Event Exhibits and Tours Thomas Jefferson’s Library

Date and Location

  • When: Thursday, June 13, 2024

    10:00 am - 8:00 pm EDT

  • Where: Thomas Jefferson Building - Southwest Pavilion

    10 1st Street SE, Washington, DC 20540

Request ADA accommodations five business days in advance at (202) 707-6362 or ADA@loc.gov.

Take a trip through this major exhibition, a re-created version of Jefferson’s library, which assembles 6,487 volumes that founded the Library of Congress, and learn how one of America’s greatest thinkers was inspired through the world of books.

Through a generous grant from Jerry and Gene Jones, the Library of Congress is attempting to reassemble Jefferson's library as it was sold to Congress. Although the broad scope of Jefferson's library was a cause for criticism of the purchase, Jefferson extolled the virtue of its broad sweep and established the principle of acquisition for the Library of Congress: “there is in fact no subject to which a member of Congress may not have occasion to refer.” Proclaiming that “I cannot live without books,” Jefferson began a second collection of several thousand books, which was sold at auction in 1829 to help satisfy his creditors.

Visitors to the Thomas Jefferson Building during its regular visitor hours must reserve free timed-entry passes.