A Brief History of the Library
Established with $5,000 appropriated by the legislation, it was housed in the new Capitol until August 1814, when invading British troops set fire to the Capitol Building, burning and pillaging the contents of the small library. Within a month, retired President Thomas Jefferson (depicted above
right) offered his personal library as a replacement (see Thomas
Jefferson Online Exhibition). Jefferson had spent 50 years accumulating
books, "putting by everything which related to America, and indeed whatever
was rare and valuable in every science"; his library was considered to
be one of the finest in the United States. In offering his collection
to Congress, Jefferson anticipated controversy over the nature of his
collection, which included books in foreign languages and volumes of
philosophy,
science, literature and other topics not normally viewed as part of a
legislative library. He wrote, "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."
Ainsworth Rand Spofford, Librarian of Congress from 1864 to 1897, applied Jefferson's philosophy on a grand scale and built the Library into a national institution. Spofford was responsible for the copyright law of 1870, which required all copyright applicants to send to the Library two copies of their work. This resulted in a flood of books, pamphlets, maps, music, prints and photographs. Facing a shortage of shelf space at its Capitol location, Spofford convinced Congress of the need for a new building, and in 1873 Congress authorized a competition to design plans for the new Library.
When the Library of Congress building opened its doors to the public on Nov. 1, 1897, it was hailed as a glorious national monument and "the largest, the costliest, and the safest" library building in the world. In 1984, Congress appropriated funds to restore the building, named the Thomas Jefferson Building in 1980, to its 19th century splendor while modernizing it for use in the 21st century. With the reopening of the building in 1997 on its 100th anniversary, the Library of Congress continues to share with the public its unparalleled research collections and the remarkable beauty of its art and architecture.
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