Library of Congress' 115 million items. The library is now made up of three buildings, grows by 10,000 items a day, and holds a huge selection of paintings, papers, and books, including the original Spider-Man comic, Columbus' Book of Privilages, the Guttenburg bible, the Branch Rickey scouting report, and many other interesting items. The library started as a reading room in the Capitol building with a few hundred books, now it's a gigantic multi-million book legend.

Resources: http://www.loc.gov/loc/legacy/
                 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Congress
                 http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/wash/dc79.htm