The Library of Congress took up new digs in the Thomas Jefferson Building on this date 117 years ago, as the new building opened to the public on November 1, 1897. Today, the Jefferson Building is the oldest of the buildings currently occupied by the library.

The Library of Congress had been located in New York and Philadelphia before moving permanently to the new national capital in Washington in 1800. In 1814, the existing congressional library (which was nowhere nearthe size of today’s) was burned by the British in the War of 1812. To help rebuild what he saw as the national library, Thomas Jefferson agreed to sell his personal library to Congress in 1815. When the collection outgrew its longtime home in the Capitol Building in the late 19th century, this act of generosity made the nation’s third president a fitting pick to name the new building after.

One major reason the new building was needed was changes in copyright law during the 19th century, which stated that anyone wanting to establish copyright for a work needed to send two copies to the federal government. This caused the size of the library’s holdings to explode. The Jefferson Building is both a tribute to civilization and a massive warehouse. Its design features “Great Men” from history, and aims to tell the entire story of Western culture up to and including the United States with commissioned works of art from more than fifty American painters and sculptors.

Equally impressive is the size of the facility, which contains several underground stories to help the library contain its staggeringly massive collection of 32 million books and print materials. (The Library of Congress has 120,000 comic books alone.) The holdings spill over into two other buildings in Washington and an annex in Northern Virginia, but none of them are as impressive to explore as the Jefferson Building. (That’s what the docents have told me, anyway.) The Library of Congress’ primary job is to assist any member of Congress with research on an issue. But if you’re interested in doing research of your own, you can become a cardholder. (I got a card during my last visit to D.C., in case my graduate research happens to take me back to Washington again. My girlfriend is very jealous…and for that, I can thank Thomas Jefferson!)

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