Thomas Jefferson Papers

August 22, 2008 8:33 AM

The Massachusetts Historical Society has a nice collection of Thomas Jefferson's papers online. It includes two catalogs of Jefferson's books, a draft of the Declaration of Independence and his Garden Book. Architectural Drawings too!

I kind of like the Garden Book for some reason. Some mundane things like March 21, 1774: "Peas of Mar. 10. are up" and interesting entries like May 22, 1773: "articles for contracts with overseers." Yes, he had slaves. Here is a list of some of them.

I always think Jefferson is interesting, plus I think this site is straightforward and easy to navigate, and you can download nice, big images of the manuscript pages.

posted by marxchivist (6 comments total)

Lego my arse. He has the block and the connector dot but the rest is all wrong.
posted by tellurian at 9:54 AM on August 22, 2008

This is awesome. I wonder if there are many heirloom seeds available now of the varieties he was planting back then.
posted by annathea at 5:03 PM on August 22, 2008

Jefferson was a total badass. Thanks for this.
posted by Monochrome at 6:01 PM on August 22, 2008

I heart Thomas Jefferson! You can view his personal library on LibraryThing.
posted by QueerAngel28 at 6:03 PM on August 22, 2008

Jefferson confounds "its" and "it's." What a moron!
posted by stargell at 6:34 PM on August 22, 2008

*2 hands grubbed the Grave yard 80. f.sq. = 1/7 of an acre in 3 1/2 hours, so that one would have done it in 7. hours, and would grub an acre in 49. hours = 4. days.

12.25 hour days? Apparently with no breaks... unless the 3.5 hours included a break, which I assume it did not. Shit.
posted by airways at 9:45 PM on August 24, 2008