Night view: Library of Congress.When I looked through the books on Witch Hunts, I realised that I had overshot the
mark. The books were about burning people, not books, apart from the odd
herbalist or two that was tied to a stake and burnt with their books, which meant I had to change all my plans again. One of the difficulties that I have found with this topic is that the incidence of book burnings over the centuries - AD and BC - ,is so high that it is impossible to make mention of all of them in a relatively short project such as this. Wikipedia itemises many of these incidents in a list format. For purposes of this project, I have focussed on the burnings that stand out and grab my attention more so than others. One of those is the ...
Burning of the Library of Congress:
In 1812, the Library of Congress consisted of about 3,076 volumes and some fifty three maps. Patrick Magruder, a Washington newspaperman and former congressman was
the Librarian of Congress, a position which went hand in hand with that of the Clerk of House of Representatives. The year 1812, is significant as a) under the direction of Magruder the library released its first catalogue and b) Congress authourised the invasion of Canada by President James Madison. The catalogue classified the books by genre, price & number of copies available.
On April 27, 1813 American soldiers marched on what is now known as Toronto and
burnt the Parliament and the legislative library. In retaliation, the English
arrived in Chesapeake Bay in August 1814. Patrick Magruder had put one J.T. Frost
in his place as he was to old to be called up for military service. Apparently Frost was one of only a few government employees to stay at his post as the English advanced toward the city. He evacuated hundreds of books and documents and when he did leave, was only a few hours ahead of the invading army. The general of the British Army at the time Robert Ross, ordered that everything that represented the culture of the enemy be destroyed. In this particular case this meant the White House, the Treasury and the Capital. The Library of Congress was torched on August 24, 1814.
mark. The books were about burning people, not books, apart from the odd
herbalist or two that was tied to a stake and burnt with their books, which meant I had to change all my plans again. One of the difficulties that I have found with this topic is that the incidence of book burnings over the centuries - AD and BC - ,is so high that it is impossible to make mention of all of them in a relatively short project such as this. Wikipedia itemises many of these incidents in a list format. For purposes of this project, I have focussed on the burnings that stand out and grab my attention more so than others. One of those is the ...
Burning of the Library of Congress:
In 1812, the Library of Congress consisted of about 3,076 volumes and some fifty three maps. Patrick Magruder, a Washington newspaperman and former congressman was
the Librarian of Congress, a position which went hand in hand with that of the Clerk of House of Representatives. The year 1812, is significant as a) under the direction of Magruder the library released its first catalogue and b) Congress authourised the invasion of Canada by President James Madison. The catalogue classified the books by genre, price & number of copies available.
On April 27, 1813 American soldiers marched on what is now known as Toronto and
burnt the Parliament and the legislative library. In retaliation, the English
arrived in Chesapeake Bay in August 1814. Patrick Magruder had put one J.T. Frost
in his place as he was to old to be called up for military service. Apparently Frost was one of only a few government employees to stay at his post as the English advanced toward the city. He evacuated hundreds of books and documents and when he did leave, was only a few hours ahead of the invading army. The general of the British Army at the time Robert Ross, ordered that everything that represented the culture of the enemy be destroyed. In this particular case this meant the White House, the Treasury and the Capital. The Library of Congress was torched on August 24, 1814.
Thomas Jefferson. Image sourced from appalachianconservative.wordpress.com At least 2,600 books were burnt and once the war was over the library had to be rebuilt. Thomas Jefferson, suggested the government purchase his own collection of some 6,487 books. This they did for the sum of $23,950 USD. A new catalogue was made and this was divided by subject headings. The library grew and in 1851 contained 55,000 items, 35,000 of which were incinerated in a fire at Christmas time. This incarceration included two thirds of Jeffersons collection.
In 2008, the Library of Congress boasted some 29 million books in 470 languages, 56
million manuscripts, 500,000 microfilm documents, 4.8 million maps and 2.7 million
recordings, not to mention e-resources.
LOC Thomas Jefferson building - aerial view.REFERENCES
BOOKS:
Baez,F 2008, A Universal History of the Destruction of Books:From Ancient Sumer to Modern Iraq , Atlas and Co, New York.
WEBSITE:
Cole, J. Y 2006, Jefferson's Legacy: A Brief History of the Library of Congress, viewed 3 May 2010, http://www.loc.gov/loc/legacy/
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