How Big Is the Library of Congress?

The Library of Congress was established on April 24, 1800, when President John Adams signed an Act of Congress that approved the appropriation of $5000 for the purchase of “such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress” and for “fitting up a suitable apartment for containing them.” (This same act also transferred the seat of the federal government from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C.).

The first purchase was a collection of 740 books and 30 maps, ordered from London. Most of the books were about law, given Congress’s legislative role, and the rest covered a variety of topics. They were first stored in the U.S. Capitol, the library's first home.

In the two centuries and change since that first purchase, the library has expanded quite a bit. Today, the Library of Congress is physically housed in three buildings—the Thomas Jefferson Building, the John Adams Building, and the James Madison Memorial Building—next to the Capitol. Its collections take up about 800 miles’ worth of shelf space and consists of more than 164 million items. These items include:

• More than 29.49 million cataloged books in 470 languages

• 5700 incunabula (books printed before 1501)

• A rough draft of the Declaration of Independence, the first draft of the Emancipation Proclamation [PDF], and two copies of the Gettysburg Address in Abraham Lincoln’s hand

• One of the three perfect vellum copies of the Gutenberg Bible known to exist

• Over 1 million U.S. government publications

• 5.8 million maps, including a world map made by Martin Waldseemüller in 1507 that is the first known document on which the name America appears

• 1 million printed issues of newspapers from around the world, plus hundreds of thousands more in bound volumes and on microform

• Issues from the past two years of 60,000 print magazines

• 8.2 million pieces of sheet music

• 4.2 million audio recordings

• 1.8 million film and video recordings

• More than 16 million prints, photographs, drawings, and posters

• Five Stradivarius stringed instruments and the world’s largest flute collection.

A version of this story was published in 2009; it has been updated for 2024.

Read More Stories About Libraries: