Jefferson’s Library

On January 30, 1815, President James Madison approved an act of Congress appropriating $23,950 to purchase Thomas Jefferson’s library of 6,487 volumes.

“…there is, in fact, no subject to which a Member of Congress may not have occasion to refer.”

Thomas Jefferson to Samuel H. Smith, September 21, 1814. Series 1: General Correspondence, 1651-1827. Thomas Jefferson Papers, 1606 to 1827. Manuscript Division

Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States. Gilbert Stuart, artist. [Boston: Pendleton’s Lithography, on stone by Maurin, ca1825-1828]. Popular Graphic Arts. Prints & Photographs Division
James Madison, fourth president of the United States. Gilbert Stuart, artist. Pendleton’s Lithography, [1828?]. Popular Graphic Arts. Prints & Photographs Division

After capturing Washington, D.C. in 1814, the British burned the U.S. Capitol, destroying the Library of Congress and its 3,000-volume collection. Thomas Jefferson, in retirement at Monticello, offered to sell his personal library to the Library Committee of Congress in order to rebuild the collection of the Congressional Library.

Thomas Jefferson to George Watterston (1783-1854), May 7, 1815. Memory Gallery A. American Treasures of the Library of Congress. Manuscript Division

Jefferson’s library not only included more than twice the number of volumes as had been destroyed, it expanded the scope of the library beyond its previous topics—law, economics, and history—to include a wide variety of subjects in several languages. Divided into the categories Memory, Reason, and Imagination—which Jefferson translated to “History,” “Philosophy,” and “Fine Arts”—today, Thomas Jefferson’s library is part of the Rare Book and Special Collections Division and is currently on public exhibit in the Thomas Jefferson Building.

Anticipating the objection that his collection might be too comprehensive, he argued, “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.”

Thomas Jefferson’s Library. Library Reconstructs, Displays Founding Collection. In Library of Congress Information Bulletin . June 2008, v. 67, n. 6

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