Mental Floss

How Big Is the Library of Congress?

The Library of Congress holds more than 160 million items essential to understanding world history, from a 1507 map with the first mention of the name ‘America’ to oral histories of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Library of Congress’s Thomas Jefferson Building
The Library of Congress’s Thomas Jefferson Building | Carol M. Highsmith, Wikimedia Commons // No Known Copyright Restrictions

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.

The Library of Congress’s Thomas Jefferson Building reading room.
The Library of Congress’s Thomas Jefferson Building reading room. | Shawn Miller/Library of Congress, Wikimedia Commons // CC0

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:

The Library of Congress’s Gutenberg Bible on display in 1944.
The Library of Congress’s Gutenberg Bible on display in 1944. | Library of Congress // Public Domain
  • 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
  • 8.2 million pieces of sheet music
A poster advertising Ringling Bros.’s “marvelous acting pachyderms” from the Library of Congress’ collection
A poster advertising Ringling Bros.’s “marvelous acting pachyderms” from the Library of Congress’ collection | Miscellaneous Items in High Demand, PPOC, Library of Congress // Public Domain
  • 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:

Home/CULTURE