LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
The Library of Congress is a unique, multi-faceted
institution. Among its many functions, it houses an
important collection of historic photographs, along
with other visual materials, in the Prints and Photo-
graphs Division. To understand the scope of the
Library’s photographic collections, it is useful to
consider the larger context of the Library’s diverse
collections, services, and programs. It serves as the
legislative library and research branch of the U.S.
Congress, for example, as well as the copyright
agency for the United States; a center for scholar-
ship with research materials in diverse media, repre-
senting a comprehensive, international range of
subjects in more than 450 languages; a public insti-
tution with many general and specialized reading
rooms; a government library; a major provider of
bibliographic data, products, and services; a spon-
sor of exhibitions and musical, literary, and cultural
programs; a conservation research center; and the
largest repository of maps and atlases, printed and
recorded music, motion pictures, and television
programs in the world.
The Library of Congress was established when
the U.S. Congress was preparing to move to its
new capital of Washington D.C. On April 24,
1800, President John Adams approved legislation
to appropriate $5,000 to purchase ‘‘such books as
may be necessary for the use of Congress,’’ and on
January 26, 1802, President Thomas Jefferson
signed the law defining the functions of the Library,
creating the position of Librarian of Congress, and
giving Congress authority to establish the Library’s
budget and regulations.
Jefferson believed that the American legislature
needed access to information on ‘‘all subjects’’ in
many languages in order to govern a democracy, so
a comprehensive mandate for the Library’s collec-
tions was implicit. He argued that there was ‘‘no
subject to which a Member of Congress may not
have occasion to refer.’’ This Jeffersonian concept
is the rationale for the broad collecting policies of the
Library of Congress, which were most fully realized
in the twentieth century. Jefferson’s belief in the
power of knowledge and its importance to democ-
racy also encouraged the Library to share its collec-
tions and services extensively with other institutions.
During the early 1850s, as the Library began to
expand in size and function, it had to stave off
competition from the Smithsonian Institution to
serve as the national library. The Smithsonian’s
librarian, Charles Coffin Jewett, tried to establish
a national bibliographical center at the Smithso-
nian, but his plan was blocked by Smithsonian
Secretary Joseph Henry, who preferred that the
Smithsonian concentrate on its programs of scien-
tific research and publication. Henry favored the
development of a ‘‘national’’ library at the Library
of Congress, and in 1854 he dismissed Jewett, agree-
ing 12 years later to transfer the entire 40,000
volume library of the Smithsonian Institution to
the Library of Congress.
The person most responsible for shaping the
Library of Congress into an institution of national
significance in the Jeffersonian spirit was Ainsworth
Rand Spofford, Librarian of Congress from 1865 to- Spofford achieved this goal by linking the
legislative and national functions of the Library
through the 1897 reorganization of the Library.
In 1876, the U.S. Bureau of Education listed the
rapidly growing Library of Congress as one of the
two largest libraries in the United States, with its
approximately 300,000 volumes. By 1897, when the
Library moved from the Capitol into its spacious
new building, its collections ranked first among
American libraries in size and scope. Over 40% of
its 840,000 volumes and 90% of the map, music, and
graphic arts collections had been acquired through
copyright deposit. Important items deposited with
copyright registrations included Civil War photo-
graphs by Mathew Brady’s studio and some of the
earliest motion pictures.
Copyright deposits greatly influenced the devel-
opment of the Library’s collections. When the Lib-
rary moved into its new building, separate custodial
units were established for the special collections
formed primarily through copyright deposit—
maps, music, and graphic arts. Spofford’s succes-
sors as Librarian of Congress hired subject special-
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS