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Tthe first two appointed Librarians of Congress were John Beckley (1802) and Patrick Magruder (1807)
The Library was established with $5,000 appropriated by the legislation. In the beginning it was housed in the
U.S. Capitol building - however it was not much of a building, for in 1800 only its north wing had been completed.
From 1802 to 1805, the small library was in a room that the House of Representatives had previously occupied. Then
it was moved to various places in the Capitol until Aug. 24, 1814, when the invading British troops burned and
destroyed the Capitol, including the Library.
Within a month, retired President Thomas Jefferson offered his personal library as a replacement. 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."
There was a good deal of debate about whether to purchase it and unpleasant comments about the library -- that
it was ungodly, atheistic and immoral, as the National Intelligencer said in its Oct. 25, 1814, edition.
No price was set by Jefferson, allowing Congress to set the amount for the 6,487 volumes -- slightly less than
$24,000. A number of people wrote to Congress saying it was worth far more than that.
In January 1815, Congress accepted Jefferson's offer, appropriating $23,950 for his 6,487 books, and the foundation
was laid for a great national library. The vote was far from unanimous however. Members from New England were against
the purchase, and the Mid-Atlantic states were divided. But the South's desire to purchase what was likely the
most all-encompassing collection in North America tilted the votes toward acquisition. A letter from Treasury Secretary
Alexander Dallas to Jefferson, dated Feb. 21, 1815, informed Jefferson of Congress's decision. The books arrived
by 10 horse-drawn wagons from the retired president's estate, Monticello, in Charlottesville, Va. Because the Capitol
was still under reconstruction when the books arrived in May 1815, they were shelved in a space on the third floor
of Blodget's Hotel, about seven blocks from the Capitol. Although built as a hotel, the building served many other
purposes. In addition to the Library, Blodget's housed the House and Senate, the committees, the General and City
Post Offices and the Patent Office.
Blodget's Hotel - temporary quarters of the Library of Congress
Morse's Geography for 1812 describes Blodget's hotel;
it was 60 feet by 120 and about 50 feet high, with three stories; it was built of brick, with a freestone basement.
(The current site of the Hotel Monaco)
The Jeffersonian concept of universality, the belief that all subjects are important to the library of the American
legislature, is the philosophy and rationale behind the comprehensive collecting policies of today's Library of
Congress.
Finally, on Aug. 17, 1824, after four years in temporary quarters at Blodget's Hotel at Seventh and E Streets N.W.,
and nearly six years wedged into the attic story of the Capitol's north wing, a grand new Library of Congress room
opened in the Capitol's west center, overlooking the Mall. Designed by Architect of the Capitol Charles Bulfinch,
it was 90 feet long and 30 feet wide. On Dec. 22, 1825, a fire started by a candle left burning in the gallery
was controlled before it could cause serious damage. Fireproofing was investigated but found too costly. The Library's
law collection was separated into a separate ’apartment” in 1832.
On Christmas Eve, 1851, the Library suffered a disastrous fire. Approximately two-thirds of its 55,000 volumes
were destroyed by the flames, including two-thirds of Jefferson's private library. Only about 2,500 of Jefferson's
volumes escaped destruction. The National Intelligencer of Dec. 25, 1851, describes a fire of such intensity that
it caused "the paint and stone of the pillars in the west front of the Capitol to scale off to a quarter of
an inch in places." A faulty chimney flue was the culprit. Architect of the Capitol Thomas U. Walter, with
congressional approval, presented a plan to repair and enlarge the Library using fireproof materials. The elegantly
restored ’iron” room, which was encircled by galleries and filled the entire west central front of the Capitol,
was opened to congressional and popular acclaim on Aug. 23, 1853.
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 the Capitol, Spofford
convinced Congress of the need for a new building, and in 1873 Congress authorized a competition to design plans
for the new Library.
In 1886, after many proposals and much controversy, Congress authorized construction of a new Library building
in the style of the Italian Renaissance in accordance with a design prepared by Washington architects John L. Smithmeyer
and Paul J. Pelz. The Congressional authorization was successful because of the hard work of two key Senators:
Daniel W. Voorhees (Indiana), who served as chairman of the Joint Committee from 1879 to 1881, and Justin S. Morrill
(Vermont), chairman of Senate Committee on Buildings and Grounds.
In 1888, General Thomas Lincoln Casey, chief of the Army Corps of Engineers, was placed in charge of construction.
His chief assistant was Bernard R. Green, who was intimately involved with the building until his death in 1914.
Beginning in 1892, a new architect, Edward Pearce Casey, the son of General Casey, began to supervise the interior
work, including sculptural and painted decoration by more than 50 American artists.
When the Library of Congress building opened its doors to the public as "The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Building"
on November 1, 1897, it was hailed as a glorious national monument and "the largest, the costliest, and the
safest" library building in the world.
The struggle for its completion and its ultimate success brought the Library of Congress public attention and a
new public role. It was known at the time as both the ’National Temple of the Arts” and the ’Book Palace of the
American People.” For many years it was the largest library building in the world.
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20th Century
In 1928, at the urging of Librarian of Congress Herbert Putnam, Congress authorized the purchase of land directly
east of the Library's Main Building for the construction of an Annex Building. The bill was sponsored by Robert
Luce, chairman of the House Committee on the Library. On June 13, 1930, $6,500,00 was appropriated for the building's
construction, for a tunnel connecting it to the Main Building, and for changes in the east front of the Main Building,
including the construction of a Rare Book Room. An additional appropriation approved on June 6, 1935, brought the
total authorization to $8,226,457.
Main Library of Congress Building at the start of the 20th century
The simple classical structure was intended as a functional and efficient bookstack "encircled with work spaces."
David Lynn, the Architect of the Capitol, commissioned the Washington architectural firm of Pierson & Wilson
to design the building, with Alexander Buel Trowbridge as consulting architect. The contract stipulated completion
by June 24, 1938, but the building was not ready for occupancy until December 2, 1938. The move of the Card Division
started on December 12, and it opened its doors to the public in the new building on January 3, 1939. The building
is five stories in height above ground, with the fifth story set back 35 feet. It contains 180 miles of shelving
(compared to 104 miles in the Jefferson Building) and can hold ten million volumes. There are 12 tiers of stacks,
extending from the cellar to the fourth floor. Each tier provides about 13 acres of shelf space.
On April 13, 1976, in a ceremony at the Jefferson Memorial marking the birthday of Thomas Jefferson, President
Ford signed into law the act to change the name of the Library of Congress Annex Building to the Library of Congress
Thomas Jefferson Building. On June 13, 1980, the structure acquired its present name, which honors John Adams,
the man of letters and president of the United States who in 1800 approved the law establishing the Library of
Congress.
Today's Library of Congress is an unparalleled world resource. The collection of more than 130 million items includes
more than 29 million cataloged books and other print materials in 460 languages; more than 58 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.
The Librarians of Congress
John James Beckley (1802-1807)
Patrick Magruder (1807-1815)
George Watterston (1815-1829)
John Silva Meehan (1829-1861)
John Gould Stephenson (1861-1864)
Ainsworth Rand Spofford (1864-1897)
John Russell Young (1897-1899)
Herbert Putnam (1899-1939)
Archibald MacLeish (1939-1944)
Luther H. Evans (1945-1953)
Lawrence Quincy Mumford (1954-1974)
Daniel J. Boorstin (1975-1987)
James H. Billington (1987-)
One of the responsibilities of the Librarian of Congress is to appoint the U.S. Poet Laureate.
James Hadley Billington was nominated in April 1987 by President Ronald Reagan and was confirmed by the Senate
to be the 13th Librarian of Congress. He took the oath of office in the Library's Great Hall on September 14, 1987.
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