Dictionary of Virginia Biography: Source list

Sources consulted for the biography of:

Thomas Jefferson

Recommended Published Biographies 
 

  • Dumas Malone, Jefferson and his Time, 6 vols. (1948–1981).

 

  • Merrill D. Peterson, Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation: A Biography (1970).

 

  • Norman K. Risjord, Thomas Jefferson (1994).

 

  • R. B. Bernstein, Thomas Jefferson (2003).

 

  • Kevin J. Hayes, The Road to Monticello: The Life and Mind of Thomas Jefferson (2008).

 

  • Jon Meacham, Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power (2012).

 

  • Contemporary likenesses in Alfred L. Bush, The Life Portraits of Thomas Jefferson (1962; rev. ed., 1987).

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Primary Sources 
The largest collections of Jefferson manuscripts are in:

  • Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

 

  • Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, Mass.

 

  • Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.

 

  • National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.

 

  • Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, Calif.

 

  • Missouri History Museum, Saint Louis, Mo.

 

  • Earl Gregg Swem Library, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Va.

 

  • American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, Penn.

 

  • Executive Papers of Thomas Jefferson (1779–1781), Accession 44393, Library of Virginia.


Definitive published editions of Jefferson manuscripts:

  • Julian P. Boyd et al., eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson (1950– ). For a digital edition, see the American Founding Era Collection of the University of Virginia Press and the Founders Online portal of the National Archives.

 

  • J. Jefferson Looney et al., eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series (2004– ). For a digital edition, see the American Founding Era Collection of the University of Virginia Press and the Founders Online portal of the National Archives.

 

  • The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Second Series consisting of:
    • Dickinson W. Adams and Ruth W. Lester, eds., Jefferson's Extracts from the Gospels (1983).
    • Wilbur Samuel Howell, ed., Jefferson's Parliamentary Writings (1988).
    • Douglas L. Wilson, ed., Jefferson's Literary Commonplace Book (1989).
    • James A. Bear Jr. and Lucia C. Stanton, eds., Jefferson's Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767–1826, 2 vols. (1997).


Other valuable published Jefferson editions include:

  • Thomas Jefferson Architect: Original Designs in the Collection of Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, Junior with an Essay and Notes by Fiske Kimball (1916), which contains facsimiles of the architectural drawings.

 

  • Edwin Morris Betts, ed., Thomas Jefferson's Garden Book, 1766–1824 (1944).

 

  • Edwin Morris Betts, ed., Thomas Jefferson's Farm Book (1953).

 

  • Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, ed. William Peden (1955).

 

  • Lester J. Cappon, ed., The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams, 2 vols. (1959).

 

  • Extended legal argument by Jefferson in Bernard Schwartz with Barbara Wilcie Kern and R. B. Bernstein, eds., Th: Jefferson and Bolling v. Bolling: Law and the Legal Profession in Pre-Revolutionary America (1997).

 

  • "Jefferson Quotes and Family Letters," online resource contains numerous descriptions of Jefferson and his activities by his relatives.

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Quotations 
 

  • "chosen people of God…" in Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, ed. William Peden (1955), 165.

 

  • "my first wish…" in Julian P. Boyd et al., eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson (1950– ), 23:435–436.

 

  • "honorable and easy" in Julian P. Boyd et al., eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson (1950– ), 29:362

 

  • "unbridled madness" in J. Jefferson Looney et al., eds. The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series (2004– ), 12:246

 

  • "we are all republicans…" in Julian P. Boyd et al., eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson (1950– ), 33:149.

 

  • "distressing burthen of power" in J. Jefferson Looney et al., eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series (2004– ), 1:103.

 

  • "a bantling of 40. years…" in J. Jefferson Looney et al., eds., The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series (2004– ), 12:263.

 

  • "wolf by the ear" and "fire bell in the night" in Thomas Jefferson to John Holmes, April 22, 1820, Thomas Jefferson Papers, Series I: General Correspondence (1651–1827), Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

 

  • "If Jefferson was wrong…" in James Parton, Life of Thomas Jefferson: Third President of the United States (1874), iii.