On Jan. 30, 1815, President James Madison approved an act of Congress appropriating $23,950 to purchase Thomas Jefferson’s library of 6,487 volumes. After capturing Washington, D.C. in 1814, the ...

This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated. “One of the many ways we as a library have ...

President James Madison approved $23,950 of appropriated money from Congress to purchase Thomas Jefferson’s library. Jefferson had 6,487 volumes. It came after the British torched the United States ...

In Thomas Jefferson's day, the books he lovingly collected were almost as famous as he was. Leather-bound tomes on topics as varied as whist, beekeeping and philosophy were gathered from across Europe ...