1903 Handbook of the New Library of Congress in Washington by Herbert Small for Sale

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1903 Handbook of the New Library of Congress in Washington by Herbert Small For Sale

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1903 Handbook of the New Library of Congress in Washington by Herbert Small:
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1903 Handbook of the New Library of Congress in Washington by Herbert Small
Fully Illustrated
112 pages, softcover
Published by Curtis & Cameron, Boston
THE NEWLIBRARY OF CONGRESSIN WASHINGTON
BY HERBERT SMALL
THE Library of Congress in Washington is not the mere referencelibrary for the legislative branch of the Government that its namewould imply. It is, in effect, the library of the whole Americanpeople, directly serving the interests of the entire country. It was,it is true, founded for the use of the members of the Senate and House ofRepresentatives; but, although the original rule still holds good that only theyand certain specified Government officials may take books away from thebuilding,1 the institution has developed, especially during the last quarter of acentury, into a library as comprehensively national as the British Museum inLondon, the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, or the Imperial Library in Vien-na. It is more freely open to the public than any of these, everyone of suit-able age being permitted to use its collections without the necessity of a ticketor formal permission, while in scope it is their equal, however much it may forthe time being be inferior to them in certain branches of learning. Its aim inthe accumulation of books is inclusive and not exclusive.This development amounts almost to a change of front, in spite of the factthat the original purpose of the Library as an aid to the legislation and debates, > „„ fnllv oreserved. The change has been brought about inof Congress has bee.Uy P h system of the great governmentalInstitution, and by the operate of the nJ^ThesSonia^Institution issues each year a large number of scientific pub.lications of the highest interest and importance. It distributes these throughouthe or d receiving in exchange a body of scientific literature which comprehendspractically everything of value issued by every scientific society of standingboth in this country and abroad. With the exception of a small working hbraryretained by the Smithsonian Institution for the immediate use of its officers, thesplendid collection of material which has been gathered during the forty yearsin which this exchange system has been in operation is deposited m the Libraryof Congress, forming a scientific library unrivalled in this country\'.By the operation of the copyright law, any publisher, author, or artistdesiring to obtain an exclusive privilege of issuing any publication whatever,must send two copies of the publication on which a copyright is asked to theLibrarian of Congress to be deposited in the Library. By this means, duringthe twenty-five years that the law has been in force, the Library has been ena-bled to accumulate approximately the entire current product of the Americanpress, as well as an enormous number of photographs, engravings, and otherworks coming under the head of fine arts. The possession of this materialwould alone give the Library a special national character possible to no otherlibrary in the country.HISTORY OF THE LIBRARY.The Library of Congress was founded in the year 1800, about the time thatthe government was first established in Washington. Five thousand dollarswas the first appropriation, made April 24, 1800, while Congress was stillsitting in Philadelphia. Some of the Democratic Congressmen, as strict con-\'structiomsts, opposed the idea of a governmental library, but their partyeader, Thomas Jefferson, then President, warmly favored it. He called it,States” and h?th a S°rt °f.Pr°Phetic instinct, the “Library of the Unitedsistent that h/SUppor,t of from the very beginning was so hearty and con-of the institution regarc\'ecl in tlle broad sense as the real founderLhe^rsVcL^oguT was\'lssued°in Aprfi\'^V1\' a portion of Capitol building,in accordance with the old ‘ ’ S°J’, rt aPPears that there were then,size, not subject 212 folios\'\' r IOneC method of dividing books according tomaps. ’ °110S’ 164 ^artos, 58i octavos, 7 duodecimos, and 9 -sieller a^cumuMo^s of theS0?00PS- ~The War °f 1812 wreckedcollection was entirely destrovpd K c\" °f tlle Library’s existence. TheWashington August 24 r8ra 5 T1 y,fire ?y tlle British troops which enteredmagazine. “ The British ” he savsan™1118 1S described by a writer in an old«’mgs of which were finished ’ hrSt occuPied the Capitol, only the twowhere the Rotunda now stands ThpC|°nii^Cted a wooden passageway erectedsentatives, where Admiral Coc\'khnr ,\'lg ?fficers entered the House of Repre--th General Ross), searing hi\' ° ! *°ya> ^nvy (who was co-operating6 umselt in the Speaker’s chair, called the assent-And much more!13873