Library Of Congress

[USDC 0]

Address:

101 Independence Ave. SE
Thomas Jefferson Building, LJ 100
Washington, D.C. 20540-4660

Home:

http://www.loc.gov/

Genealogy Resources:

http://www.loc.gov/rr/genealogy/

Digital Collections:

Interviews, photographs, books and recordings (some dating back to 1490): https://www.loc.gov/collections

American Life Histories - Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940: https://www.loc.gov/collections/federal-writers-project/about-this-collection

About:

Origins

The Library was founded in 1800, making it the oldest federal cultural institution inthe nation. On August 24, 1814, British troops burned the Capitol building (where the Library was housed) and destroyed the Library's core collection of 3,000 volumes. On January 30, 1815, Congress approved the purchase of Thomas Jefferson’s personal library of 6,487 books for $23,950.

Statistics

The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, with more than 155.3 million items on approximately 838 miles of bookshelves. The collections include more than 35 million books and other print materials, 3.4 million recordings, 13.6 million photographs, 5.4 million maps, 6.5 million pieces of sheet music and 68 million manuscripts.

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