So we went on a tour of the Library of Congress and in one wing they had Thomas Jefferson’s old library.
From their website:
"By 1814 when the British burned the nation’s Capitol and the Library of Congress, Jefferson had acquired the largest personal collection of books in the United States. Jefferson offered to sell his library to Congress as a replacement for the collection destroyed by the British during the War of 1812. Congress purchased Jefferson’s library for $23,950 in 1815. A second fire on Christmas Eve of 1851, destroyed nearly two thirds of the 6,487 volumes Congress had purchased from Jefferson.
Through a generous grant from Jerry and Gene Jones, the Library of Congress is attempting to reassemble Jefferson’s library as it was sold to Congress."
One thing struck me when I saw it. The colors of the bindings all had a very similar red hue.
My guess was that many of them used a similar chemical for some particular reason (strength, prevent decay, insect repellant?).
In the eighteenth century the leather used for bookbinding was usually dyed, with red being one of the more common colours. ‘Morocco’ leather was popular precisely because it dyed easily. Even old book covers you think are just natural leather will usually have been dyed brown.
The style of the binding was usually decided by the owner. Most books were sold with temporary covers, in the expectation that the purchaser would have them bound according to their own preferences and budget. Owners could therefore have all their books bound in a single style to look more impressive when shelved together.
But Jefferson’s collection isn’t like that. For one thing, what the Library of Congress displays is a mixture of books he actually owned and books from other sources replacing lost copies known to have been owned by him. What’s more, his collection probably never had uniform bindings.
Any photo of an old library will show the diversity of colours on offer. As others have suggested, if Jefferson’s books are predominantly red, then that’s because he or someone went for red as their preferred colour.
Jefferson or one of his minions would have been working on creating their library as not just a collection but a designed space that showed off their learning, wealth and power to Important Visitors. You don’t get that by inviting the Prussian Ambassador to have sherry in what looks like Bargain Day at Bookmart.
PS Its a good thing those books are behind glass. I know I’d be very tempted to lick and nibble the bindings, and red leather dye is particularly full of lead.
I have a few old bound books of various browns. A black one I have is pitted looking and flakey.
The big fat red book is poetry from various old lesser known poets and if you hold it long enough the color gets on your hands.
I think it must’ve been personal preference to have red books in a library. I bet it looked nice with dark wood and blue wall hangings