University of Virginia Library

I
The Founding of the Library

1819–1826

THOMAS JEFFERSON was as completely the
founder of the University of Virginia Library as
he was the father of the University itself. The
central structure of the notable group of buildings
which he personally planned was designated by him for
the use of the Library. The initial collection of books was
selected by him, and by his efforts it was made possible
to acquire the collection chiefly by purchase. Because
of his wide and insatiable intellectual curiosity and of
his lifetime of enthusiastic adventures as a booklover, the
selection was of comprehensive scope and authoritative
quality. The books were arranged for use according to his
subject classification adapted from Francis Bacon. He chose
the first two Librarians, and he formulated the first library
regulations. During the nineteenth century there was a
moderate increase in the number of volumes. But until
the burning of the Rotunda in 1895, when a considerable
portion of his original collection was destroyed, this was
essentially Mr. Jefferson's University Library. The library
materials and equipment following 1895 have been secured
by the efforts of others. Yet even in this later period, there
has to an accelerating degree been regard for and emphasis
upon the intentions of the founder.

In establishing this Library, Jefferson adopted procedures
that had become traditional in American institutions
of higher learning. As was characteristic of him, the adaptations

were eminently practical. That a library is an essential
part of a college or university had been early and generally
recognized. Harvard had started in 1636, nearly two centuries
before, and among its first educational property had
been 329 titles and over 400 volumes bequeathed by John
Harvard. Of Yale the story is often told of the group of
ministers who met at Branford, Connecticut, and each solemnly
declared that he offered of his books “for the founding
a College in this Colony.” The University of Pennsylvania
at its beginning inherited the working library of
Benjamin Franklin's Academy and also the benefit of
Franklin's active interest. Six years before Dartmouth
acquired its charter, that college in New Hampshire had
received a gift of twenty volumes from William Dickson.
That there was in all cases dependence on donations for the
building up of the library collections had been evident
throughout the history of the earlier institutions. Thus
Princeton, shortly after its opening as the College of New
Jersey, gained prestige by receiving the gift of several hundred
volumes from Governor Belcher of New Jersey; and
during the same year that King's College, the predecessor
of Columbia, was founded, it acquired “the fine library”
of the Hon. Joseph Murray. It was also on record that some
institutions had sent out special agents for collecting books.
Eminent among these was Jeremiah Dummer, whom Yale
dispatched as its colonial agent to England. Two years
after the founding of Brown University, at first known as
the College of Rhode Island, the Rev. Morgan Edwards
went abroad to solicit books and money, carrying with him
the modest sum of twenty pounds for the immediate purchase
of the most needed texts. A little later the College
Treasurer, John Brown, partly donated and partly raised
a total of 700 pounds to be spent in books and “philosophical
apparatus.” Here it is to be noted that a list of the books
to be acquired with that sum was prepared by President
Manning and Chancellor Hopkins, the latter being Governor
of Rhode Island. As a rule, funds for the purchase of
books were sorely lacking in those early days—a precedent
which unfortunately became quite too firmly established.
There were some curious devices for obtaining such funds.
In 1734, for example, the Virginia General Assembly voted
to the College of William and Mary the proceeds of a
duty of a penny a gallon on imported liquors “provided
that some part thereof should be spent in books.” Perhaps
it is not inappropriate to add that, however volatile the
source of the funds might be, all the early collections were
heavily weighted with tomes of deep seriousness.

These and other American Libraries were in operation
long before Jefferson's University Library. The University
of Virginia received its charter from the Commonwealth
of Virginia in 1819, and its first session began in 1825.
Previous to these dates, there had been an administrative
organization for an Albemarle Academy, which in 1816
was absorbed into an administrative organization for a
Central College. Neither Academy nor College reached the
stage of offering instruction to students. Thomas Jefferson
had been a prominent member of both organizations, and
he utilized them as steps in planning for the University.
Evidence of his emphasis on the importance of a library
is found as early as 1814, two years before a governing
body for Central College received appointment. Learning
that the books of the recently deceased Joseph Priestley
were about to come on the market (Jefferson had knowledge
of that distinguished chemist, theologian, and political
scientist through correspondence), he expressed the
desirability of securing them, since they and his own extensive
private collection, which he intended to donate, would
together form an initial Library appropriate for the University-to-be.
This early plan met with a double failure. No
benefactor was forthcoming with funds for the purchase of

the Priestley books; and when the Library of Congress collection
was destroyed by British invaders in August of that
year, 1814, Jefferson felt impelled to offer his private library
for acquisition by the Federal Government.

But with the University Library as with the University,
Jefferson did not permit disappointments to swerve him
from his goal. During the winter of 1823–1824 he helped to
extract from the Virginia General Assembly a conditional
appropriation of $50,000, based on the possible reimbursement
by the Federal Government of state expenditures
during the War of 1812. Though this was only conditional
(it continued in that status during the two remaining years
of Jefferson's life), he was able to persuade the University's
Board of Visitors, of which he was Rector, to make
advances against it for immediate use. When in April
1824 it was arranged that Francis Walker Gilmer should
go to England to select members of the Faculty for the
new University, upon him was also placed the responsibility
to secure books and apparatus—and the sum of $6,000
was allotted for that purpose. In undertaking this mission,
Gilmer was kindled with Jefferson's own enthusiasm, and
he expressed “high hopes of laying the foundations of a
great library.” His letters of introduction gave him entree
into English Universities and other learned circles, and he
was able to cull much good counsel concerning booksellers
and lists of essential volumes—the most impressive contribution
being a long list of classical titles received from
the aged critic and scholar, Dr. Samuel Parr. The London
bookseller Bohn was selected as the University's English
agent; and by January 1825 the first consignment of books—
eight boxes of purchased volumes bearing the distinctive
Bohn label—had arrived at Charlottesville.

That, however, was only a first move. Gifts for the
Library had begun to come in, and in April 1825 Jefferson
composed for insertion in the Charlottesville Central Gazette

and the Richmond Enquirer a statement concerning
such gifts, so worded as to be an encouragement to other
donors. Moreover he felt the need for an American agent,
one who would not only supply books for the Library but
who would also set up near the University a bookstore for
handling texts to be used by the students. The Boston firm
of Cummings, Hilliard and Company was selected, the
sum of $18,000 was placed to its credit, and Jefferson undertook
to supply a complete list of desirable volumes covering
all fields of learning. By June 1825 this list, of nearly
7,000 volumes, had been laboriously completed. To avoid
duplication, on it were checked off the titles already
received from Bohn, from a catalogue compiled by the first
Librarian, John Vaughan Kean. The purchases made
through Cummings, Hilliard and Company began to arrive
during the winter of 1825–1826. Since there had been
tedious delays in the completion of the Rotunda, these
books were not unpacked but were stored in the pavilion
on West Lawn—now the Colonnade Club—which was being
temporarily used for the Library. Jefferson's death, on
4 July 1826, denied to him the joy of seeing the University
Library established in the impressive room under the
dome of the Rotunda. It also denied to the University the
benefit of his comments and the authority of his plans for
the collection's expansion.

The actual size of the initial collection was recorded by
a printed catalogue, authorized by the Faculty in December
1826 and completed by the second Librarian, William Wertenbaker,
in 1828. This compilation included both purchased
volumes and donations, and it followed, in somewhat
modified form, the classification of the list prepared by
Jefferson for the Boston book agent. The total number of
volumes was slightly over 8,000.

The figure 8,000 is the one given for the University of
Virginia in the list of “Colleges in the United States” in

volume one—for 1830—of The American Almanac. Of the
other libraries which have been mentioned, that list records
30,000 volumes for Harvard, 8,500 for Yale, 8,000 for
Princeton, 6,000 for Brown, 3,500 for Dartmouth, and
3,400 for William and Mary, Columbia and the University
of Pennsylvania not reporting. But it is at once evident that
at the moment of their inception, no other college or university
in the United States had thus far had available for
use so large a collection of books. Thomas Jefferson's University
Library was also distinctive in having special and
central location and in the amount expended at the beginning
for purchases. But its most remarkable feature was
the effort towards authoritative coverage of all the fields
of learning—and the credit for this inheres in the classified
list prepared by its Founder.

On all counts that list was a remarkable achievement.
It was compiled at the age of eighty-two by a man whose
“active” life had been crowded with services as a lawyer,
as a state legislator, as Governor of Virginia, as a member
of the Continental Congress, as Minister to France, as
Secretary of State, as Vice President, and as President of
the United States—and a man whose correspondence and
other papers are now found to fill over fifty printed volumes.
The preparation was an onerous task, upon which
Jefferson concentrated many hours of effort. But that effort
explains only in small part the value of the compilation. As
the artist Whistler testified in his famous suit against the
critic Ruskin, the painting of one of his Nocturnes may
have required only a day or two, but into the act went
“the knowledge of a lifetime.” For it was the knowledge of
a lifetime that was focused upon the compilation of that
list which was the foundation of Jefferson's University
Library.

Jefferson's was an extremely active life, but it never
lacked the friendly company of books. In an age in America

which was without the modern public library, he drew on
private and special collections wherever he found them.
His school, college, and law training was practically a succession
of four private tutors: William Douglas and James
Maury, his early teachers; William Small, who was the
lecturer for most of his courses at the College of William
and Mary; and George Wythe, his preceptor in law. This
gave him unusual access to their sizable private libraries
and to their counsels on reading. The Library at the
College of William and Mary contained approximately
3,000 volumes when Jefferson was a student at Williamsburg.
Both in New York and in Philadelphia, and subsequently
in Europe, Jefferson readily made himself familiar
with existing libraries of institutions or learned societies.
He took an active interest in the beginnings of the Library
of Congress, which was established during his presidency,
and for which he prepared a detailed statement concerning
the types of books which could appropriately be selected.
He also appointed the first two Librarians of Congress. In
his conversations and in his correspondence, the subject
of books was always congenial to him. Early in his career
he began to be called upon to suggest lists of essential
books and courses of reading. One such list, which he had
painstakingly prepared for a young friend, was kept by
him in copy and revised for reply to other later requests.
Another, drawn up for Robert Skipwith in 1771, has been
followed in assembling “A Virginia Gentleman's Library”
which is now kept on display at Colonial Williamsburg.

He thus drew on other libraries wherever he found
them. But he was himself one of the most ambitious men
of his time in acquiring his own collections. He successively
gathered three private libraries. His father, Peter Jefferson,
had possessed a small but varied collection, with which the
boy Thomas was undoubtedly familiar and to which he
fell heir. The first records of his own purchases are in the

1764 day books of the office of the Virginia Gazette in
Williamsburg. The latest is the next to the last entry, 13
June 1826, in his own account books. This covers a span
of sixty-two years. Of the booksellers with whom he had
dealings we have the names of over fifty. His first library
was destroyed in the burning of his home at Shadwell in
February 1770. He estimated the value of that collection to
have been 200 pounds sterling, and he added: “Would to
God it had been the money, then had it never cost me a
sigh.” At once he began the collection of a second library.
Shortly before he started on his diplomatic mission in 1783,
Jefferson made for his own convenience a catalogue of
that collection and a list of desiderata. The catalogue and
the list amounted to 2,640 volumes. It is of interest that
for this catalogue of 1783, Jefferson had already adopted a
subject classification based on Francis Bacon's division of
the fields of knowledge as described in his Advancement of
Learning. At the time this second collection became the
National Library of the United States in 1815, Jefferson
had made another catalogue of it, and the total was then
6,487 volumes—more than double the extent of the Library
of Congress collection that had been burned. Jefferson then
indefatigably started a third private library. This, he said,
was intended for the amusement of his old age. But his
conception of reading for pleasure was like Mrs. Battle's of
whist: “A clear fire, a clean hearth, and the rigour of the
game.” Not many could unbend their minds over the tomes
he gathered for this third collection. But it continued to be
his purpose that books of his should be bequeathed to the
University, and some of his choices from now on may well
have had that intention in mind. Unfortunately the impoverishment
of his estate made it seem necessary for his
Executor to sell this third collection, which at the time of
his death had grown to nearly a thousand volumes. It would
have grieved him deeply if he had known that only three
or four of his own books, which had been casually presented
by him, would go to the enrichment of his University
Library. But in the lifetime of preparation which went
into the compilation of that list for the Boston bookdealer,
Jefferson's contribution was unique.

In fairness to him, it should be stated that he himself
made no claim to have taken all learning for his province.
In some fields he frankly admitted that his knowledge was
meagre. He was wont to seek information from others, such
as George Ticknor and both James Madison, the Statesman,
and his cousin of the same name, the Bishop and President
of the College of William and Mary. Jefferson's list reveals
both personal preference and blind spots. The library collection
he selected for the University was essentially a
learned library, intended for reference use to supplement
what teachers and students might themselves possess. He
expressly stated that it should be lumbered with nothing of
mere amusement. He emphasized the importance of obtaining
the best editions for each title. A book was important to
Jefferson because of its usefulness, not because of its rarity.
He had no little Greek, Latin, Italian, and French, and not
much less Spanish. He had given special attention to Anglo-Saxon,
and he himself had prepared a textbook for use in
that subject. The material in English literature seems rather
scanty in comparison with that from the Greek and Latin
classical writers. The subjects most fully covered in his list
were law, history, science, medicine, ethics and religion,
belles lettres, geography, politics, and mathematics. One
could expand comments on the list to considerable extent.
But a better basis of judgment concerning this compiler and
this compilation is afforded by Jefferson's own words—and
the following single paragraph is quoted from his statement
prefatory to this list prepared for Cummings, Hilliard and
Company.

The making of this list was a completed project. The
task of acquiring and making accessible the works on the
list was not finished in Jefferson's lifetime. By the spring of
1826 the books from the English agent had been received
and largely put into use, and there were stored in the temporary
library on West Lawn many boxes from the American
agent, not to be opened until the Rotunda was ready
for occupation. That must have been for Jefferson a vexatious
delay. His last visit to the University, then in its second
session, was for the purpose of viewing the library progress.
The date seems to have been in April. After a conference
with the Librarian, William Wertenbaker, Jefferson
seated himself on the balcony before what is now the
Colonnade Club, and silently observed the workmen as

they raised the capital to the top of one of the pillars on
the Lawn in front of the Rotunda. From the vantage point
of that balcony every building that he could see was in
fulfillment of his longtime dream of a University. It was
a Jeffersonian dream brought into practical and symmetrical
reality. His mind, gratified by this achievement, must
also have teemed with plans and hopes for the future. For
what had been created had vitality. After a period of meditation,
he quietly went down through the first and temporary
abode of the Library, mounted his horse, and rode for
the last time over the familiar course from the University,
this latest child of his, to his loved home on the neighboring
hilltop.