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Ainsworth Rand Spofford
Ainsworth Rand Spofford (September 12, 1825 – August 11, 1908) was the sixth Librarian of Congress. He was also a journalist and a prolific writer. He served as librarian from 1864 to 1897 under the administration of ten presidents. A great admirer of Benjamin Franklin, he wrote a twenty-one page introduction to Franklin's autobiography, which he edited and published.
Spofford was born in Gilmanton, New Hampshire. Ill health prevented him from attending Amherst College. He instead, at age 19, moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he became a bookseller, publisher, and newspaper man at The Cincinnati Commercial Tribune.
In 1849, Spofford founded the Literary Club of Cincinnati with John Celivergos Zachos, Stanley Matthews and nine others. Prominent members included Rutherford B. Hayes and Alphonso Taft; notable club guests Ralph Waldo Emerson, Booker T. Washington, Mark Twain, and Robert Frost. In 1850 prominent abolitionist and woman's rights activist John Celivergos Zachos named his son Ainsworth to honor Spofford.
In 1851, in response to the Fugitive Slave Law, he published the pamphlet The Higher Law, Tried by Reason and Authority, which argued that "Injustice is the only treason; no law can legalize it, no constitution can sanction it." Readers included Emerson, who shared Spofford's antislavery principles. In 1859 Spofford became associate editor of the Cincinnati Commercial. He was also active in Republican politics and was a delegate to the 1856 Republican National Convention, where John C. Frémont was nominated.
While in Washington, D.C., in 1861, shortly after reporting on the First Battle of Bull Run for The Cincinnati Commercial, Spofford accepted the position of Chief Assistant Librarian of Congress under the Librarian of Congress John G. Stephenson. Once Spofford learned of the impending retirement of Stephenson, Spofford gathered enough political endorsements for the position, which later led President Abraham Lincoln to promote Spofford to the post of Librarian of Congress in 1864.
He was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society in 1873.
Spofford served as the Librarian of Congress from 1864 to 1897, a tenure that saw the expansion of the library's collections and notable changes in its methods of collection development. According to the library's published history, Spofford contributed to the Jeffersonian vision for the library that a "democratic form of government depended on a comprehensive base of knowledge and information."
Spofford is generally credited with overseeing the expansion of the Library from a Congressional resource into a national institution. During his tenure, the library's collection expanded from over 60,000 items to more than one million. Among his more noted acquisitions was the purchase of a vast collection of early American archives from noted archivist Peter Force. Spofford's hopes were to follow the great library models of Europe, in which "the library would be a comprehensive collection of the literature of the nation." Beginning in the 1830s, the Library of Congress began to receive foreign governmental documents and publications. By the late 1860s, Spofford convinced Congress to allow the library to become the repository for international documents. He stated that "there is almost no work, within the vast range of literature and science, which may not at some time prove useful to the legislature of a great nation." Spofford's championing of the copyright law, passed on July 8, 1870, also expanded the library's collection through the copyright registration deposit mandate. The law "centralized all U.S. copyright registration and deposit activities at the Library." and stipulated that two copies of every "book pamphlet, map, print, photograph, and piece of music registered for copyright be deposited in the Library." In arguing for the deposit requirement, Spofford suggested that the legislature would "provide a repository of American culture." In his argument for the copyright law to Congress, he wrote that "the Public intelligence and welfare are promoted by every extension of the means of acquiring knowledge." The law established the library as the de facto national library of the United States and "essentially resolved [any] debate over which institution would serve as America's national library."
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Ainsworth Rand Spofford
Ainsworth Rand Spofford (September 12, 1825 – August 11, 1908) was the sixth Librarian of Congress. He was also a journalist and a prolific writer. He served as librarian from 1864 to 1897 under the administration of ten presidents. A great admirer of Benjamin Franklin, he wrote a twenty-one page introduction to Franklin's autobiography, which he edited and published.
Spofford was born in Gilmanton, New Hampshire. Ill health prevented him from attending Amherst College. He instead, at age 19, moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he became a bookseller, publisher, and newspaper man at The Cincinnati Commercial Tribune.
In 1849, Spofford founded the Literary Club of Cincinnati with John Celivergos Zachos, Stanley Matthews and nine others. Prominent members included Rutherford B. Hayes and Alphonso Taft; notable club guests Ralph Waldo Emerson, Booker T. Washington, Mark Twain, and Robert Frost. In 1850 prominent abolitionist and woman's rights activist John Celivergos Zachos named his son Ainsworth to honor Spofford.
In 1851, in response to the Fugitive Slave Law, he published the pamphlet The Higher Law, Tried by Reason and Authority, which argued that "Injustice is the only treason; no law can legalize it, no constitution can sanction it." Readers included Emerson, who shared Spofford's antislavery principles. In 1859 Spofford became associate editor of the Cincinnati Commercial. He was also active in Republican politics and was a delegate to the 1856 Republican National Convention, where John C. Frémont was nominated.
While in Washington, D.C., in 1861, shortly after reporting on the First Battle of Bull Run for The Cincinnati Commercial, Spofford accepted the position of Chief Assistant Librarian of Congress under the Librarian of Congress John G. Stephenson. Once Spofford learned of the impending retirement of Stephenson, Spofford gathered enough political endorsements for the position, which later led President Abraham Lincoln to promote Spofford to the post of Librarian of Congress in 1864.
He was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society in 1873.
Spofford served as the Librarian of Congress from 1864 to 1897, a tenure that saw the expansion of the library's collections and notable changes in its methods of collection development. According to the library's published history, Spofford contributed to the Jeffersonian vision for the library that a "democratic form of government depended on a comprehensive base of knowledge and information."
Spofford is generally credited with overseeing the expansion of the Library from a Congressional resource into a national institution. During his tenure, the library's collection expanded from over 60,000 items to more than one million. Among his more noted acquisitions was the purchase of a vast collection of early American archives from noted archivist Peter Force. Spofford's hopes were to follow the great library models of Europe, in which "the library would be a comprehensive collection of the literature of the nation." Beginning in the 1830s, the Library of Congress began to receive foreign governmental documents and publications. By the late 1860s, Spofford convinced Congress to allow the library to become the repository for international documents. He stated that "there is almost no work, within the vast range of literature and science, which may not at some time prove useful to the legislature of a great nation." Spofford's championing of the copyright law, passed on July 8, 1870, also expanded the library's collection through the copyright registration deposit mandate. The law "centralized all U.S. copyright registration and deposit activities at the Library." and stipulated that two copies of every "book pamphlet, map, print, photograph, and piece of music registered for copyright be deposited in the Library." In arguing for the deposit requirement, Spofford suggested that the legislature would "provide a repository of American culture." In his argument for the copyright law to Congress, he wrote that "the Public intelligence and welfare are promoted by every extension of the means of acquiring knowledge." The law established the library as the de facto national library of the United States and "essentially resolved [any] debate over which institution would serve as America's national library."