Library of Congress Founded

April 24, 1800

John Adams signed a modest appropriation - $5,000 - for books to furnish the new Capitol in a swampy river town called Washington. From that seed, tucked into a congressional act on relocation, would grow the largest library on earth, and one of the republic's quiet temples. After the British burned the original collection in 1814, Jefferson sold Congress his own 6,487 volumes to rebuild it.