A Journal of Travels in England, Holland, and

Scotland and of Two Passages over the Atlantic, in the years

of 1805 and 1806 by Benjamin Silliman

Curated by Olivia Johnson

Benjamin Silliman

A Journal of Travels in England, Holland, and Scotland and of Two Passages over the Atlantic, in the years of 1805 and 1806

T.B. Wait and Company, 1812

In the early 1800s when travel was difficult and not as common as it is today, books helped the world understand what was beyond their home. Benjamin Silliman documented his own travels through England, Holland, and Scotland. Silliman was a local, born in what is now Trumbull, Connecticut. He studied chemistry at Yale and delivered the first ever science lectures there. Silliman traveled to England and Scotland to prepare himself to be a professor at Yale. He attended many lectures but devoted a great amount of time to traveling. In his journal, he recorded many observances of places and people and his journals got broad recognition. The book was included in the then-young Library of Congress under an act of congress titled “An Act for Encouragement of Learning, by securing copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of them, during the times then mentioned.” The Library of Congress was established by an act of Congress in 1800 when President John Adams signed a bill transferring the seat of government from Philadelphia to the new capital city of Washington. The legislation described a reference library for Congress only, containing "such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress - and for putting up a suitable apartment for containing them therein…"

Established with $5,000 appropriated by the legislation, the original library was housed in the new Capitol, and included Silliman’s Journal until August 1814, when invading British troops set fire to the Capitol Building, burning and pillaging the contents of the small library.

Student Curator: Olivia Johnson

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