Jefferson & the Library of Congress
A lively video with original music introduces Jefferson and his passion for books, his penchant for collecting them, and their relationship to the early development of the Library of Congress.
Thomas Jefferson said he could not live without books. He did however sell what was the largest personal collection of books in the United States to Congress as a replacement for the collection destroyed by the British in the War of 1812. Although a second fire on Christmas Eve of 1851 destroyed nearly two thirds of the 6,487 volumes Congress had purchased from Jefferson, the Jefferson books remain the core from which the present collections of the Library of Congress―the world’s largest library―developed. The Thomas Jefferson’s Library exhibition reassembles all the originals and thousands of replacements acquired in the last 200 years, and this illuminating introductory video reveals the important connection between Jefferson, his library, and our Library of Congress.