It was on this day in 1815 that the U.S. Congress accepted Thomas Jefferson’s offer to rebuild the Library of Congress with more than 6,000 books from his own library. The Library of Congress had been established in 1800 as a research library for congressional members, and it was located in the Capitol building. But in August of 1814, British troops had burned much of Washington, D.C., and the library had been destroyed.
At that time, Thomas Jefferson owned the largest private collection of books in the United States. He’d been a lifelong booklover and collector. He loved books so much that he gave up reading the newspaper so that he’d have more time to read the great philosophers, and he said, “I am much the happier.”
Within a month of hearing the news that the Library of Congress had been destroyed, Jefferson offered his own library as a replacement. Congress eventually agreed to purchase Jefferson’s library for $23,950.
The Library at the U.S. Department of State has a few books in its holdings acquired by the first secretary of state — and duly signed by him, Thomas Jefferson.