Library of Congress and Jefferson Collection

As mentioned before, today we took a trip to the Library of Congress. We took a tour of the Thomas Jefferson Building (the entrance pictured above) and got our researcher's reading card in the James Madison Building. The LoC’s book collection is the largest in the world and has priceless items in it including an original copy of The Gutenberg Bible. On our tour of the Jefferson Building we viewed The Gutenberg Bible, also know as the 42-line Bible, which was one of the first books ever printed. This bible is on permanent display at the LoC and is considered priceless because it is one of only 4 complete copies in printed on vellum in existence.

The Jefferson Building houses the Main Reading Room and is the oldest of the three LoC buildings and the most common LoC building for tourists to visit. During the War of 1812 great deal of the original collection was destroyed, so to replace it Congress purchased Thomas Jefferson’s personal collection of nearly 6,500 volumes for just less than $24,000. Jefferson’s contribution was purchased due to its high quality and wide variety, it included books in other languages, cookbooks, and books of the physical sciences, literature, world history, and philosophy. Jefferson said of his collection that “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”, a quote which our tour guide recited flawlessly. His eclectic collection contained the types of books that are not commonly found in legislative items and were therefore the perfect basis for such a prolific library.

Over the past decade the LoC has made efforts to recreate Jefferson’s original collection, an exhibit which we viewed. A few notable volumes which we saw in the collection today were Plato’s The Republic, On Retirement by George Washington, and a French to Spanish dictionary.

On a personal note I can’t wait to use my researcher’s reading card, what a neat (and functional) souvenir!

– Andrea