The Library of Congress

Thomas Jefferson believed “there is…no subject to which a member of Congress may not have occasion to refer.” His broad approach to book collecting shaped the holdings of the Library of Congress, which Congress originally established as a resource for its members. Many senators and representatives—including some who left to join the Confederacy and others who remained loyal to the Union—were voracious readers, with interests encompassing history, poetry, art, and literature as well as law and politics.

Library of Congress Loan Receipt Book, page "G" (1846-1865)	Robert Greenhow, Map from The History of Oregon…,1844, and The Geography of Oregon and California and the Other Territories…, New York: Newman, 1845	Frederick Grimké, Considerations Upon the Nature and Tendency of Free Institutions, 1856 Edition	“The Congressional Library, Capitol, Washington,” Harper’s Weekly, January 21, 1871