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The vivid colors stand out.
The original binding office at the Library of Congress with the official logo of the 125th anniversary celebration. Photo Credit: Chantel Martin, 2024 & L.C. Handey, 1900.

2025 marks 125 years of binding at the Library of Congress: Part One

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It’s easy to establish a person’s birthday. There are birth certificates, hospital records, photos, videos, and personal recollections tied to the grand event. For an organization, it’s much more difficult to pinpoint the exact moment of birth. When looking at the history of binding at the Library of Congress, one can choose from no less than four possible birthdays.

The first possible date is the conception of the idea, specifically by the Librarian of Congress at the time, Ainsworth Rand Spofford. Appointed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1864, Spofford left an indelible mark on the Library and the country as a whole. In addition to proposing grand plans for the future of the Library, he also worked with Congress to create the Copyright Office and its system of registration, and is the chief person responsible for what is today known as the Thomas Jefferson Building on Capitol Hill.

When the Library was in the Capitol
Drawing of the Library in the Capitol in early 1897, Librarian Ainsworth Rand Spofford stands on the right side of the print. Credit: William Bengough, 1897, Reproduction, 1939.

Spofford, who Library docents affectionately refer to as the Librarian with three last names, was the first Librarian to draft an annual report to Congress, something that is now required by statute. In 1871, he lamented the thoroughly cramped Library space and sought a standalone building for the collection. Additionally, he noted the need to accommodate other Library tasks:

“The large and often complicated business involved in the receipt of masses of books from all quarters, the heavy receipts of copyright books, periodicals, and other articles by the daily mails, and the preparation for the bindery; and receipt from it in return of thousands of volumes; all these operations constantly going on are, from necessity, huddled into a narrow space in that part of the Library which should be kept clear for the public,” Spofford wrote in the Annual Report of the Librarian of Congress, 1871, reported to Congress on December 18th, 1871.

Prior to his service as Librarian, Spofford was a bookseller, publisher, and newspaper man in Cincinnati, making him well aware of the needs of long-term storage of periodicals and newspapers. Since first joining the Library as Chief Assistant under Librarian John Gould Stephenson, he had often collected items for binding, and shipped them off to the bindery of use. In 1861, the Government Printing Office (GPO), today known as the Government Publishing Office, launched their bindery on North Capitol Street, several blocks away from the Capitol. In 1895, Congress would pass “an act providing for the public printing and binding,” which charged the GPO with all binding for the Library. The bill further limited the binding materials for the Library to “half Turkey, or material no more expensive,” referring to goat leather imported from Turkiye.

Worn and damaged leather bindings sit on an iron shelf, long ago memories saved for the future.
These items in the Library’s General Collection are periodicals bound at the GPO prior to the opening of the Library Binding Office. Many of these books, now in need of repair, may have been handled by Spofford himself. Photo Credit: K.F. Shovlin, 2024.

The binding of items became more difficult as Spofford noted in his 1874 report, “Owing to the fact that no uniform method of binding; or of indexing the early documents prevailed, and to the consequent scattered nature of their contents, both in folio and octavo, this has been a work of unexpected intricacy.” The binding needs increased further as the nation celebrated its centennial in 1876. A proclamation by President Ulysses S. Grant recommended that “the several counties and towns in the United States cause to be prepared a historical sketch of each county or town from its foundation to the year 1876, and that a copy in print or manuscript be filed in the Library of Congress,” according to Spofford’s 1877 report. By the end of fiscal year 1877, the Library had received 225 historical sketches and they were all sent for binding.

Did your city or hometown submit a centennial sketch?
The Centennial historical sketch from the City of Raleigh shown here bound in a material and style called half Turkey with the common colorful endpaper of the late 1800’s. Photo Credit: Hathi Trust, 2011.

As the collection continued to grow, the space became even more strained and more items required both initial binding and repair due to damage. The Librarian continued to press his case until Congress passed and President Grover Cleveland signed legislation in 1886 to build a separate Library building.

In addition to the Library, what else on this map of the Capitol would later move across the street?
The Library’s space shown on the main floor of the U.S. Capitol, this version was known as the “Iron Library” for the Iron shelves installed after a fire in 1851. Photo Credit: Keim’s Capitol Interior and Diagrams, 1874.

As part of the new space, Spofford saw fit to include everything a library may need, detailing it all for architectural firm Smithmeyer & Pelz. The firm was implicated in alleged improprieties in early 1888 leading to them being relieved in October of that year and General Thomas L. Casey, Chief of the Army Corps of Engineers, taking over the construction and interior design. Spofford wrote Casey with his “Points for Congressional Library Building” including number seven: “Two Bindery rooms, of about 25 by 40 feet each, should be provided in the basement story.”

Beautiful penmanship was all the rage in the 1800's.
Spofford’s letter to Casey with the quote on the space for the bindery excerpted. Photo Credit: Library of Congress Manuscript Division, 2024.

With construction now on target for completion in 1897, Spofford reached out to Congress for approval of an onsite bindery. At that point in 1895, Congress passed the binding law empowering the GPO. Later in 1895, the Senate’s Special Report of the Librarian of Congress was released with Spofford stating:

“The basement story affords space for a packing and receiving room of large dimensions, a mail room, stamping room, etc., and for a book bindery. The latter provision, long needed as an adjunct to the Library, to avoid the risks and wear and tear, or possible loss by fire, in sending out its treasures for binding, may readily be equipped by detail from the Government bindery, as already done in some of the Departments. The great injury to bindings in the existing Library, especially to the larger and heavier volumes (often costly and illustrated works) from the compulsory crowding and absence of shelf supports, will entail a heavy amount of repairs.”

In early 1897, with a presidential election having just been completed, the new Library building was also being readied for use. Congress began debating sharing the building with other agencies, putting at risk the designated space for the bindery. They first acted to stop its use for an inaugural ball, but it took Spofford’s detailed analysis of the use of space to assure it. In a statement sent to Senator Justin Smith Morrill of Vermont, Spofford listed all of the Library offices needed, item number 18 calling for “a book-bindery room with ample space for the machinery adequate.” After reviewing the statement, the Senate voted to restrict the Library building only to uses “legitimately connected with the aforesaid Library of Congress,” according to the Congressional Record. The bill failed to be brought up for vote in the House of Representatives before the end of the session, but the sentiment remained.

Don't ever try to take something away from a Librarian, we bring receipts!
The Congressional Record report of Spofford’s statement on the Library’s need for every square inch of space in its new building, with bindery quote excerpted. Photo Credit: Library of Congress Manuscript Division, 2024.

In the years that followed, the Library of Congress saw incredible changes, first with the retirement of Spofford in summer 1897. He officially stepped down, retaking the position of Assistant Librarian under new Librarian John Russell Young. Young unfortunately suffered a severe fall on Christmas Eve 1898 and died the following January. Spofford agreed to serve as acting Librarian until a permanent replacement was appointed. On March 13, 1899, Herbert Putnam was appointed as Librarian on a recess appointment by President William McKinley. He would later be confirmed by the Senate on December 12th.

These patrons don't look 16!
New Librarian Putnam shows library items to school children visiting the Main Reading Room. Photo Credit: Frances Benjamin Johnston, circa 1899.

Putnam came to the Library from the Boston Public Library where he served as its head. He knew well the needs for a Library to have certain staff and offices for care of the collection and drafted an article for the Atlantic Monthly, running in February 1900. In it he noted: “It will be noticed that there is no provision for a printing department in the Library building, nor for a library bindery, — two departments of excellent efficiency and economy at some other libraries, and provided for as matters of course in the plans for the New York Public Library.”

No pictures here, and way more than a thousand words.
The February 1900 issue of the Atlantic Monthly included Putnam’s article “The Library of Congress” on its cover and first few pages, the bindery note excerpted. Photo Credit: The Atlantic, 2018.

With the appeal of the new Librarian, Congress took action. The appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 1901, taking effect on July 1st, 1900, included provisions for a binding office, specifically the Library staff and annual pay rate for each, “Binding: For one assistant in charge, $1,200; one assistant, $900; one messenger boy, $360; in all, $2460.” This appropriation was signed by President McKinley on April 17th, 1900, another possible date for the binding office’s birthday. As the four person staff were not enough to operate a bindery themselves, and the 1895 law charging the GPO with all government binding, Putnam reached out to Frances W. Palmer, the Public Printer at GPO.

That's a lot of words to say, we want a bindery, give it now.
Draft of Putnam’s letter to Palmer, with edits. Photo Credit: Library of Congress Manuscript Division, 2024.

On May 8th, another possible birthday, Palmer received the letter, which followed up on numerous discussions with Putnam. A detail of four GPO staff had already been dispatched to help with the display of maps and large items. Putnam writes:

“There are obvious reasons why this detail should be increased so that all of the repairing, binding, and the main portion, at least of the printing of the Library, shall be carried on here. There are books needing slight repair, which cannot be spared but for the minimum time. There are others needing full binding, which – on account of their value or otherwise – ought not to be let go out of the Library building for the purpose. Library binding, as a whole, is of a character more special than the bulk of the work done at the Government Bindery, and ought to be attended to by a special set of employees working exclusively upon it, and under specifications which shall be uniformly adhered to.”

Reading annual reports from the early 1900s are an excellent way to catch up on lost sleep.
The Annual Report of the Public Printer, making note of the Librarian’s letter and detailing the transfer of some 40 staff and machinery to the Library for its convenience. Photo Credit: Internet Archive, 2015.

Palmer assigned 40 staff under foreman Henry Clay Espey to begin setting up machinery and shipping material and equipment to the Library of Congress. In his annual report stating, “Under authority of law conferred upon the Public Printer materials for a branch printing office and bindery were purchased and placed in the Library building, and the branch is now in active operation.”

Good luck finding the gift shop on this map.
A map of the Library from the 1901 Annual Report showing the Binding office in three spaces on the Basement level, rooms K2, M2, and part of H2. Photo credit: Hathi Trust, 2011.

The four staff hired by the Library joined the 40 staff of the GPO in setting up the office. It soon filled its new space on the basement level, which today is referred to as the ground level of the Jefferson Building. Part of the space is now home to the Collections Management Division, part of the Preservation Directorate along with the binding office of today, the Processing and Preparation Section, now in the Madison Building.

Not an optical illusion, the Library's hallways do seem to go on forever
The ground floor of the Thomas Jefferson Building today where part of the Binding office was first housed. Photo Credit: K.F. Shovlin, 2024.

On December 1st they fired up the machinery, noted in the 1900 annual report, Putnam wrote:

“The peril to which valuable books were subjected in being removed from the building for binding or repair, the delay at the main office due to their necessary subordination there to ordinary governmental work, are hereafter happily to be avoided. And the great gain will be secured in addition, of a force exclusively and continuously devoted to the library work, which is work of a special character, not to be handled like ordinary job work.”

Library binding, an equal opportunity workplace for all time
The Binding Office at the Library of Congress, circa 1900. Photo Credit: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Levin Corbin Handy, photographer.

So, which is the Binding Office’s birthday?

  • April 17th, the day President McKinley signed the legislation
  • May 8th, the day Librarian Putnam sent the letter to Printer Palmer
  • December 1st, the day the binding office opened
  • December 18th, the day the 1871 annual report was received, introducing the idea of needed space for bindery preparation

Read the next three installments of this series, which will go live on those first three dates. As for the day this post went live, January 13th, does it have significance? Well, in addition to it being Horatio Alger’s and Liam Hemsworth’s birthday, on this date in 1897, the Senate began debate on the bill proposed by Senator Morrill of Vermont, restricting the Library building to Library of Congress use only, preserving a space for an eventual binding office.

Minerva and the Library Cats

Thank you to Cheryl Fox of the Manuscript Division for her help in developing this post and providing digital scans of the documents.

Subscribe to this blog so that you can follow up with the next three parts of this year-long celebration of binding at the Library of Congress, as well as some great posts by the rest of the Preservation Directorate staff.

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