April 24: Library of Congress (1800)
Prayer Idea
Pray for people who work in libraries.
History Note
On April 24, 1800, President John Adams approved the spending of $5,000 for the purchase of “such books as may be necessary for the use of congress.” The new Library of Congress ordered books from London, which arrived the next year. It included 740 books and three maps that were stored in the U.S. Capitol. Over the next few years, the collection grew to 3,000 books.
The British army burned the U.S. Capitol during the War of 1812 and destroyed the Library’s collection. Former president Thomas Jefferson had the largest personal library in the United States—over 6,000 books. He offered to sell his books to the Library of Congress, which Congress purchased for $23,950. Unfortunately a fire on Christmas Eve in 1851 destroyed several thousand of these books!
The Library of Congress expanded greatly after the Civil War. Ainsworth Rand Spofford served as the Librarian of Congress from 1864 to 1897. A new copyright law in 1870 required that people seeking copyright protection of their book, pamphlet, map, photograph, or musical composition send two copies to the Library of Congress.
Today the collection of the Library of Congress includes 178 million items, from ancient manuscripts to digital files in 470 different languages. Some special items in the collection are a copy of the Gutenberg Bible, a copy of Martin Waldseemüller’s 1507 world map, jewelry owned by Mary Todd Lincoln, and prints of what may have been the world’s smallest book (when it was published in 1985).
This photo by Frances Benjamin Johnston shows students on a field trip at the Library of Congress around 1899. Photo courtesy—surprise, surprise—the Library of Congress.
Learn More
This video gives a brief history of the Library of Congress.
Explore more resources at Homeschool History.
