What is the Library of Congress?

Explainer

What is the Library of Congress?

Shisui Shinsho (Edo period), Ukiyo-e Print — Shisui Shinsho　Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-DIG-jpd-00105

On August 24, 1814, British troops occupying Washington set fire to the Capitol, and the congressional library lost its collection of about 3,000 books. The next year, 1815, Congress bought Thomas Jefferson's personal library of 6,487 books for $23,950. Those books are the foundation of the Library of Congress collection today. Then, in 1851, a fire destroyed about two thirds of them as well.

A library that twice lost its books to fire now calls itself "the largest library in the world." Its annual report for fiscal year 2023 put the collection at more than 178.2 million items. But it started out far smaller.

A library for lawmakers and justices

In 1800, when President John Adams signed the law moving the capital, Congress set aside $5,000 to buy books. What it gathered was reference material for Congress itself, and only members of Congress and justices of the Supreme Court could use it. The Library is still an agency of the legislative branch, serving as the research arm of Congress. It occupies three buildings on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.: the Thomas Jefferson Building, the John Adams Building and the James Madison Memorial Building.

Tokei to Takarabune no Kakejiku (A Clock and a Treasure Ship Scroll) (Edo period), Ukiyo-e Print — Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-DIG-jpd-00114Tokei to Takarabune no Kakejiku (A Clock and a Treasure Ship Scroll)

From 1870, materials deposited for copyright began flowing into the Library, and the collection grew dramatically. In 1897 it moved into a building of its own.

Japan in Washington

Copyright deposits brought in more than books. Many of the Library's stereograph cards arrived the same way, and among its stereographs of other countries, views of Japan are especially numerous.

Son Goku (Sun Wukong) (Edo period), Ukiyo-e Print — Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-DIG-jpd-00118Son Goku (Sun Wukong)

The Prints & Photographs Division also holds Japanese woodblock prints and hand-painted works, from the 17th century to the early 20th. Its greatest strengths are ukiyo-e and Yokohama-e, literally "pictures of Yokohama." The collection of the photographer Arnold Genthe adds photos he took in Japan in 1908, among them Itsukushima Shrine on the island of Miyajima.

The Library has collected Japanese-language publications, too. By its own account, this is the largest collection of them outside Japan. It grew out of an exchange of government publications that began in 1875, and a December 2010 issue of the Library's bulletin counted about 1.17 million items.

Hanagai, Aragai, Masuogai (Edo period), Ukiyo-e Print — Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-DIG-jpd-00110Hanagai, Aragai, Masuogai

In December 1947, a mission that included the Library's Chief Assistant Librarian, V. W. Clapp, traveled to Japan. The plan that came out of its advice became the basis for the bill creating Japan's National Diet Library. You can follow that story in our article on the National Diet Library.

Seeing and using it from afar

You don't have to go to Washington to see these prints and photographs; you can look at them from Japan or anywhere else. That doorway is the Library of Congress website. The Library opens its collections widely as a contribution to education and scholarship, and anyone can browse the Prints & Photographs Division's catalog records and digital images online for free.

The Library of Congress website's home page
Source: Library of Congress website (https://www.loc.gov/), captured November 7, 2026

If you want to use an image, it helps to know how to read the rights statement "No known restrictions on publication." All it means is that the Library isn't aware of any restrictions. It is not a promise that the image is in the public domain and free of copyright.

The Library generally doesn't own the rights to the items in its collections. That's why it charges no fees for permission to use them, and why it can neither grant nor refuse permission to publish them. The Library explains that it's up to you, the user, to check for copyright, donor restrictions, privacy rights and the like, and to deal with whatever you find.

How it connects to 3rd-Party.jp

Sakuraso (Japanese Primroses) (Edo period), Ukiyo-e Print — Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-DIG-jpd-00116Sakuraso (Japanese Primroses)

Being public isn't the same as being free to use. 3rd-Party.jp makes a point of showing that difference by citing the grounds and the source. From the Library of Congress, Kioku Kabegami brings in Japanese ukiyo-e, stereograph cards taken in Japan, postcards, and Genthe's photographs. We only use items the Library marks "No known restrictions on publication," and we check one by one that each has also passed out of copyright under Japanese law. On every photo page, the part that tells you whether you can use the image shows the Library's statement side by side with the fact that the Japanese copyright term has expired. We don't call these images public domain, because the Library doesn't. Our credits follow the Library's own credit line, too: "Source: Library of Congress," with the reproduction number in parentheses.

What is the Library of Congress?

What is the Library of Congress?

A library for lawmakers and justices

Japan in Washington

Seeing and using it from afar

How it connects to 3rd-Party.jp

Sources