The Library of Congress on This Day in History

 

This Day in History: Congress approved a bill establishing the Library of Congress on this day in 1800. The Library of Congress is the nation's oldest federal cultural institution, and it serves as the research arm of Congress. It is also the largest library in the world with over 164 million items in its inventory...though the British Library might argue with that statistic. By comparison, the New York Public Library has 55 million items. It has so many items that is is housed in three buildings on Capitol Hill in Washington. The LOC has 21 reading rooms and 838 miles of bookshelves.

Most of the original collection was destroyed by the British in 1814 during the War of 1812, and the library sought to restore its collection in 1815. They bought Thomas Jefferson’s entire personal collection of 6,487 books. On Christmas Eve 1851, another fire destroyed two-thirds of the collection. Many of the works have since been replaced.

The library receives some 15,000 items each working day and adds approximately 12,000 items to the collections daily.

"The Library of Congress is home to an eclectic collection, with books ranging in size from a tiny copy of “Ole King Cole” to a 5-foot-by-7-foot photo book filled with color images of Bhutan. Some items, like a Gutenberg Bible and a rough draft of the Declaration of Independence, feel right at home in the historic library. Others, like Rosa Parks’s peanut butter pancakes recipe, are a bit more unexpected. Additional noteworthy artifacts include Bob Hope’s joke collection, George Gershwin’s piano, and the contents of Abraham Lincoln's pockets the night he was shot."~Mental Floss

The Library of Congress used to collect EVERY Tweet that was posted, but will now only archive tweets “on a selective basis”.