Early in his career at Standard Oil and as a collector, Folger doubted that he would eventually have the funds to build a memorial or library for his growing collection, and in 1895 he offered to sell it to John D. Rockefeller, who refused.
After the passage of this legislation, Folger hired Paul Philippe Cret as the Library's architect, suggested by Alexander Trowbridge, an architect who had married into the Pratt family and stayed on the project as consulting architect.