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Top 10 Unbelievable Facts about the Library of Congress

Library of Congress is a research library that serves members, committees, and staff of the U.S. Congress, other government agencies, libraries throughout the country and the world, and the scholars, researchers, artists, and scientists who use its resources.

The library is the de facto national library of the United States. Founded on April 24, 1800, it is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. Its collection is estimated to be growing at a rate of about two million items per year, thus making it the largest library in the world.

Below are the top 10 unbelievable facts about the Library of Congress;

1. The Library of Congress was originally meant to provide books solely for use of Congress

Thomas Jefferson Building, being constructed from 1888 to 1894 – Wikipedia

On April 24, 1800, President John Adams signed a law to provide $5,000 in appropriations to acquire books for the use of members of Congress.

In 1802, President Thomas Jefferson signed a bill into law that widened library privileges to the president and vice president (and the rest of the executive branch). Still, the law specified that 鈥渘o map shall be permitted to be taken out of the said library by any person; nor any book, except by the President and Vice President of the United States, and members of the Senate and House of Representatives, for the time being.鈥�

There is a single department, the Congressional Research Service (CRS), that exists solely to help those in Congress access and understand materials that will help them do their jobs properly and remain informed on all subjects.

2. The Library of Congress was burned twice

British Burning Washington – Wikipedia

Fourteen years after it was founded, on Aug, 24, 1814 the British troops burned the unfinished building, destroying most of the library鈥檚 collection.

One of the few congressional volumes to survive was a government account book of receipts and expenditures for 1810.

Another fire, on Christmas Eve in 1851, ravaged the library鈥檚 collection. A faulty chimney flue took the blame for the devastating blaze.

The fire burned more than half of the library鈥檚 55,000-volume collection. An estimated 35,000 books, including nearly two-thirds of Jefferson鈥檚 library, were lost.

3. Thomas Jefferson helped rebuild the Library of Congress

Thomas Jefferson – Wikipedia

After the British troops burned the library, President Thomas Jefferson came to the rescue, proving his own library, a work of over 50 years of collecting, as a replacement.

Jefferson did not name his price, choosing to allow Congress to determine what it would pay him for his offerings. Congress accepted, and set a price of $23,950 for the 6,487 volumes.

On Jan. 30, 1815, President James Madison signed into law the bill authorizing the purchase.

Unlike the original library, the new one contained all sorts of materials, to which Jefferson remarked, 鈥淚 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.”

4. The Library was upgraded after the 1851 fire

Thomas U. Walter – Wikipedia

After the 1851 fire, Architect of the Capitol Thomas U. Walter presented a plan, approved by Congress, to repair and enlarge the library room using fireproof materials throughout.

A month before the opening, Pres. Franklin Pierce inspected the new Library in the company of British scientist Sir Charles Lyell, who pronounced it “the most beautiful room in the world.”

The elegantly restored Library room was opened on August 23, 1853. It was 鈥渨idely admired鈥� and drew plenty of tourists. The press called it the “largest iron room in the world.”

Sadly, in 1901 it was dismantled, and its cast iron sold for scrap, according to a Roll Call story in 2017.

5. The Library of Congress owns material from around the world

Gutenberg displayed at the Library of Congress – Wikipedia

The Library of Congress isn鈥檛 solely dedicated to American documents. In total, over 460 languages are represented in the library, and their end goal is to eventually have at least one item from every nation.

The library possesses materials acquired from all around the globe, including 3 million items from Asia and 10 million items in the Iberian, Latin American, and Caribbean collections.

The Library of Congress also maintains overseas offices in New Delhi, India; Cairo, Egypt; Islamabad, Pakistan; Jakarta, Indonesia; Nairobi, Kenya; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to acquire, catalog, and preserve items that might be hard to access otherwise.

6. An underground tunnel ferried books to and from the Capital

A Conveyor system – Wikiwand

In 1895 a tunnel was constructed, and an electric conveyor system developed to easily send books back and forth to the Capitol.

A Washington Post article on Sept. 13, 1895, described the new system: The tunnel, about 6 feet high and 4 feet wide and ran about 1,100 feet.

Later, the John Adams building was also connected to the main building by a pneumatic tube system, which enabled books to be placed in leather pouches and whisked across the street in an impressive 28 seconds.

7. The Library of Congress receives all your tweets

Twitter bird logo sketch – Flickr

In 2010, Twitter agreed to donate every public tweet in its archive to the Library of Congress. The archive would act as an invaluable data source for tracking language and societal trends.

Unfortunately, the Library of Congress has yet to develop a way to organize the information, and for the past several years, unprocessed tweets have been stored out of sight on a server.

8. The Library of Congress serves people of all abilities

Braille – Flickr

In 1931 the Library of Congress launched The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS).

Today the service offers free Braille and audiobooks, either through digital downloads or physical deliveries, to people with visual impairments or other issues that limit their reading abilities.

9. The Library of Congress houses the largest publicly available collection of Comic Books in the US

Comic books – Wikipedia

The library of Congress is home to an eclectic collection, including over 6,000 titles and more than 100,000 issues of comic books. This makes it the largest comic book collection in the United States.

The collection begins with the introduction to printed comic books in the 1930s to current releases and foreign titles.

It also houses some record-breaking collections: more maps, newspapers, and phone books can each be found in the Library of Congress than any other place on Earth.

10. The position of Librarian requires a Congress requires a presidential appointment

Carla Hayden – Wikipedia

In 1802, President Thomas Jefferson made the Librarian of Congress an appointed position. As with presidential Cabinet appointments, the Senate was required to approve presidential appointees to the position, but this was implemented starting from 1897.

It is important to note also only three librarians of Congress have been actual librarians up to date as presidents prefer selecting a scholar, historian, or some other veteran of academia for the job.

Carla Diane Hayden is the 14th Librarian of Congress, appointed in 2016. She is both the first African American and the first woman to ever hold this post.