LIBRARY NOTES
William J. Dean
To Library Members
Sunday, January 1, 1995
The Founding Fathers took advantage of the Library's collection when New York City served as the nation's capital in 1789 and 1790. The Library was then located in Federal Hall -- the refurbished old City Hall on Wall Street facing Broad Street -- where Congress met. Members not only of Congress but of the administration as well regularly consulted the collection.
Vice-President John Adams came by one day to pick up Kames' Elements of Criticism, volume 1. The charge in the ledger is followed by the note, "self." Several days later he sent the doorkeeper ("doork") for volume 2.
On October 5, 1789, President Washington requested Emer De Vattel's The Law of Nations. Alexander Hamilton borrowed Boethe's Eleonora, and Aaron Burr, Revolutions in Geneva and a volume of Swift.
The Library has plans to display some of the early charging ledgers and other treasures from our 240-year history in an exhibition area to be located on the second-floor landing near the entrance to the Members' Room.
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