Jefferson's Collection

Throughout his life, books were vital to Thomas Jefferson's education and well being. His books provided Jefferson with a broader knowledge of the contemporary and ancient worlds than many of his contemporaries had obtained through personal experience. Jefferson's library was critically important to him. Jefferson offered to sell his his personal library to Congress as a replacement for the destroyed collection. Jefferson's books remain the core from which the present collection of the Library of Congress-the world's largest library-developed.

In this reconstruction of Jefferson's library, the books have been arranged in an order that Jefferson described as "sometimes analytical, sometimes chronological, and sometimes a combination of both." The books were divided into categories of "Memory", "Reason", and " Imagination" -which Jefferson interpreted as "History," "Philosophy," and "Fine Arts"-and furthur divided into forty-four "chapters." There are about 5,000 volumes in Jefferson's collection.

-CL