Article
'Reckless and Unwarranted Inferences': The US House Library Scandal of 1861
Library & Information History
(2011)
Abstract
One hundred and fifty years ago, months before Lincoln was sworn in, an article in the New York Daily Times accused Southern congressmen of stealing books from the Library of Congress to start a library for the Confederacy. The House of Representatives launched an immediate investigation and discovered that the scene of the alleged crime was actually a much smaller library and the true culprit was bad management abetted by rumour mongering.
Keywords
- Book thefts,
- Governmental investigations,
- Library of Congress
Disciplines
Publication Date
March, 2011
Citation Information
Robert Lopresti and August A. Imholtz. "'Reckless and Unwarranted Inferences': The US House Library Scandal of 1861" Library & Information History Vol. 27 Iss. 1 (2011) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/rob_lopresti/4/