Thomas Jefferson Hoarded a Massive Book Collection That Still Exists Today
Not many people realize that former President Thomas Jefferson had a massive book collection. Calling him a “hoarder” might sound a little harsh, but it was truly massive. In 1770, Jefferson’s childhood home called Shadwell tragically burned to the ground. When he wrote about the fire, one of the first things he mentioned losing was his massive book collection. We’re not saying that the books were the cause of the fire, but it’s well known that having a lot of paper around your house is a fire hazard, because of how flammable it is.
Over the next ten years, he made up for the loss by collecting thousands of books for the library at Monticello. In 1814, the British burned the nation’s Capitol and the Library of Congress. Once that library burned, Thomas Jefferson’s personal collection was the largest in the country. After the fire, Jefferson kindly offered the library his collection to replace what was burned. They agreed, and purchased 6,487 books for $23,950 in 1815. Tragically, there was another fire on Christmas Eve of 1851, which destroyed two-thirds of the books Jefferson had donated. In recent years, generous grants have helped the Library of Congress to reassemble the antique books that were lost in the fire, so that the Jefferson collection could be complete once again.