A Library Study on the Library of Congress

Introduction:

This blog is on a library study of the Library of Congress. This study is for the course LIBR 280: The History of the Book and the Library. This course is offered by the School of Library of Information Science of San José State University.

Please enjoy reading about the history of the Library of Congress. This history starts from 1800 and extends primarily to 1920, with some additional information leading to around 1950.

1. General

What were the libraries’ origins and how was the library founded?

The Library of Congress was established in 1800. It is regarded as the national library of the United States. The library does represent the United States and is open to the American public, but it only lends materials to members of Congress and other public officials. However, the general citizenry can access the resources of the library’s vast collections.
The library was created in law when President John Adams signed an Act of Congress to reestablish the national capital from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. In the act it was written that $5,000 per appropriated to the use of purchasing books and to house them in an appropriate apartment. The purpose of the library from the beginning was to be useful to members of Congress and the idea of the library being of use to the general public arose later.

The library was housed in the United States Capitol building for most of the 19th century. To start the library’s collection, books were bought from London. Those first 470 books and three maps were housed in the Capitol building. Ironically in 1814 during the War of 1812, British troops set fire to the Capitol and the original collection was destroyed in the fire.
President Thomas Jefferson further solidified the legal establishment of the Library of Congress. On January 26, 1802 he signed into law the first law establishing the structure of the Library of Congress. The law also established the post of Librarian of Congress to be appointed by the president and a joint committee to regulate and oversee the affairs of the library. Furthermore the law gave the president and the vice president the right to borrow materials from the library.


































When was the library first opened?

The library’s collection was available in the U.S. Capitol building since the first purchase of materials were housed there in 1800. The current main library of the Library of Congress is called the Thomas Jefferson Building, named for the president. The building was created towards the end of the 19th century. The construction of the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress was started on July 8, 1888 and completed on May 15, 1894. In one photograph of the new building, it shows books on the floor waiting to be shelved. Presumably the library had its opening day the same year that its construction was completed in 1894, but probably after the personnel had placed the materials in their proper places.


Was it a reading room or social library prior to becoming a public institution?
The Library of Congress did start as a reading room in the U.S. Capitol. It was not explicitly called a reading room while its materials were available in the Capitol building, but it had the appearance of a reading room. It had that status for most of the 19th century before the formal Thomas Jefferson Building was built. The library was always public, but it was intended to be used by the members of Congress.


Which individuals or organizations were behind it’s founding and what purpose(s) did they think the library would have?

Many individuals were behind the founding of the library. They were President John Adams, President Thomas Jefferson, the U.S. Congress, and Joseph Henry. President John Adams signed the act which initiated the existence of the library. President Thomas Jefferson helped to continue the survival of the library by selling it his own collection of books after British troops destroyed most of its first collection. The U.S. Congress wrote legislation to create the library and are its primary users. The two aforementioned presidents and the Congress essentially wanted the library to be source of knowledge for the Congress. However Joseph Henry had a more particular plan for the library.
Joseph Henry served as the Smithsonian’s Secretary during the 1850s. He advocated that the Library of Congress become the national library while the Smithsonian Institution’s librarian Charles Coffin Jewett tried aggressively to make the Smithsonian into the national library. Henry thwarted Jewett’s efforts and kept the Smithsonian focused on scientific research and publication. Henry also transferred the Smithsonian’s forty thousand-volume library to the Library of Congress in 1866.


Who were the founders of the library (class, race, ethnicity, gender, religious background, etc.)?

The founders of the library were of the middle class, white, probably ethnically British, men, and probably Protestant Christians. They belonged to the classic mold of the early leaders of the United States, the WASPs. This acronym means White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestants. Furthermore these men probably owned land which was important to be able to vote and mostly likely to be a member of Congress or a president. As for Joseph Henry, he was born to poor parents from Scotland. The story of his life reflects the common, sensational success story that has driven the belief of many Americans that we can all be self-made people if we work hard. Henry did work hard and became very successful. He also had a great mind for he is the modern inventor of electricity. He was born in Albany, the capital of New York. He discovered that magnetic power is self-propelling and with his other insights in science he helped others to make great discoveries in science and to make useful machines of the 19th century.

President John Adams was the second president of the United States. He was from Massachusetts. He was an important Founding Father, a statesman, an ambassador, and helped to draft the Declaration of Independence. He was a major negotiator of the peace treaty between the new United States and Great Britain and he successful avoided a complete naval war with France between 1798 and 1800. He came up against fierce political opposition from Jeffersonian Republicans and from the dominant faction of his own Federalist party. That faction was led by Alexander Hamilton, his worst political enemy. He served as vice-president of the U.S. under George Washington for both his two terms and was president himself for one term. He lost his second election for the presidency to Thomas Jefferson in 1800.

President Thomas Jefferson was the third president of the United States. He is one of the most famous and well-remembered presidents. He was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence. He was second ambassador to France after Benjamin Franklin. He was a co-founder and the leader of the Democratic-Republican party, which had a legacy of 25 years as the reigning political party of the United States. He negotiated the purchase of the Louisiana Territory from France. The addition of the territory doubled the size of the United States in 1803. He sent out the Lewis and Clark Expedition to explore the new territory and points to the west. He was born to a prominent planter family and owned hundreds of slaves during his life. It is disputable, but he may have had an intimate relationship with one slave and may have had children with her. He was a polymath who spoke five languages and was able to read two others. He was connected to many influential Americans and Europeans. Historical scholars still rate him as one of the greatest U.S. presidents.


Who used the library?

The members of the U.S. Congress used the library primarily as well as other public officers. The library building and its materials are open to the use of the general public, but they cannot remove the library’s materials from the library. The public can only use the materials on the premises of the library. Only members of Congress and other public officials can take materials from the Library of Congress. However, there may be a loop-hole because the library was the initiator of the Inter-Library Loan service and so it may be possible for a regular person to attain an item through their own local public library. Though this would probably be in a most strict circumstance, because the Library is regarded being of last resort in terms of Inter-Library Loan. This means that the Library will loan its materials only in the case where a library user cannot obtain the same item by using a typical public library.


Do you get a sense of whom the founders targeted and who the early patrons were?
The Library was primarily used by members of Congress. Eventually other members of the government were given permission to use the Library. Then after them the general public was allowed to peruse the resources in the Library, but were not allowed to remove items from the Library. Only members of Congress and other government officials may remove items from the Library.

The original intention to create the Library was to give the Congress resources of knowledge, wisdom, and especially books on the law. The Congress started as being only white men of varying levels of society, social standing, class and wealth. Gradually as American society changed and became much more diverse ethnically the Congress members began to reflect the entire American population more and more.

Within that it is important to note that social values concerning race, gender, and socioeconomic standing affected who became Congress members. Those social values and attributes changed very much during American history to the point of giving all Americans the ability to become a congressperson.

The first non-white congressman was, a black man born free, Hiram Rhodes Revels. He was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina and was elected senator of Mississippi on February 25, 1870. Naturally his election probably made him the first minority allowed to use the Library of Congress. He was later followed by Jeannette Rankin, the first woman to serve in the Congress. She was elected a representative from Montana in 1917.

The barrier of who was elected to Congress has been the strongest determiner of who was allowed to use the Library until it became open to the general public. Revels and Rankin might not have thought that being elected to Congress would be a sure way of being able to finally use the Library of Congress, but the increase of elected officers who were women, blacks and other minorities has subsequently helped to diversify the population of the Library’s first users.
This situation is nearly like the discriminatory practices of some early libraries of the United States that barred black Americans from using their services. However the discrimination of the user’s physical appearance may have been a last thought in the minds of those who maintained the Library. The reason for that is because the Congress persons earned the right to use the Library because they were elected to their office. Thus any discrimination based on who they were was precluded in the original Act of Congress that established the Library.


Was this a white, middle-class oriented institution, or did the early library reflect a diverse population?

The Library of Congress was a white, middle-class oriented institution, but because it is a library of the federal level, it has always been intrinsically concerned with the affairs of the entire population of the United States. Thus that means that it was of concern to all segments of American society, not just to middle-class whites. Usage of the Library by non-white Congress members was very gradual, but it did happen as time passed. Books and other materials on Native Americans and other minority groups must have been gradually added during the history of the Library to provide reference materials on legislative, historical and cultural materials that were produced by those racial groups and women.


2. Staff and Operation
Who was the first librarian, and what can you find out about his/her background, personal life, and professional training?

The first Librarian of Congress was John James Beckley. He was also the first Clerk of the House of Representatives. Beckley was born in London. His parents were very poor and when he was 11 they sent him to Virginia to work as an indentured servant. Beckley worked as a scribe for a mercantile firm. Thomas Jefferson appointed him Librarian of Congress in 1802 when the role was created. Beckley served as the Librarian for five years from 1802 to 1807. 1807 is the year that he died. Beckley’s life story is an example of the American Dream that one can come to the United States with little and work hard to accomplish great things.

He had a low social status after he first arrived in Virginia, but he was literate and ambitious. He used politics to advance in society. He graduated from the College of William and Mary. He was a member of the fraternity, Phi Beta Kappa, which is the oldest academic honor society of the United States. He managed to amass 49,000 acres of good land in what was then the west, but this land was tied up in litigation.

He started as a political leader by being mayor of Richmond, Virginia. He served twice between 1783 and 1784 and again from 1788 to 1789. His wife was Maria Prince. They married in New York in 1791 just before Congress moved to Philadelphia. They had several children, but only one survived, Alfred. Alfred established the town of Beckley named for his father in what is today West Virginia.

As for being Librarian of Congress, his friend, President Jefferson appointed him to the position after it was created in 1802. Beckley was also serving as Clerk of the Congress at the same time. He did both roles until his death in 1807. Beckley believed that he could do the job because he had worked with books and documents as the clerk of the Virginia Senate. He applied to be Librarian of Congress to Secretary of State James Madison and received the appointment from President Jefferson on January 29, 1802.

He was a fierce Republican and associated with the radicals, especially with fellow immigrants. He started a propaganda machine for the then new Republican party and distributed copies of the Political Observation in places between Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Richmond, Virginia. He was very contrary to the Federalist Party and to Alexander Hamilton, one of its members and first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, and made sure to denounce them all in publications as crypto-monarchists.

He even exposed some shocking affairs such as Alexander Hamilton’s relationship with James Reynolds and his wife Maria. Hamilton claimed now financial wrong-doing, but admitted to having a love affair with the wife, Maria and paying the husband hush-money.
In 1796, under the sobriquet (an identifiable pseudonym), “A Calm Observer”, Beckley accused George Washington of having made heinous offenses, one of which was that he had stolen public funds and that he deserved impeachment for the matter. He was something of a busy-body and apparently did not mind getting in the line of fire if he thought he was doing something right.

He ran Jefferson’s presidential campaign in Pennsylvania in 1796, thus their friendship. He and his agents distributed 30,000 hand-written tickets with the names of all 15 electors throughout the state. Printed tickets were not allowed. He effectively became the first professional American campaign manager. His enemies the Federalists had him removed from as House clerk after they were elected in 1787, but his allies in Pennsylvania helped him to find another state job. He again helped Jefferson’s standing with the public for the 1800 election and he was reelected to House clerk in 1801. He applied and succeeded in becoming the first Librarian of Congress in 1802.

It is important to note that George Watterston is seen as the first Librarian of Congress despite that he was the third Librarian sequentially because he was the first not to hold the post of Clerk of the House of Representatives at the same time as being Librarian of Congress. His predecessors, John Beckley, the first Librarian and Patrick Magruder, the second Librarian had both held both posts at the same time.


What was the librarian's salary, and was there much turnover in the position?

Information on exact salaries was difficult to find. However the Librarian’s salary has increased through time. The first Librarian of Congress, John Beckley was not paid more than two dollars per day. (Library of Congress)

There have been only thirteen Librarians of Congress from 1800 until 2011. Between 1800 and 1920 there were eight Librarians of Congress. The third Librarian received the first increase of salary. He was George Watterston. Along with the salary increase, the Congress approved increase funding for the purchase of books and maps during his tenure.

By the mid 1930s library personnel complained about low salaries under Librarian Putnam. That may be an indicator that former salaries were relatively too little for library staff at that point in time and needed to be increased to appease the workers.


Who were the library assistants, what were they paid, what was their training or preparation, and what did they do on the job?

The fourth Librarian of Congress, John Silva Meehan served between the years 1829 to 1861. He served nine U.S. presidents. There was one Assistant Librarian, Edward B. Stelle, who was hired in 1828 by the former Librarian, Watterston, presumably under the authorization of the Congress. Meehan added a messenger and eventually two more assistant librarians. One of these assistants was his son, Charles Henry Wharton Meehan.

Ainsworth Rand Spofford is very unique because he did serve as Librarian of Congress from 1864 to 1897 and then he became Chief Assistant Librarian under his successor John Russell Young, and he continued as Chief Assistant Librarian under Herbert Putnam.

Spofford was born in Gilmanton, New Hampshire, on September 12, 1825. He was tutored at home and became a strong reader and student. In 1845 he moved to Cincinnati and found employment as a bookstore clerk for E.D. Truman, a bookseller and publisher. Due to Spofford’s efforts, the bookstore became the leading exporter in the city of books by the transcendalists of New England, who were his favorite authors. He was a founder of the Literary Club of Cincinnati. In 1852 he married Sarah Partridge from Massachusetts and they had three children together: Charles, Henry and Florence.

In 1859, he started a new career as Associate Editor of Cincinnati’s leading newspaper, the Daily Commercial. Two years later he started another career advancement when the newspaper sent him to Washington, D.C. to cover the opening of the 37th Congress and the inauguration of President Lincoln. In 1861, he accepted the position of Assistant Librarian of Congress.

He then set his sights even higher being ambitious, knowledgeable, and industrious and he garnered support from members of Congress to be elected Librarian of Congress when the post became vacant in 1864. President Lincoln named him to the post on December 31, 1864. When he took the post, the Library was in the west front of the Capitol building, had a staff of seven persons and contained a book collection of about 82,000 volumes.

Spofford was a major force in making the Library what it is today. As Librarian of Congress, Spofford advanced the Library into the modern era making the Librarian strong and independent, advocating and finally bringing to fruition the construction of the magnificent Jefferson Building to house the Library’s collections, and strong support from Congress to recognize the Library as for the legislative body and as the national library. Spofford’s biggest feat while Librarian and until his death while he was Chief Assistant Librarian was increasing the Library’s collection.

One assistant was a former history instructor at Brown University. He was William Dawson Johnston and he was hired as the first assistant in the Division of Bibliography. Librarian of Congress. Herbert Putnam hired him in July 1900 during his tenure as Librarian from 1899 to 1939. Johnston was responsible for editing a series called Contributions to American Library History. The first volume was on the history of the Library of Congress from its start in 1800 until 1864. Johnston planned to write three volumes on library history, the first one on the Library of Congress from 1800 to 1864, the second on its history from 1864 to 1900, and the third on the histories of other federal libraries. However, he only published the first volume, which has been found unfortunate by some critics, because the period covered in the book had few significant events in the history of the library except the contribution of Thomas Jefferson’s private library. This was unlike the Library’s history during the late 19th century when it made many prominent gains in its development.

Another assistant Frederick William Ashley was hired in 1900. He filled many posts and eventually rose to become the chief assistant librarian in 1927. He retired in 1936. He also made a literary contribution to the written history of the Library by writing a short article in the 1929 Putnam volume. His article is well regarded for exemplifying the views of Putnam’s contemporaries on the Library’s development. He also wrote a lengthy manuscript history of the Library that is unfinished and unpublished. This manuscript is today in the Library of Congress’ Manuscript Division.

Another assistant from the early 20th century was David Chambers Mearns. He started working at the Library in 1918 just before his 19th birthday. While working at the Library he rose to chief reference librarian, head of the Reference Department and then assistant librarian. In 1967 he retired as chief of the Manuscript Division. He chose to write historical works as well and he focused on the Library of Congress and Abraham Lincoln. Scholars of Lincoln regard him well.

When Librarian Luther Harris Evans, who served from 1945 to 1953 was refused by Congress for more funds to expand the collections and national library activities, he went to Mearns for help. Mearns produced a preamble of 200 pages to express the Library’s rationale for having a national role. The preamble was added to the Librarian’s Annual Report for 1946. He wrote the preamble in just three months and titled it The Story Up to Now: The Library of Congress, 1800-1946. Mearns’ preamble had a dramatic cultural affect on the perception of the Library and it is fair to say that it finally solidified the role of the Library of Congress as the national library.

Mearns wrote that many people believed it the national library as did Congress and the librarians that worked there, thus it should be respected as such. The Congress did not however dramatically increase the funding to the Library, but Mearns’ preamble rocked the collective consciousness of what the Library represented and meant for American society. Mearns received praise from the historian Lyman Butterfield, who said that his preamble set “a new standard for classic institutional history.” Mearns continued to write short historical pieces such as for the sesquicentennial celebration in 1950, in the November 1950 issue of the Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress and for the Library of Congress Information Bulletin. He also wrote about the Librarian Emeritus Herbert Putnam who made great contributions to the strength and growth of the Library.


What individuals were on the first board of trustees and what role did they play in the library's operation?

There was the Joint Congressional Committee on the Library since the Library’s inception. The committee was in charge of selecting books and handled the finances. An early chairman of the committee was Samuel Latham Mitchill a statesman who served at different times as a House Representative and a Senator from New York. He acted as chairman of the Library committee during Beckley and Magruder’s periods of office.

It is likely that he guided the committee in preparing the Library catalog of 1808 and an additional report in 1809. Magruder was the second Librarian of Congress from 1807 to 1815, and thus during the time of Mitchill’s governance over the Library’s committee. Magruder mostly preoccupied himself with his duties as Clerk of the House and less with the matters of the Library. Beckley had the same predisposition. Thus a lot of the important business of the Library was left to the Joint Congressional Committee during his tenure. Magruder was also known to have poor health and he probably could be counted on to prepare documentation on the Library.

In fact, he left his office in scandal for after the British troops had set fire to the Capitol Building during the War of 1812, the Library had lost much of its materials. However Magruder’s financial documents were spared of fire and an investigation led by Joseph Pearson of North Carolina found that $20,000 of funds were not accounted for. As well Magruder’s brother George was implicated in the affair. George worked as chief clerk under his brother and when Patrick was too ill to fulfill his duties, the House of Representatives approved George to be acting Clerk of the House of Representatives. Patrick Magruder was charged by the House Committee on Accounts for the missing money and claimed that he was ignorant of certain instances, but also asserted that the House Committee on Accounts had approved his expenses. The committee responded that he had not provided new information and restated the charge.

It was debated to remove Magruder from his office as Clerk, but he resigned it and by inference resigned being Librarian of Congress. He retired at his wife’s family plantation called “Sweden”, near Petersburg, Virginia. In February 1816, the federal government filed a suit to recover $18,000 from Magruder, but the case never came to trial. Magruder died on December 14, 1819. Thus apparently escaping a difficult situation and leaving a mystery with only clues for one to guess at.

The third Librarian of Congress, George Watterston published a catalog of the materials purchased from Thomas Jefferson in 1815. He did not inform the Library Committee of this. They criticized him about the cost of the catalog and for not telling them about it. Watterston must have thought that his decision was sound because he remarked the following to President Jefferson:

"The Library Committee are dissatisfied with me for having the catalogue printed without having consulted their superior judgment, but the members generally speak very highly of your arrangement and the disposition of the books." (Library of Congress)

In late 1825, Edward Everett became chairman of the Joint Committee on the Library. Watterston was a supporter of the Whig party. In 1829, when Andrew Jackson, a Democrat, became president he had Watterston replaced by John Silva Meehan, a fellow Democrat. Watterston fought a campaign for 20 years to regain his position as Librarian of Congress, but even presidents of the Whig party who started governing in 1841 and 1849 ignored his case.

The next chairman of the Joint Committee on the Library was Senator James Alfred Pearce of Maryland. He acted as chairman during from 1845 to 1861. Pearce and Meehan were close. Pearce had a lot of influence over the library and believed it inappropriate that a government-funded institution become a large national library. This seems a bit ironic because he was in favor that the Smithsonian become the national library instead. However Joseph Henry, the Secretary of the Smithsonian was not in favor of that and even preferred the reverse that the Library of Congress become the national library.


What services did the library provide (children's room, reference, classes, delivery stations, lecture series, Americanization or community outreach programs, etc.), and did these services change over time?

The Library of Congress offered the following services: Librarian Meehan - 1832 Congress strengthens the law department creating a separate law library; Meehan’s son becomes its custodian.
Librarian Young - in November 1897 he inaugurated readings for the blind and the physically handicapped in a special pavilion for those individuals. He contemplated a separate children’s department, but did not set forth to create one.
Librarian Spofford - gained Congressional support for a collection of Americana; conferred with Dewey and Putnam who advocated that the library offer services such as centralized cataloging, interlibrary loan, and a national union catalog.
Librarian Putnam - favored providing services to other libraries; started interlibrary loan.


More particularly, what does your library's history reveal about the development of libraries and the library profession in America between 1850 and 1920?

The development of libraries: The history of the Library of Congress reveals that American libraries have evolved to possess impressive collections of books and other materials. It also reveals that American libraries have competed with European libraries and seen them as a standard against which to model themselves. It also shows the evolution of libraries that began as reading rooms with collections of books and other materials that eventually became housed in their own buildings. The Library of Congress is an example of a library whose collection was kept in one part of a building, but whose collection outgrew its reading room to necessitate its own edifice. In a sense the Library of Congress was like the United States’ evolution from a colony within the British Empire to an independent nation proclaiming its own sovereignty and right to exist as a separate entity. Along with that the Library of Congress is also an example of the transition of the concept of the library from being exclusive to the few and gradually being made accessible to the general public. Many public libraries of the United States made that gradual transition between 1850 and 1920.

About the Librarian profession: The first Librarians of Congress were qualified for their role in various ways but the first professional librarian did not take the office until 1899 when Herbert Putnam was appointed by President McKinley. Putnam’s election reflected the evolution of the librarian profession and was symbolic of the esteem that the library profession was beginning to attain in the early 20th century. Also considering Putnam’s career path having been a librarian in several positions, his journey gives insight to the growth of modern librarianship as a profession in the United States, especially because he rose to take probably the highest librarian position of the country.

It is notable to mention that the American Library Association and Melvil Dewey were involved with the Library of Congress around the time that Putnam became Librarian of Congress. The American Library Association was formed in Philadelphia in 1876. While Spofford was Librarian, the ALA gave advice to Congress about running the Library of Congress. Six librarians of the ALA gave testimony to the Joint Committee on the condition of the Library, including future Librarian of Congress, Putnam and the great forebear of American librarians, Melvil Dewey.

They voiced their opinions to Congress and to Librarian Spofford. Spofford did not let outisde influence affect his vision for creating a national library. Putnam and Dewey coming from the ALA had their own ideas about how to make the Library of Congress a national library, but respected Spofford despite his aging approach to librarianship. Putnam completely believed in Dewey’s idea of the proper and necessary role of a national library, which was: “a center to which the libraries of the whole country can turn for inspiration, guidance, and practical help.”

Between 1850 and 1920 the Library of Congress expanded its staff from four employees in 1850 to a staff of 1,100 employees by 1936. The increase of the number of staff members reflects the growth of importance of the library in American society to suit the needs of library users. The Library also continued to expand its collections and under the leadership of Librarian Putnam, the Library of Congress had accumulated the largest collection of all libraries in the world.

These facts served to create the image of the Library as the national library and influenced the eminence of the Library for librarians all over the United States. The Library of Congress served as a beacon of knowledge and thus became a source of pride for those in the fields of academia, scholarship, and librarianship. The Library also became a reason for pride being set in Washington, D.C. the national capital. The Library was intended chiefly for the members of Congress, but most of its Librarians from 1850 to 1920 have striven to make it the national library and to make it appeal to the general American public.


3. Building and Facilities Where was the first library located, and how was the land and building obtained?

The first Library of Congress was located in a room of the United States Capitol building. The land of the Capitol building was chosen because it is a natural hill. The hill’s name was Jenkins in the late 1700s when the city of Washington was being planned for Congress. Alexander Hamilton brokered a deal in which the federal government agreed to take on war debt from the American Revolutionary War in order to gain support from the northern states to place the new capital on the Potomac River. The construction of the Capitol started on September 18, 1793. The Senate wing was completed in 1800 and the House wing was completed in 1811. The legislature moved into the building prematurely, but the first session of Congress was held on November 17, 1800. The same year the Library of Congress began to be held in a beautiful room in the Capitol building. The Library changed rooms several times from its creation until in 1897 the Library’s own building was established and opened.

Did the library receive a Carnegie grant?

The Library of Congress never received a Carnegie grant. It was always the duty of the Congress to appropriate funds for the library. The Librarian of Congress and the Joint Committee on the Library requested funds from the members of Congress when they felt that the Library needed extra funding to expand its collection or to increase the salaries of the Librarian and the assistant librarians.


What impact did the grant have on library operations?
The Library of Congress did not receive a Carnegie grant.


What did the library look like, and how was it laid out?

The Library was held in ornate and very well decorated rooms in the U.S. Capitol from 1800 to 1897. In these rooms, the books were stored on three levels visible from the main floor of the reading room. The second and third levels were accessible by ladder. The ceiling was carved and inlaid with beautiful designs. At the corners where the ceiling and the walls touched were buttresses in regal design making the library beautiful to behold. In another image of the library, it reveals that the reading room had skylight windows in the ceiling. These skylight windows allowed a lot of light into the reading room.

Also in this other image the guard rails of the second and third landings of the room appeared like balconies. These balconies were also “staggered”, thus the balcony of the third landing was closer to the wall than the balcony of the second landing. In the same photo the floor had an octagonal and square design. The white or lighter, octagonal tiles were bigger than the black or darker, square tiles. The central floor of the room was wide, open and spacious. It allowed people to walk freely and see the books along the walls as they passed. There were some tables and chairs where people could sit and read at their leisure. There was an archway through which one could walk to the other side of the reading room. There were relief carvings all along the walls and the edges of the landings. The room was very regal and impressive--it appeared a real hallmark of the great architectural influences of Europe.

As a free standing structure, the Library of Congress is a dream for any librarian. Imagine coming from a small community and only knowing your small, one-room library that is a branch or a just one party of a larger system of libraries. This library is convenient and functional for your small community of a few hundred people. Then imagine going to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., an impressive metropolis. Imagine seeing for the first time the ornate engravings in the surface of the exterior of the building. Imagine following the lines and curves of the building with your eyes and climbing the marble steps that elevate all who enter the Library before they even read a book held within. This is the powerful magnificence of the Library of Congress.


What does the library's design say about the roles and images that the library had?

The Library’s design says that it was an upstanding place of high cultural integrity. It says that it is a place of beauty and affluence. It says that it is a place to behold, to be impressed and a place to wonder, dream, think, read, and be at peace. The Library of Congress is the flagship library of the United States. If a tourist comes to the United States wanting to be impressed by a library, then he should go to the Library of Congress to be taken away by its magnificent beauty.

The reading room of the freestanding Library is circular and very airy. The ceiling of this room has as its pinnacle, a dome. There are statues of literary figures looking out upon the middle of the room. The statues stand on the top balcony. Under this top balcony there is a colonnade reminiscent of Rome. In the ceiling are rosettes inlaid in stone. The columns of the room are very dense and strong with fine accents of Corinthian style at their tops. On the second landing where the colonnade is, there are portraits on the wall and books in low shelves.

On the main floor beyond the atrium, there are recesses where books are in tall shelves. On the floor of the atrium there are identical images of books with wreaths encircling them. These images run circularly around the information desk. All the wood of the information desk seems to be cherry or another dark wood. All the tables, chairs, and bookshelves seem to be made of the same dark wood. The columns are made of pink marble or perhaps pink granite.

There is a range of colors in the room. There is pink, blue, green, yellow, creamy white, dark brown, orange, and possibly more that cannot be determined from a picture. There are windows adorned with American shields of the flag and an eagle atop each one on each window. There are more details to both sides of the shields, but they are indistinguishable. On the third and uppermost balcony, there are more paintings and maybe at least one shelf of books.

The room is semi-dark and partially illuminated. Some natural light shines upon one focal point where two arches converge and stand upon a column. Standing upon these focal points are more statues possibly in white stone of the ancient Greek style. Above their heads are wreaths encircling books like the images on the floor and inscriptions above the wreaths. The inscriptions probably have great words of wisdom representing the spirit of the knowledge and the vision of the Library of Congress.

All these characteristics present the intricate meaning that the Library represents within the framework of the United States. The first Librarians of Congress worked to uphold the esteem of the library and keep it respectable and useful for the Congress. In its early days the Library was kept in the Capitol, which was a place of the daily business of the federal government. The Library was born of the initial zeal and spirit of the first Americans and has always been abreast with the greatest representation of what defines America. The initial inspiration for the library was to keep a source of material on law to which the Congress could make reference, but the libraries resources became more diverse since the addition of Thomas Jefferson’s library.

Steadily the Library acquired more materials until it was as large as the Boston Public Library with 300,000 volumes each. Then the Library outstripped Boston Public Library to contain the greatest number of materials of all libraries in the world.

All this is to say that the eminence, the beauty, the details, the profundity, and the piece of art that is the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress represents its long history, its evolution from a fine reading room, from being exclusively for Congress, from going through fires, to becoming the national library and to becoming the most regal example of the American library. The library building also signifies the value for knowledge that Americans have. A building so preciously designed can only mean that the people that enter it adore knowledge and wisdom and that they endeavor to know as much as they can about the world and the minds of those who have expressed themselves with pen and paper.


What does the design and layout of the early library suggest about the working conditions experienced by pioneer librarians?

The design and layout of the first Library of Congress suggests that the pioneer librarians worked in comfortable conditions. The first two Librarians spent less time than their successors in the library, because they focused more on their other duty of being Clerks of the House of Representatives. The other Librarians after them and their assistant librarians enjoyed the spacious interiors of the reading room.


References:

Aikin, Jane. (2010). Histories of the Library of Congress. Libraries and the Cultural Record, 45(1), 5-24.

Cunningham, Noble E. (1956). John Beckley: An early American party manager. The William and Mary Quarterly, 13(1), 40-52.

Library of Congress. (2006, March 30). Jefferson’s Legacy: A brief history of the Library of Congress. Retrieved from http://www.loc.gov/loc/legacy/librs.html

Library of Congress. (2008, May 5). Previous Librarians of Congress. Retrieved from http://www.loc.gov/about/librarianoffice/librarians.html

Office of History and Preservation, Office of the Clerk. (2011, May 13). Women in Congress. Retrieved from http://womenincongress.house.gov/historical-essays/essay.html?intID=1