The Van Buren manuscripts are in the Library of Congress.
The Boston public library, exceeded in size in the United States by the library of Congress at Washington - and probably first, because of the large number of duplicates in the library of Congress - and the largest free municipal library in the world; the library of Harvard, extremely well chosen and valuable for research; the collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society (1791); the Boston Athenaeum (1807); the State Library (1826); the New England Historic Genealogical Society (1845); the Congregational Library; the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1780); and the Boston Society of Natural History (1830), all in Boston, leave it easily unrivalled, unless by Washington, as the best research centre of the country.
The Concord granite is a medium bluish-grey coloured muscovitebiotite granite, with mica plates so abundant as to effect the durability of the polish of the stone; it is used for building-the outer walls of the Library of Congress at Washington, D.C., are made of this stone-to a less degree for monuments, for which the output of one quarry is used exclusively, and for paving blocks.
The Capitol is connected by subways with the Library of Congress also.
The Library of Congress contains more than 1,800,00o volumes and 100,000 manuscripts, and large collections of maps and pieces of music. In the library of the State Department are 70,000 volumes of documents.
