Thomas Jefferson offers his library to Congress
after the British burn the Capitol in 1814
Throughout his life, books were vital to Thomas Jefferson's education and well-being. When his family home
Shadwell burned in 1770 Jefferson most lamented the loss of his books.
In the midst of the American Revolution and while
United States minister to France in the 1780s, Jefferson acquired thousands of
books for his library at Monticello.
Jefferson's library went through several stages, but
it was always critically important to him. Books
provided the little traveled Jefferson with a broader knowledge of the contemporary and ancient worlds than most contemporaries of broader personal
experience.
By 1814 when the British burned the nation's Capitol
and the Library of Congress, Jefferson had acquired the largest personal
collection of books in the United States.
On learning of the burning of the Capitol and the
loss of the 3,000-volume Library of Congress, Thomas Jefferson wrote to his
friend, newspaper publisher, Samuel H. Smith (1772-1845) asking him to offer
Congress his personal library of between "9 and 10,000 volumes" as a
replacement.
Jefferson promised to accept any price set by Congress, commenting that "I do not know that
it contains any branch of science which Congress would wish to exclude from
this collection . . . there is in fact
no subject to which a member of Congress may not have occasion to refer."
Records indicate the total of volumes received by the Library of Congress was
6,487. This more than doubled the
holdings that were lost in the fire of 1814
the wisdom of purchasing Jefferson's library as a
replacement for the nearly destroyed contents of the Library of Congress. Some congressmen were particularly concerned that there were large numbers of books in foreign languages
and about subjects not believed germane
for the use of Congress.
A
second fire on Christmas Eve of 1851, destroyed nearly two
thirds of the 6,487 volumes Congress
had purchased from Jefferson.*
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/jefferson/jefflib.html*
ISamuel
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