And many of the Library’s landmark objects and collections-such as the first map with the word “America,” and the papers of Abraham Lincoln-have been donated by individuals or groups, or purchased using donated funds. The Library is part of the legislative branch of the U.S. It also operates offices around the world to bring in and distribute materials from other countries. As the nation’s copyright repository, the Library receives two copies of every item registered for U.S. The Library takes in more than 10,000 objects a day, and they arrive in its in-box via a number of means. Meanwhile, the Library of Congress, established in 1800, is the world’s largest collection of knowledge and creativity, with treasures in 460 different languages that range from the Bay Psalm Book and European explorers’ maps to Thomas Edison’s films and the rough drafts of Langston Hughes. Keeping only 1-3% of records the government produces still amounts to over ten billion records! So any record-be it a handwritten document, map, film reel, or email-created in the course of doing federal business, that falls into a category predetermined to be kept and preserved, is transferred to the National Archives when the agency or department that created it doesn’t need to refer to it any longer. By law, “permanently valuable” records of the federal government must come to the National Archives for safekeeping. The National Archives, established in 1934, is the nation’s record keeper. What we have in our collections and holdings differs because of how it arrived through our doors. So you, your students, or anyone else can study what we have to understand the past.īut let’s get back to that key difference. And what’s really great is that we both make these accessible to the public. Congress and the American people, a top priority of the Library is to “acquire, organize, preserve, secure and sustain for the present and future use of Congress and the nation a comprehensive record of American history.” The mission of the National Archives is to safeguard and preserve “the records of our Government, ensuring that the people can discover, use, and learn from this documentary heritage.” So we both store and protect documents, photographs, posters, moving images, audio, and more. The Library of Congress and the National Archives exist to preserve pieces of history and culture. Let’s start with what we have in common: Making historical documents available to the public. And because both the National Archives and the Library of Congress provide excellent resources for teaching history, civics and government, the humanities, and more! Because we get asked this question a lot. In 10 words or less, it’s what we’ve got and how we got it.īut we’ll go on. It is also posted on the Teaching with the Library of Congress blog. I co-wrote today’s post with Stephen Wesson at the Library of Congress.
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