![[Next]](http://lcweb.loc.gov/images/next.gif)
But what about Jelly Roll Morton's early compositions? Or Maya Lin's original drawing for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial? Or the earliest known baseball cards? Or the first motion picture deposited for copyright? The Library holds all these and more. (Preserving Our Heritage)
"We Hold These Truths To Be Self Evident . . ."
"Original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence
In 1800, Congress set aside $5,000 "for the purchase of such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress . . . and for fitting up a suitable apartment for containing them and for placing them therein." In 1815, Congress spent nearly $24,000 to buy Thomas Jefferson's library, comprising nearly twice as many books as those burned by the British near end of the War of 1812. The appropriation of such large sums for books indicates that from the beginning, American statesmen have viewed a library not as a luxury, but as an essential working tool for the creation and maintenance of a healthy democracy.
The Library of Congress continues to receive money annually from Congress to purchase books and other library materials, but that amount is a small fraction of the worth of the Library's annual acquisitions. What had been a slow but steady growth of the collections in the nineteenth century exploded in 1870, the year that the Copyright Office was transferred into the Library of Congress. From then on, all creators wishing to protect their intellectual property rights by registering their created work with the office were now required to deposit a copy of that work in the Library. It is the cumulative record of copyright deposits that has so profoundly shaped the collections and transformed the congressional library into the memory bank of the nation. For it is not only writers who register for copyright, but composers, engravers, cartoonists, map makers, musical arrangers, photographers, film makers, recording artists, poster designers, architects, engineers, speech writers, journalists, scriptwriters, advertising artists, comic book publishers, software writers, and many others who have added to the Library's record of American creativity over decades.
Donation is another invaluable source of the collections, especially in the area of personal papers and rare items. A third source of materials is transfer from government agencies. Many maps come this way, as well as works created for special government programs, such as the Federal Theatre Project Archives and the Farm Security Administration photographs from the 1930s and 1940s.
If Jefferson were alive today, his collection would no doubt include all the new media that have appeared since his time -- sound recordings, films, photographs, CD-ROMS. His conviction that the congressional library should be universal in scope continues to inform the daily decisions about what the Library acquires. For it is here that the nation's great experiment in democracy is recorded, and here that this generation and future generations can learn for themselves who they are and where they came from.
The task of preservation is to assure that our documentary heritage remains available for use over time without losing the information and essence that makes it important to our culture. The Library's strategy for preserving its vast collections reflects the diversity of its holdings. Every item in the collection has its own preservation needs, determined by its nature, condition, and intended use. Because library materials are primarily organic in nature, they will eventually deteriorate over time. Environmental control, appropriate housing and storage, and careful handling, all supported by a team of highly skilled conservators, constitute our first line of defense.
Sometimes, when materials are especially fragile, the Library takes special measures to ensure that the documents survive. Treasures such as the Rough Draft of the Declaration of Independence and the Library's two copies of the Gettysburg Address, written by Abraham Lincoln on inexpensive, acidic paper with inks that further corrode it, are in specially built environmental containers that have been purged by the inert gas argon to reduce oxygen and moisture to minimal levels. These cases prevent oxidation, including photo oxidation, and are covered with double ultraviolet light-filtering acrylic glazing to enable safe display under low-light conditions. These containers are in turn stored in a low-temperature vault that is maintained at a constant environmental level of 50 degrees Fahrenheit and 50 per cent Relative Humidity. The vault has a fire-suppression system and is maintained under high security protocols.
Though these precious documents themselves are safe in their special housing and storage, people can still have access to them through the Library's Web site. Just as the digital age promises to make the Library's collections more widely available, the challenge to preserve the cultural heritage that the Library holds in trust for the American people continues to grow. As more and more of what the nation produces is stored on potentially unstable machine-readable media such as video and audio tape, the Library's world-renowned preservation research and development facilities are addressing these current challenges, and anticipating those of the future.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), who had one of the finest libraries in America, intended that his collection should benefit the nation. All through his years of public service -- as ambassador to France, as vice-president, and as president -- he used every opportunity to add to his collection of documents about America and its past, as well as volumes in many languages about philosophy and history, science and technology, agriculture and horticulture, architecture and painting, poetry and rhetoric. He shared the vision of the Founders that liberty and learning are inseparable and that a free democratic people must have free access to information in order to carry out their civic responsibilities.
After the War of 1812, during which the British burned the Capitol, and with it all the volumes of the Library of Congress, he offered his own collection to Congress, which they purchased in 1815. The former president, then living in retirement in Monticello, was paid $23,950 for nearly 6,500 books, almost twice the number lost in the fire. Thus, the Library of Congress has grown from the seed of Jefferson's own library, universal in subject matter and format, into a library that serves as Congress's working research collection, as the nation's library, and as a symbol of the central role that free access to information plays in our knowledge-based democracy.
Table of contents for the American Treasures preview
Library of Congress