JEFFERSON'S LIBRARY
Throughout
his life, books were vital to Thomas Jefferson's education and
well-being. When his family home Shadwell burned in 1770 Jefferson
most lamented the loss of his books. In the midst of the American
Revolution and while United States minister to France in the
1780s, Jefferson acquired thousands of books for his library
at Monticello. Jefferson's library went through several stages,
but it was always critically important to him. Books provided
the little traveled Jefferson with a broader knowledge of the
contemporary and ancient worlds than most contemporaries of broader
personal experience. By 1814 when the British burned the nation's
Capitol and the Library of Congress, Jefferson had acquired the
largest personal collection of books in the United States. Jefferson
offered to sell his library to Congress as a replacement for
the collection destroyed by the British during the War of 1812.
Congress purchased Jefferson's library for $23,950 in 1815. A
second fire on Christmas Eve of 1851, destroyed nearly two thirds
of the 6,487 volumes Congress had purchased from Jefferson.
Through a generous grant from
Jerry and Gene Jones, the Library of Congress is attempting to
reassemble Jefferson's library as it was sold to Congress. Although
the broad scope of Jefferson's library was a cause for criticism
of the purchase, Jefferson extolled the virtue of its broad sweep
and established the principle of acquisition for the Library
of Congress:
"there is in fact no subject to which a member of Congress may
not have occasion to refer." Proclaiming that "I cannot live
without books," Jefferson began a second collection of several
thousand books, which was sold at auction in 1829 to help satisfy
his creditors. |
The Library |
Thomas Jefferson offers his library to Congress after the British burn the Capitol in 1814
On learning of the burning of the Capitol and the loss of the
3,000-volume Library of Congress, Thomas Jefferson wrote to his
friend, newspaper publisher, Samuel H. Smith (1772-1845) asking
him to offer Congress his personal library of between "9 and
10,000 volumes" as a replacement. Jefferson promised to accept
any price set by Congress, commenting that "I do not know that
it contains any branch of science which Congress would wish to
exclude from this collection . . . there is in fact no subject
to which a member of Congress may not have occasion to refer." Records
indicate the total of volumes received by the Library of Congress
was 6,487. This more than doubled the holdings that were lost
in the fire of 1814. |
|
|
Jefferson agrees to "arrange and
number all the books"
Upon hearing the news that Congress had approved the purchase
of his library, Thomas Jefferson wrote to Georgetown bookdealer
Joseph Milligan asking him to come to Monticello and supervise
the packing and transportation of the books to Washington. Jefferson
told Milligan that he would "arrange and number all the books
according as they stand in the catalogue." Jefferson was paid
$23,950 for 6487 volumes based on measurements of the sizes of
the books. |
Thomas Jefferson hopes for national impact from
his library
After the packing and shipping of his library had been completed,
Jefferson commented to Samuel H. Smith that "an interesting treasure
is added to your city, now become the depository of unquestionably
the choicest collection of books in the US, and I hope it will
not be without some general effect on the literature of our country." |
|
|
Congressional debates on the purchase
of Jefferson's library
Some sharp debates occurred in Congress about the wisdom of
purchasing Jefferson's library as a replacement for the nearly
destroyed contents of the Library of Congress. Some congressmen
were particularly concerned that there were large numbers of
books in foreign languages and about subjects not believed germane
for the use of Congress. Jefferson had anticipated such concerns
in his September 21, 1814, letter written to Samuel H. Smith,
his friend and editor of the National Intelligencer. |
Thomas Jefferson's classification
scheme in his library catalog
In Thomas Jefferson's day, most libraries were arranged alphabetically.
But Jefferson preferred to arrange his by subject. He chose Lord
Bacon's table of science, the hierarchy of Memory (History),
Reason (Philosophy) and Imagination (Fine Arts) to order his
arrangement of books by subject with some modifications. The
resulting arrangement as illustrated in the Nicholas Trist (1800-1870)
copy of Jefferson's library catalog for 1815 is a combination
of subject and chronology. In practice, however, Jefferson shelved
his books by size. |
|
|
Jefferson misreads "two
Pieces of Homespun"
John Adams wrote to Thomas Jefferson on January 1, 1812, enclosing
John Quincy Adams' (1767-1848) Lectures on Rhetoric and
Oratory published in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in two
volumes that he referred to as "two Pieces of Homespun." Jefferson
misinterpreted this as homespun cloth and wrote on January 21,
1812, a long letter on the virtues of producing homespun cloth
in America. Only later did Jefferson learn that John Adams had
been referring to his son's book. |
Cicero's Tusculan Disputations
Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.) Roman philosopher, orator,
and statesman, was Jefferson's favorite classical scholar. Jefferson
is believed to have modeled his own life on Cicero's love of
study and aristocratic country life. Most of Jefferson's Ciceronian
extracts are from the Tusculan Disputations a discourse
or dialogue about pain, grief, and the necessity of coming to
grips with death. Jefferson owned more than forty Cicero titles
during his life. This is one of the fourteen Cicero titles that
came to the Library of Congress in 1815. |
|
Library
of Congress Exhibitions - Online
Survey - Library of Congress
Home Page
|