Books burn – easily. Also those in the Library of Congress that was established in 1800. First the Brits burned it down with the rest of the Capitol in 1814. It befell to Thomas Jefferson, who owned the largest personal. collection of books in the US, to sell his 6500 books to the nation to re-establish the Congressional library. The second fire occurred in 1851, when two thirds of Jefferson’s books turned into ashes. However, Jefferson’s library has since been reconstituted with the aim of repurchasing the original titles (the work goes still on). Two views of the current status of the Jefferson collection are below.
The Library of Congress only got its own building in 1897 (two views of the Jefferson Building below). As librarians well know, books will quickly fill all available space, and two further buildings were added in 1939 and 1980. The Library of Congress is the world’s largest library with over 200 million items in its collection.
The Great Hall (title picture and further views below) makes references to artists and writers of history, in addition to mythodology and copious quotations.
The building has consciously been fashioned as a temple of knowledge. Both the Great Hall and Main Reading Room (below) emphasise the desire to create a universal collection of knowledge.
Rails, wines, worlds 