THE NATION'S LIBRARY by N. Y. World

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Feb 21, 1906

THE NATION'S LIBRARY.

By N. Y. World

THE Library of Congress, which, according to the report of Librarian Herbert Putnam, now contains 1,344,618 books, not including more than a quarter of a million maps, charts, and art prints, ranks easily as the first collection in America.

Long counted among the first half-dozen libraries of the world, it has reached a rate of growth which, in point of numbers, promises soon to assure it third place.

In the Bibliothèque Nationale, in Paris, France possesses the greatest library in the world. Ten years ago the official figures were 2,600,000 books. Since 1666 it has been in the present building, where it narrowly escaped destruction during the French Revolution. Two of its librarians were sent to the guillotine.

The British Museum Library owes its foundation to the gift of two old private collections to the nation in 1700. It has three miles of book-cases and contains over 2,000,000 volumes. The Imperial Library at St. Petersburg and the Berlin Library in size are about on a par with the Library of Congress. But it is at the Vatican, the Bodleian at Oxford, and several of the smaller national and university libraries of Europe, that scholars find some of the richest stores of old manuscripts and rare works.

The provisions of the law which require that copies of all copyrighted books shall be filed in Washington, keep the Library of Congress supplied with new books. Of late years Congress has shown a more liberal tendency and granted appropriations for the purchase of rare manuscripts and works. But it is by donation that the national collection receives many of its most valuable additions. The sentiment is spreading that it is the proper depository for all papers and documents bearing on the country's history. Within the last year Librarian Putnam notes especially the purchase of the papers of President Franklin Pierce and the gift of eight hundred letters received by Martin Van Buren while Secretary of State, Vice-president and President. The private papers of nine Presidents of the United States now form part of the collection.

In its new building the Library of Congress should be safe against destruction for many centuries. Fire has cost the world many of its greatest collections. It ruined the ancient Alexandrian Library of the Ptolemies when the Christians sacked the temple of Serapis in the year 275. It cost the world thousands of ancient manuscripts that were stored in Constantinople when the Crusaders captured the city. Twice the Library of Congress has suffered by fire—first at the destruction of the Capitol by the British in 1814 and again in 1851. In its present housing it is protected by every possible safeguard, and directed in its development by the most expert of custodians. And with a sense of pride in which all Americans must share, the nation has given to its foremost sculptors and artists the opportunity to enrich its walls with their works.

It is a monument to American thought and learning which must grow in value and significance with each new year.—N. Y. World.