Library of Congress MCP server

This is a small helper that connects your AI chat to the Library of Congress, the national library of the United States. It lets your AI search inside scanned American newspapers from the 1700s onward, and search the library's catalogue of books, photos, maps, audio and manuscripts. It is handy for anyone doing history or research who wants to find old sources without learning the library's website.

What this MCP server does

You type a question in plain words, like what old newspapers wrote about a certain event. Your AI sends that request to this helper, which passes it to the Library of Congress. The library sends back matching newspaper pages or catalogue records, and the helper hands them to your AI. Your AI then shows you the results in the chat, with titles, dates and short excerpts. You can then ask your AI to open one record and tell you more about it.

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What you can do with it

• Search the words printed inside scanned American newspapers
• Narrow a newspaper search by place, paper name or year range
• Search the catalogue by title, creator, subject, place or language
• Pick a kind of material such as books, photos, maps, audio or manuscripts
• Open one record to read its details, rights and where the original is held
• List the library's digital collections, such as ones about the Civil War

Try asking your AI

• “What did Oklahoma newspapers write about the 1907 statehood vote?”
• “Find me photographs of Chicago tenements before 1920.”
• “Read that record and tell me who holds the original.”
• “What digital collections are there on the Civil War?”

What it gives back to you

You get back a list of matches, each with a title, a date, the newspaper or collection it came from, and short excerpts of the text. For catalogue searches you get titles, creators, years and a link to the item online. When you open one record, you get its full description, subjects, language, rights statement and where the original is kept. Everything appears as normal text in your chat, so you can read it and ask follow-up questions.

Before you start

Who it's for

History buffs, students, journalists and anyone doing research who wants to dig into old American newspapers and library records without learning a complicated website.