Fire at the US Library of Congress (1851)

The Library of Congress, the national library of the US, contains more than 115 million items, including more than 18 million books, 2.5 million recordings, and 54 million manuscripts. Established in 1800 with about 740 books, the collection, which had swelled to about 55,000 volumes by 1851, was largely destroyed by a fire, the second in the library’s history. The collection lost in the 1851 fire had been started with the acquisition of which statesman’s personal library of 6,487 books? Discuss

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