-
Library of Congress
The oldest cultural institution
in the nation is our Library of Congress, that has been split into
three buildings in our capitol, and is the biggest library in the
world, started by Congress in 1800. Unbelievably, the first
collection was destroyed in the War of 1812, but Thomas Jefferson
then sold 6487 books to the new library in 1815; which had been his
own private collection; and due to financial circumstances
necessitated his decision. During the mid19th century, the library
experienced some stagnation, but then began to grow and enlarge
itself after the Civil War; with the construction of a new building
and the moving of all copyrighted materials to it. In the 20th
century, it would become even more prominent, with its growth
encouraged by the academic and public areas because it seemed like
the best place to put books of all nature and status there, rather
than in a thousand smaller libraries across the country. The main
focus of the library is the answering of research questions by the
Congress, for their understanding of various fields that might by
part of a bill, with the Congressional Research Service being used
for this service, although it is also available to the public, but
they cannot check out the books, while Congress, the Supreme Court
and other high ranking people in the government. The library
receives a copy of every book, printed material, music, map and
pamphlet that goes through the U.S. Copyright Office and since it is
the de facto national library, it has always and still continues to
advocate literature and literacy by many wonderful projects like the
Poet Laureate, American Memory, Center for the Book and American
Folklife Center. The collection includes 21,218,408 catalogued
books, 11,599,606 books in large print and raised characters,
technical reports, music, bound newspapers, monographs and serials,
incunabula which are the books that were printed before 1501 and
various other printed items; and 109,029.796 materials in the
nonclassified section; all in all, 141,847,810 pieces of printed
materials. It has gone through some tumultuous periods and
difficult, heartbreaking times; like the 1851 fire that destroyed
about 35,000 books that included about two thirds of the books that
Jefferson sold. In 1852, the Congress appropriated $168,700 to
replace the lost books, but not new ones. During the years of
1865 to 1870, the library would acquire money to build the Thomas
Jefferson Building that had all the copyright materials and the
international book exchanges; as well as getting the Smithsonian's
collection of 40,000 books, and the Peter Force collection, who was
a historian. In 1876, it had 300,000 volumes on its shelves, tieing
it with the Boston Public Library as the biggest in the country.
Less than a quarter of a century later, it held more than 840,000
volumes, when it moved from the capitol building to its new
headquarters, with almost 40% coming in through the copyright
office. After some changes in 1897, the library would start to grow
and evolve more quickly, and by 1939, had over a million volumes.
Under the leadership of Archibald MacLeish, from 1939 to 1944, the
library devoted the south reading room in the Adams Building to
Thomas Jefferson, and had artist Ezra Winter paint four themed
murals in the room; as well as creating a democracy alcove in the
main reading room for all most important papers belonging to the
government which included the Declaration of Independence,
Constitution and Federalist papers.
|
