President John Adams approved legislation to appropriate
$5,000 to purchase “such books as may be necessary for
the use of Congress,” thus establishing the Library of
Congress. The first books, ordered from London, arrived
in 1801 and were stored in the U.S. Capitol, the library’s
first home. The first library catalog, dated April 1802, listed
964 volumes and nine maps. Twelve years later, the British
army invaded the city of Washington and burned the Capitol,
including the then 3,000-volume Library of Congress.

Former president Thomas Jefferson, who advocated the
expansion of the library during his two terms in office,
responded to the loss by selling his personal library, the
largest and finest in the country, to Congress. 

The library. The purchase of Jefferson’s 6,487 volumes was
approved in the next year, and a professional librarian,
George Watterston, was hired to replace the House clerks
in the administration of the library. In 1851, a second major
fire at the library destroyed about two-thirds of its 55,000
volumes, including two-thirds of the Thomas Jefferson
library. Congress responded quickly and generously to
the disaster, and within a few years a majority of the lost
books were replaced.

Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826)

George Watterston
(October 23, 1783 – February 4, 1854)