B. B. French's Diary
Benjamin Brown French (1800-1870)
Diary entry,
December 25, 1891
Manuscript Division
Gift of the French family, 1922 (32.5)
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The journals of Benjamin Brown French, New Hampshire
politician, Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, and Commissioner
of Public Buildings in Washington, D.C., provide a colorful glimpse
into nineteenth-century America from the Jacksonian era to the
period of Reconstruction. French's entry for December 25, 1851,
recounts the devastating fire that engulfed the Capitol and burned
25,000 volumes in the Congressional Library. But he remarks that
"one large room, attached to the main Library, containing all
the books on Politics & Religion, was untouched by the fire."
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