America’s Greatest Library

A new visual history of the Library of Congress from its creation in 1800 to the present day.

Preface by the Librarian of Congress
Foreword/Acknowledgements
General Introduction

Section I: THE CONGRESSIONAL LIBRARY, 1800-1897
Topics Covered:
• The President and the Congressional Library
o A Library for the New National Government
• Thomas Jefferson’s Shadow: Knowledge for All
o The 1815 Purchase of Jefferson’s Private Library
• The Library of Congress in the Capitol
o Recovery after the Fire of 1851
• Ainsworth Rand Spofford Sells the National Library Idea, 1864-1897
o Copyright Deposit Means Everything
o The Stuggle for A Structure, 1871-1897
• Reaffirmation and Reorganization , 1896-1897
o the 1896 Congressional hearings

Possible sidebars :
• The U.S. Capitol as the Library’s first home
• Thomas Jefferson and Monticello
• The Copyright Law of 1870
• Ainsworth Rand Spofford, the unique and instrumental Librarian of Congress
• Senators Voorhees and Morrill, Spofford’s supporters in obtaining authorization for the first LC building
• The design competition for the Library’s first building
• Design and construction photos of the Thomas Jefferson Building
• John Smithmeyer and Paul Pelz: embattled architects of the Library of Congress
• Daniel Murray, African American reference librarian
• the 1896 Congress hearing with the witnesses from the American Library Assn

Section II: FOR CONGRESS AND THE NATION, 1897-1958
Topics Covered:
• The Book Palace of the American People
o The Largest, Costliest, and Safest” Library Building in the World
o The widespread approval of the building as the key to LC’s initial success;
o The building’s ambitious decorative program
• Herbert Putnam Expands the Library’s Legislative and National Functions, 1899-1939
o A National Library Must Serve the Nation’s Libraries, 1901-1907
o Informing the Legislative Debate Through the Legislative Reference Service (1914)
o The Origins of the International Collections, esp. 1906-1932
o Presidential Papers (esp. 1903-1957); Founding Documents (esp. 1921-1952). , and World Treasures, esp. the purchase of the Vollbehr collection and the Gutenberg Bible in 1930.
• Gifts and Bequests Welcome: Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge and the Library of Congress Trust Fund Board, 1925-1938
• The Library of Congress and American Democracy: Archibald MacLeish as Librarian of Congress, 1939-1944.
• Librarian of Congress Luther Evans Looks to the Future
o The 1946 expansion of the Legislative Reference Service
o The Library of Congress Planning Committee (1947)
• Between 1954 and 1958 Librarian L. Quincy Mumford reassures Congress about the validity of the institution’s national role

Possible sidebars:
• Robert M. La Follette and the creation of the Legislative Reference Service
• The emergence of the performance arts through the activities of the Music Division and the Archive of American Folk Song
• The commissioning of Appalachian Spring by Aaron Copeland, first performed in the Coolidge Auditorium on Oct. 31, 1944
• Annex Building’s construction and unique art deco features
• The creation of the Hispanic Division in 1939
• The Library’s first area studies reference unit
• Archibald MacLeish’s appointment and accomplishments as Librarian of Congress
• The 1927 Rockefeller grants to support the copying of American history resources in foreign archives and the new National Union Catalog
• Profile Gertrude Clarke Whittall
• The Radio Research Project (1941)
• The Library in World War II

Section III: FOR CONGRESS, THE NATION, AND THE WORLD, 1958
Topics covered:
• The Library in the Post-World War II Era
o The first overseas Acquisitions Offices (1958)
o Microfilming programs intensify
o A committee on “mechanical information retrieval is formed (1958)
• In 1962, responding to a memorandum addressing the Library’s future prepared by Harvard librarian Douglas at the request of Sen. Clairborne Pell, Librarian of Congresss L. Quincy Mumford strongly defends the Library’s location in the legislative branch of government. He emphasizes that the Library “performs more national functions and any other national library in the world.”
• Automation and the Development of the MARC Format
o Publication of “Automation in the Library of Congress” in 1964
o Under the leadership of Henriette Avram, between 1966 and the early 1970s, the Library developed MARC, a machine-readable standard that became the national and international standard for creating records that can be used by computers and shared among libraries.
• From Legislative Reference to Congressional Research: the Legislative Reorganiation Act of 1970
• Collection Preservation and Conservation Come to the Fore, 1966-1978
o Library assists the National Library of Florence in the aftermath of the Florence floods of 1966
o Preservation Office established 1967; Conservation Division established in 1971
• Opening of Madison Building in 1980
• Renovation and Restoration of the Jefferson Building, 1986-1994.
• The National Digital Library (1995)
• 2007: the opening in Culpeper, Virginia of the Packard Campus, the four-building cornerstone of the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, which was authorized by Congress in 1997.
• The World Digital Library (2009)

Possible sidebars
• Henriette Avram, creator of the MARC Format and Pioneer in American Library Automation
• the Kennedy Assassination and the Library of Congress
• the Madison Council
• John Kluge and the Kluge Center
• the American Folklife Center
• the National Book Festival
• Treasures in the Mountain: the Packard Campus for Audio-Visual Conservation
• The Alan Lomax Collection (2004)
• A Closer Look at the Declaration of Independence
• The World Within Reach: The World Digital Library
• The Library of Congress Literacy Awards


APPENDICES
The Librarians of Congress, 1802
Gifts and Endowments, A Selective List, 1869

Index