On this day in 1815, President James Madison approved an act of Congress appropriating $23,950 to purchase Thomas Jefferson's library of 6,487 volumes. In 1814, after capturing Washington, D.C., the British burned the U.S. Capitol, destroying the Library of Congress and its 3,000-volume collection.
You know, now I don’t feel so bad about the size of my own personal library, and don’t think I could catch Mr. Jefferson, even at the rate I usually amass books.
