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A N N U A L REPORT

OF TE E

LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS

FOR

T H E Y E A R 1876.

W ' A S H ~ N G T O N :GOVERNMENT OFFLOE.

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ANNUAL REPORTTHE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS.

LIBRARY OF CONGRT~S,Waahingh, Janzcay 1,1877.The undersigned submits herewith his annual report, embracing the

statistics of th e growth of the Library of Congress and the business of the1.01)yright epartment during the year 1876. One year ago the Librarian\\ :IS uthorized to make these reports represent the calendar year there-.~l'ter, eginning and ending with the first of January, instead of t helit-stof December, a s formerly.

Theincrease of the Library dur ing th e year now closed has been highly:ratifying. The counting of th e books, just completed, shows an aggre-z:~tef 311,097 volumes of bonnd books, together with about 100,00011:unphlets. The last enumeration, January 1,1576, showed a tofa1 of2!,3,507 ~ olumes. The books added during the yearthus amountt017~590\ olumes, besides 8,636 pamphlets. The additions to the low library,~c.c:koned n the above aggregate, were 3,311 ~olu me s, arrying the col-Icction of works iu jnrisprudeuce up to an a ggre gw of 37.727 volumee.

The addit ions to the Library hare been from the following specifiedsonrces, ilaluely :

To this are to be added maps ancl charts acquired during the year toI ]I(: number of 2,446.

The acquisitions to t he Library by purchase during the last year, bhoughI I O ~ o large numerically a s in some pi.evious ones, have been more than11s11a1lymportant. Extensive auction sales in American cities and onI I I C Continent have been availed of to make selections of rare and ex-~~c~tlsiveooks seldom occurriug for purchase; and in this way v e r ~I I : I l~dsome cquisitions of early American imprints, and of multitudes ofI I I I I I ~ S and pamphlets relating to +merica, uot before in the collection,11:lt.e een secured. Ainong the fose ign purchases worthy of no te mere~.ornplete e 8 of the publications of the Maitleud Club, in 110 volumee;

I:\. ~~umhaae.....................................................................I:r. cwpyright ....................................................................1 1 , lluposit of the Smithsoninn Znstftutlon.......................................I!! tlonation. (iududiug State documents)............................. . ......I ~~xoh~ngea....................................................................

Total.............. ....................................................5,495%1,g17,580

1 6599s1:879W373--,8911

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4 ANNUAL B E P OB T OF THE LIBBABIM OF COmfREB&Nichols's Bibliothwa Topographica Br it an ni a; the Chetham SocietyPublications; the Dresden Gallery, 3 volumes, in great folio;Ferrario'sCostumes, 21 volumes, folio; the Critical Review, 144 volumes; thooriginal mannscript Report of the Debates in the Irish Parliament, from1776 to 1789, covering the very interesting period of the American warof the Revolution and the events prelimiuaq- to he consolidation of Ire-land with Great Britain in 1800; and a collection of the privately printedpedigrees, visitations, pariah registers, &c., lefe by the late Sir ThomasPhillipps ; hese last were printed in so small number as to be nearly asrare as manuscripts, and constitute a valuable wes si ou to the rich col-lection of genealogical and historical works already in the Library. Mauyworks of great ralne and interest, in architecture, sculpture, painting,and the mecha~~icrta, have also been purchased, greatly exteuding thevalue of the collection as a complete librrtry of reference.The business of the copyright department during the year shows acollsiderable increase of entries, notwithstanding the depressed condi-tiou of the book-publishing trade and connected interests. The wholenumber of entries of copyrights for the twelve monthsof 1876 was 14,882against 14,197 for the preceding calelldar year. The cash receipts paidinto the Treasury amounted to $12,500.50, while for the year precedingthe aggregate was $ll,'iS0.50, showing an increase in fees of' $720. Itwas auticipated, when the transfer of all prints and labels used in con-nection with u~anufacturedarticles was made from the copyright oficeto that of the Commissioner of Patents, that there would be a large andpermanent decrease in the number of copyright entries. But the resultduring the past year aswell as in that preceding indicates tha t the gen-eral increase in the entry of articles that are still legit ilnate subjects ofcopyrig this such as, taken in connection with the growth of the country,mill keep this department fully up to its present average of business.

Under the law which requires the deposit in the Library of two copiesof each book or other publication protected by copyright, the followingarticles have been received in 1876, under each dmignation of copyrighlmatter:Boob.. ....................................................................P e r i o d i d e . . ......................................................................................................................oaical comp oaitiona ....................................................ramatic compositiona..Photogrephe.. .......................................................... .'...................................................ogrmvinga and chromoe ................................................aps, charts, and drawing8Prints .....................................................................

As two copies of each publicatio ' are deposited, it will be seen th:~rth e net additions to the collections have amounted to 13,100 artiolcs,.4,010 of which are book& 1

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ANNUAL FCEPOBT OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGBE88. 5The funds appropriated by Congress for the various objects p l a d

by law under the charge of the Joint Committee on the Library exhibitLlie following balances on the 1stof January, 1877:............................................und for incrtxae of Library $8,09a 31................................q'llnd for contingent expenses of L i b r q 3,086 19........................I I I I ~or expense of exchanging pnblio docnmenta 315 49l"1111dor purchase and printing of unpublished historioal doonmente relat-

ing to the early Frencrh discoveriee in the Northwmt and on the Missis-sippi. . ............................................................... 8,541 01......................111td or ornamenting the Capitol with works of art 3,394 42..0'11nd or conlpletion of three volnmes of Wilkes's Exploring Expedition.. 4,814 61.....................4'1lnd for salariea in Botonic Garden and greenhouses 7 , W I 45......................................lind for improving Botanic Garden 1,304 03.....................~'1111dor portraits of Presidente of the United Btates 850 00The materials for the new general catalogue of the Library, referred to

in my last report, have been completed during the Sear, and all thetitles, exceeding 2430,000 in number, are rmdy for the press. Bu t no:q~prol>riationas been made for the expense of printing; the small sumtleroted to the printing and binding of the Library at th s last s mio n ofCongress being hardly adequate to the necessities for the binding ofI~ooksand tlie uecessttry blauks and records for the copyright clepart-n~ent. The importance of lllaking early provision for publishing thisnew general catalogue, which will represent the entire contentsof thelibrary up to date, irj earnestly commended to the attention of the com-ittee tee and of Congress. The numerous alphabets of the existingcata-logue, with its annual supplements, reuder it embarrasing for those\vho use the Library to refer to them without much consumption of time,:ISno less than twelve volumes ha re to be consuited in orderto deter-I I I ine conclusively whether the Library contains any book. Moreover,these catalogues have uever ellibraced anything more than a partialselection of the tit les of pamphlets, with which the Library is so richlystored, whereas the new general catalogue embraces both books and~~:unphlets,ithout omission. It is, of course, possible for th e officemof the Library to determilie at once whet books or pamphleb of any:~rithor re contained in it by referenoe to the official catalogue ; but itI.; to be ob~ervedhat this catalogue is on cards, in large part in mana-script, and armnged in drawers, thus preventing th at couvenient and411dck eference which is only attainable through a printed catalogue inImok form. The material has been so prepared as to abbreviate mostt ~ t ' the titles, retaiuing only the more significant or descriptive parts,together with the collation and date of each work. To print in full thelitle-pages of so large a collectionaa this Library has now grown to be\roald iuvolve too heavy :tn expenditure of the public money, with toolittle return in utility to justify so extensive and voluminous a publics-Iiou. I t ia estimated tha t th e sliccinct titles of the 311,000 volumes\rlrich the Library now confitins nay be compressed into four moderateoctavo volumes, in clear type; and provision should be made to pro-csitcdwith the printing with the least possible delay.

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6 UNUAL REPORT OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONCIRES8.The preparation of the complete index to the documents, debates,

and laws of Congress has very considerably advanced during the pastyear. The whole number of reference-titles already written amounts toan aggregate of forty thousand. Referring to my previous reports as tothe general plan of this index, i t is recommeuded that the small appro-priation yet needed to complete the work be provided duriug the presentsession of Congress.Since my last report, the publication of the tirst volume of original his-torical docu~nents elating to the French discoveries and explorations inthe northwestern portion of the United States and on the Mississippiha8 taken place. The whole work will be embraced in six octavo vol-umes, with an at las of maps in quarto, and will cover a vast collection ofletters, official papers, and other documents, ill the original French, relat-ing to the discoveries and settlements nuder Cavelier de a Salle and otherexplorers in territory now belongiug to th e United States, fro111 A. D.1614 to 1752. The edition of these hi~tor ical olumes being small, (onlyfive hundred copies,) it is recomme~ided hat, instead of a gratuitousdistribution, the Librarian he a~lthorizedo exchange copies of the workwith historical societies aud other libraries for any books deemed equivalent in ralue, to enrich the collection of Congress.The question of most pressing importance connected with the inter-ests of the Library of Congress, which has become, by liberal legislationand extensive growth, the library of the nation, is the provision of asuitable building to contain it s rapidly accumuli~ting tores. In fourprevious reports, the undersigned has pressed this subject upon theattention of the committee in all i ts phases, and no repetition is herenecessary of the cogent reasons, beco~ning ontinually more pressing, forprompt action in supplying so mauifest a public necessity. I n a reportmade by the chairman of tbe Joint Committee on the Library, Jn ne8, 1876, (Senate Report No. 357 ,l st session 44th Congress,) a succinctstatement may be found of the reasons which impelled the committee torecommend a bill for the construction of a new fire-proof building torthe Library. The bill accompanying that report (9. 910) proposed toappropriate the sum of $150,000 '' or preparing the ground, laying thefoundation, and commencing theconstruction of a new fire-proof baildingfor the use of theLibrary of the United States." The site proposed in thebill was the public reservation lji ng on t he meet side of the Capitol, nowoccupied by the Botanic Garden. A subseqnent examination of theground, however, developed weighty objections to the location proposed ;and, in the curtaillnent of all appropriations which governed the actionof Congress a t the last session, uo step was takeu toward providingfor the wants of its overcrowded Librikry.The whole subject is again commended to the early atten-tion of the committee, with remark that the injury to thebooks, bound newspapere, art which are piled up uupro-vided with shelrea or with every addifion,

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ANRTAL REPOBT OF TIiE LIBRARIAN OF CONCI-. 7while the difficulties and embarrassments attending the administrationof the Library and the large copyright business of the country withino~lch arrow quarters are such as would 11ot be Merated for a, singlesorison in any first-class business house in any city of the country. Th eur~tlersigned aunot doubt that the comlnittge will agree with him intlru belief that the people of the country stand readyto sanction anywiao expenditure necessary to proteot and preserve these great co l l ytiol~s f s ation's literature and art, which are intrusted to the imme-tliate care and responsibility of the representatives of the people.

A. R. SPOFFORD,Dbrarian o Congrm.Hon. T. 0. HOWE,Chairman o the Joint Comlnittee on t l ~ribraty.