Bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) libraries have been an essential tool for physical analyses of genomes of many crops. We constructed and characterized the first large-insert DNA library for Arachis hypogaea L. The HindIII BAC library contains 182,784 clones; only 5,484 (3%) had no inserts; and the average insert size is 104.05 kb. Chloroplast DNA contamination was very low, only nine clones, and r-DNA content was 1,208, 0.66% of clones. The depth of coverage is estimated to be 6.5 genome-equivalents, allowing the isolation of virtually any single-copy locus. This rate of coverage was confirmed with the application of 20 overgos, which identified 305 positive clones from the library. The identification of multiple loci by most probes in polyploids complicates anchoring of physical and genetic maps. We explored the practicality of a hybridization-based approach for determination of map locations of BAC clones in peanut by analyzing 94 clones detected by seven different overgos. The banding patterns on Southern blots were good predictors of contig composition; that is, the clones that shared the same size bands and ascribed to the same overgos usually also located in the same contigs. This BAC library has great potential to advance future research about the peanut genome.